KRR version 3.0

For the third time in as many years, I ran as part of a team in the Klondike Road Relay two weekends ago. Unlike the first two years, however, this time I managed to convince 9 friends to not only join me in this endeavour, but also to do so in an rv. So, for the first time, I actually saw every leg of the race, all 180km of the damn thing. Actually, that isn't quite true since I napped through the vast majority of Carrie's leg 5 in order to catch a few zzzzz's.
Anyhow, the rv thing was a lot of fun. It provided a nice space for the group to hang out while supporting our runners. But, since everyone took a bit of time to sleep when s/he could, we were a mellower vehicle travelling the highway. It was hard to resist the pull of your very own warm, comfy bed only a couple of hours away. Not everyone stayed for all 10 legs and I don't blame anyone. It's exhausting being in a vehicle for that much time and beer just doesn't taste that great at 7am. At least, not to me! I don't know how the Alaksan teams do it, but they bring one heck of a party to the highway. I loved each and every rv hooked up to a sound system that blasted music as it drove by. I wish I had managed to get a photo of the appropriately named Juneau team "In it for the Party" since their van was covered in plastic martini glasses and Christmas lights. Awesome. They finished in a time close to ours too, so I totally missed the opportunity.

I ran leg 4 and it was painful, as I had predicted. At least now that I have run several half-marathons I know what to expect. And I knew I had not run enough long distances to make this particular 21km pleasant. Nevertheless, it was still strangely wonderful to be running along in the dark (and it was very, very dark) dressed in my space-themed costume and feeling refreshed by a light rain. My legs were sore by kilometre 15, but somehow you just keep going. I had a slow time (2:23) which placed me 106th out of 119 people for that leg. Our team finished 97th/119 in 18 hours and 39 minutes. Just to give you an idea of how not competitive we were, the Skinny Ravens (a team from Anchorage that wins every year) completed the race in a mere 11 hours, 29 minutes. Overall I had, as I always do, a great time.
Me, before the start of leg 4

My goal is still to run each of the 10 legs so I am not sure what I'll try and do next year. I suppose sometime I will have to knock leg 6 off my list, but it's 26km and you end up starting it sometime around 3-4am (blergh). Once again, I'll put out my invite to the interweb and if anyone wants to partake in next year's KRR team, shoot me an email.





Lisa on leg 7

Brian and Sierra maxin' relaxin' in the rv

Musical History

This photo on flickr asked people to share what was your first 45, cassette, or CD. I have been smiling since remembering mine...Rock '83 from K-Tel. It was a gift, I think from my mom and dad, along with a ghetto blaster for my 10th birthday. And boy, did I ever think that Laura Branigan was cool.






Check out the track list:

Men At Work - Be Good Johnny
Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes
Toni Basil - Mickey
Kenny Loggins With Steve Perry - Don't Fight It
Rush - Subdivisions
Missing Persons - Walking In LA
Pat Benatar - Shadows Of The Night
Billy Idol - White Wedding
Stray Cats - Rock This Town
Dexy's Midnight Runners & The Emerald Express - Come On Eileen
Human League - Don't You Want Me
Duran Duran - Hungry LIke The Wolf
Ultravox - Reap The Wild Wind
Divinyls - Boys In Town
Bryan Adams - Cuts Like A Knife
Laura Branigan - Gloria

Do you remember what your first album was?

To blog or not to blog?

I'm not really sure what the purpose of this blog is, especially since I use flickr as a kind of photo blog anyway. Do I want to provide an online diary of various events in my life for friends and family who might check in to see what's up? (That's kinda what this is, I guess). Or am I trying to chronicle the various sporting events I partake in? (While ignoring any aspect of "training"). Or is the purpose here to diarize my love affair with the Yukon which is kind of what I want to share with a broader audience? I don't really know, but I am feeling blogger's guilt since there are several things I have wanted to write about over the last couple of months that I just haven't gotten around to. These include Slamfest at Mt Sima, details about our house, an epic mountain bike ride on Montana Mountain, and last weekend's Klondike Road Relay.

I'll get to these....later :)

Red Orange Yellow oh my!

Went to Carcross yesterday to ride and I am trying to do house reno stuff today. The fall colours are really popping out now and the trails in Carcross were GORGEOUS! Check these out:


I love this time of year and only hate that it's so short. Colours now mean that the snow will be flying soon.