a racer's life is always on track

Peachtree Road Race 2013

Zach and I just got back from a trip to Atlanta where we ran the Peachtree Road Race. This race happens every year on the 4th of July. It's the largest 10K ever and the route is on one of the busiest streets in  the city - so it's really fun since a lot of the businesses along the street get involved and a ton of spectators come out to cheer on the runners. This year was our third time running the race and it was threatening to rain the entire time. We got lucky though and the skies were clear while we ran and we were both able to get our personal best times. Hopefully we can make it out to Atlanta again next year and carry on the tradition!

Me before the race, I ran with my rain jacket, which I didn't end up needing.

Zach before the race, he's very excited to be in wave A.

 Action shot of Zach near the finish.

Action shot of me near the finish.

After the race - we're a little wet and muddy, but happy with how we did.

trip report: MS Ride in Logan, UT

Zach just completed the MS ride this past Saturday, which is a 100-mile charity ride to support MS research. Zach worked hard to raise $690 for the charity and then completed his hard work Saturday with a strong 100-mile ride completed in 5 hours and 10 minutes! He felt awesome at the end of it and said it was his best cycling experience to date. Here are some pictures from the event:

Edwards Lifesciences team at the beginning of the ride. 

 

 The team is looking good.

 

Why is Zach the only one smiling in this picture?

Riders icing themselves at a rest stop. 

There's me with the volunteer team at one of the stops. 

My job was to give out bananas.

Zach crossing the finish line.

 The 100-miler team at the end of the race.

trip report: Red Pine Lakes

I completed by second solo hike to Red Pine Lakes in Little Cottonwood Canyon this past weekend. I enjoyed a nice easy hike to the lower lake (~3 miles that I completed in 1.5 hours). The last part of this hike to the upper lake was NOT easy. I lost the trail a bit and had to do a significant amount of boulder scrambling to get up to the lake (the last .5 miles took me 30 minutes). All in all this was a great hike. When I go back with Zach I'm going to take him the correct way to the upper lake, then try to scramble over the mountain to White Pine canyon on the other side. I'm way too bad at route finding to try something like that on my own though. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Hiking through pretty aspens. 

There's a peek of civilization. 

Stream flowing through the canyon. 

Lower Red Pine Lake 

I scrambled up this boulder field to that top ridge to the second lake. 

Finally made it to the upper lake!

trip report: mount olympus

I did this hike last weekend but am just now getting around to posting. This was the weekend before Zach's 100 mile bike ride, so he had to train and didn't have time to go on a long hike, but with the temperature at a perfect 75 degrees and clear skies, I couldn't not go out - so I decided to hike alone for the first time ever.

I chose Mount Olympus since it's a pretty popular hike and close the where Zach was going to be riding. The hike ended up being a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. It's about 3.5 miles to the top, which took me about 2.5 hours. Then another 1.5 hours down to the bottom. The elevation gain was ridiculous, but I did feel very accomplished by the end of it. I'll definitely do this again with Zach, but I'll have to wait awhile until I forget how long and arduous the journey to the top is.

 I stopped for a short break at this stream about a mile in. I had no idea at this point how much longer I had to hike.

Here's a nice view of the Great Salt Lake that I got along the way. 

Nice view from the trail. 

Here's a nice flat, forest area at the mini-summit, before the last climb to the top. 

I had to scramble up these rocks to the top. This was the part when I was really missing Zach - especially when some other hikers told me they had spotted a rattle snake! 

North-east view from the top.

North-west view from the top. 

 South-west view from the top.

Southern view from the top. 

Scrambling down was worse than scrambling up - I had a few close calls.