The Healthy Bride

Surfer

Surfer Girl

While in Mexico last week, Scott and I learned to surf.  What a blast!!!

He was pretty nervous before we started.  He is notorious for getting hurt during activities.  The weekend before our wedding he fell water skiing and cut his face open.  We had to go get him stitched up – our wedding photos show Scott with a big scar on his forehead……it definitely set the tone for the rest of our life together.

We asked Mario, our surf instructor, where the nearest hospital was located prior to our lesson starting.  Mario was quite sure there would be no injuries, but I think the questions really made him nervous.

We started with practice on the beach under Mario’s close instruction.  mov00493.  Pretty soon, we felt we had the “moves” and we went to the water.  Mario was there to tell us what to do and when to do it, even pushing us along to get us started.  On his very first try, Scott rode a wave.  He was thrilled!  I crashed and burned my first try, but the second was better and the third better still.  Mario finished up after about an hour with us, and we stayed out in the surf until our arms would not push us up into position any longer.

We had a blast learning to surf!  It was surprising how tired it made us, but the less skilled you are at an activity, the harder you work to do it.  We took a break, and then headed out into the water for more wave catching.  We didn’t last too long on our second round of the day, mainly because our knees were getting raw from the board.

We finally called it a day, and knew we would go back after a day of rest.  We, of course did, and had a second day of surfing that was fantastic.  We lasted twice as long the second day, but certainly did not have the beginners luck we had the first day.  I can’t wait to go back to baja for more surfing. If you are anywhere near Cabo or Todos Santos be sure to visit Jaime at Pedsadero Surf Camp - he is awesome and that is where you will find Mario the surf instructor.

Scott spent his 50th birthday on a surf board for the very first time.  You are truly never too old to learn a new sport.

I went to Hood River last weekend to race in an adventure!  My team is Team Verve. 

 Peteris (26 yo male); Murray (53 yo male) and me (48 yo female). 

The race was hard for me for many reasons, but two that are easy to share.  1.  I have not been doing enough hard training and 2. the weather was cold and wet.  The great news was that we were the only team to finish the race.  So, I guess we won by default.  I learned a lot for our next race in May.  Here is Murray’s report on his experience in the race:

David Russell enjoys designing and organizing practice adventure races. The extent of the race and the level of detail were incredible. It is very nice that he invited our team to his event.

Team Verve consists of Peteris, Christi and me. Our competitors were Team DART (professionals), Miles and Andrew and two teams from the Portland area. Our directions were to act inconspicuous because the race was not approved by the state parks we travelled through, but you don’t often see such gritty, hardcore athletes located in one place. I thought it would be hard for these people to look like typical tourists. 

Pre-race on Friday night was very ambivalent for me. It seemed like a long drive to the “Fish Hatchery” on the Columbia River, 35 miles east of Portland. The rain came steadily down, as the trains kept me awake, but I was happy to be going on an “outing” with friends. “Outing” is my euphemism for an “epic” effort which in turn means “surpassing the ordinary”. My thoughts on Friday evening were that David had organized a course that would surpass the ordinary, and I was not disappointed.  

There was too much personal organization in the pre-race phase. I had three bags of gear, organized for each stage of the race. My two bikes were stored with the others’. The bike trailer had thirty very nice bikes worth more than $45K in total. I was borrowing Peteris’ 13ft plastic kayak. It was free and I have a boat for the race. Definitely, paddling this boat will be good training. Lisa calls me a boat snob. Adding each discipline increases the organizational load exponentially.

There were lots of last-minute organizational things, so we didn’t start the race until 10am on Saturday. The rain had stopped, and there were momentary blue spaces between grey clouds. Within minutes, the race settled down to a three-way competition between DART, Mergeo and us. Describing it as a competition really doesn’t do justice to the superb fitness and skill of the DART group. Unfortunately for them, there is a reason that these events are called “adventures”.

DART hiked the 1600 ft elevation gain and was first to reach the heather-covered hilltop checkpoint that was the 2^nd checkpoint. We arrived just as they were disappearing off the south ridge about 250 meters away. Mergeo was just ahead of us and followed DART. We looked at the map, discussed the options and retreated back the way we had come.  Did we make a mistake? Was the race organizer trying to direct us to a trail that went through to the next checkpoint, as they often do by the placement of the checkpoints?

Nearing the 3^rd checkpoint an hour later, a robust looking tourist said “Are you in an adventure race?” Not wanting to disclose the clandestine mandate of the race, I asked “What makes you think we might be?” He answered that he had been in races with our race director. From him we learned that we were the first to get to the checkpoint. Our decision had proven to be a good one. Later we learned that DART was one hour behind at that point. They had found some old ropes and rappelled off mossy, loose cliffs to get to the waterfall checkpoint rather than retrace their steps. Mergeo was 30 minutes behind us in 2^nd place, deciding early that DART had chosen the wrong route. 

We were first into the kayaks and after various running loops and kayak orienteering.  I was especially pleased with our decisions at the 4^th kayak checkpoint. The location was marked with a circle on the map, and the race director gave us compass bearings to triangulate the exact position. The checkpoint was in a wooded area, so visibility was a problem. The compass bearings were wrong, and the race director’s numbers would put us somewhere in the Columbia River. This is very typical of an adventure race so we knew we need to second-guess. Peteris speculated about how the race director had made the error, and we found the checkpoint.

 We were still first when we arrived at the “creeking” 5 hours later. The race director wanted us to walk through creek water up a spectacular canyon to a waterfall. The goal was to take a photograph at the base of the falls. The race director warned us that the cold water might be thigh deep in places, but he had walked it a lower water, and now the frigid water was waist deep at times, and there wasn’t anyplace in the canyon where we could get warmed up after the wading. Let’s just say that we didn’t get to the checkpoint even though we struggled mentally and physically with our failure. In fact, Miles was the only one to get to the checkpoint because he had anticipated the problems and brought hip waders. Smart! DART arrived just as we returned to the boats. We watched as they started through the first 100 meters. Then they just gave up! We cursed them as we left on the last section of kayaking, thinking that they made a very smart decision. They knew that we had missed the checkpoint. They knew that they were a stronger team. So they just needed to get ahead of us to win! DART beached their boats at the transition to cycling just before us.

The discussions between Peteris, Christi and me were totally wrong about DART. They were only going to do the daytime events, and were going back to Seattle that evening. So as the sun set, we jumped on our road bikes for next stage. It was a 40 mile road bike with four sections that were running. Here is a “teaser” for my next installment. We arrived at this waterfall at about midnight, but it was too dark to photograph at the time. 

 http://www.oregon.com/hiking/oneonta_gorge.cfm

Gorge Winds II: Enter the night 
Our plan was to get as many checkpoints as we could out of the impossible number set before us. The basic plan was to park our bikes at four locations to do loops on the trails on foot. In addition we were supposed to ascend on our road bikes to 2600ft over about 15 miles. Mostly, things went according to plan.

Rather than write a long account of the mud, snow and pavement trails, I’ll just describe a few of my favorite moments.

At night, in the light of our headlamps and flashlights, the waterfalls are incredibly white. Their glow is almost fluorescent. We lost count of the number of spectacular falls we saw. The mist danced in front of our lights well before we arrived at the falls and well afterwards.

 There was an occasional star, but more often we caught sight of street and house lights from cliff-top vantage points. The race director tried to get us to the great views, and since it was night, anywhere but near a city, the views would have been anticlimactic. Here the lights gave a huge depth to the landscape.

During the snow orienteering section we made some lucky decisions – finding a checkpoint in the bush and following an obscure trail. Some navigation challenges were welcome after trundling along well-marked trails in the dark for a few hours.

Now a few of my not so favorite moments.

The rain increased in intensity about the time we arrived from the 2^nd foot section. What began as a symphony of raindrops in pianissimo was now moving to mezzo-piano. After a few flat miles of cycling we started climbing, followed by some more climbing. There were many views of far-off lights, but it was hard to enjoy. The symphony of raindrops was forte.

Climbing on a bike makes it is very tough to watch the speedometer with any sense of motivation. We had fifteen miles of climbing and our speed dropped to 6 miles per hour. “Over two hours of hard climbing in the hard rain” I thought. Although we had thought there was a potential to overheat with the effort of a 15 mile uphill ride, in reality it was cold. Old snow, beside the road, incrementally grew in height after about 12 miles. There was a crescendo of raindrops which brought on a sense of foreboding about the ride down.

Wet snow started to fall, and Christi stopped the craziness. Nobody even whispered dissension though we hadn’t reached the checkpoint. We pulled off the road and struggled to put on whatever dry clothes we had in our packs. Then, we turned around and descended as the first grey-black morning light gave breadth to our narrow headlight beams.

It was cold, and I think I had the best clothes for the descent. It was hard to judge how cold Peteris and Christi were, or what to do about it. With increased cycling speed the sound of the rain increased in volume to double-forte. On the few up hills that were there, we jumped off our bikes and ran to prolong the heat generating phase of our ride.

At the base of the gorge, riding along the historic highway, we got warmer, and what seemed like imminent hypothermia retreated in my mind. The race director met us, and then he drove ahead to make hot chocolate at the finish line.   

Our finish was in disarray. We all headed in our own directions. Rugged individualists, ending a rugged 22.5 hour outing. We have lots to learn about being a team.

 Besides the great scenery and experiences, I set a personal record for the greatest quantity and weight of wet gear. There were three plastic garbage backs full of soaking wet stuff. Great memories and another story for other long outings.

photos from the race:  flickr.com/ledusledus

Going up to Camp Muir is now a Healthy Bride event!  This year there will be 4 Healthy Brides from past years climbing to the top of Mount Rainier.  I hope that Heather (the hilarious and very witty writer) will blog about her experience with the “train up” and subsequent climb.  They have, to date, been very committed to climbing stairs and hills in the city, and then heading out to the foot-hills for an every-other weekend hike.  This group is determined and tough.  I am so excited to watch them succeed at their 2009 goal. 

Last weekend, my friend Lynn and I hiked (well, I hiked, she skined) up to Camp Muir on a beautiful Saturday.  We drank hot cocoa in the ranger hut, then skied down.  It was a great day. 

The Rainier group will be heading up to Camp Muir soon and I will be sure to post details about the progress of the group. I made a video of our trip.  Enjoy!

While out walking the dog a couple of Saturday’s ago with my radio playing, I suddenly realized that I was listening to Helen Thayer talk to Rick Steves.  The sound went from background noise to grabbing my full attention.  Helen is an amazing woman who has inspired me for years.  She is, in fact, one of my heros.

I first met Helen in her book Polar Dreams.  She walked to the North Pole with her dog Charlie – and no one else – when she was 50 years old.  The book is a fantastic read if you are into adventures and Helen is an amazing woman to read about.

Here is a bit about Charlie, the dog who accompanied her on her trek:

Charlie was born in the High Arctic in a world of snow, ice and polar bears. He had no name, was fed frozen seal meat twice a week and chewed ice for water and lived out on the sea ice. He was owned by an Inuit polar bear hunter. This large, black, Canadian Eskimo Husky is a lovable, gentle dog who lived the life of a typical arctic husky, except for one thing……he was trained to alert humans to polar bears! 
When Helen Thayer decided to walk alone to the Pole at age 50 she knew she would meet polar bears. Helen bought Charlie from the Inuit to warn her of the many polar bears she would meet face to face throughout her journey. 
       Charlie traveled at Helen’s side for 364 miles all the way to the Pole. He warned her many times of approaching bears and saved her life from one that attacked. He quickly learned to love the first human to call him by name. At journey’s end Charlie returned with Helen to her home in Snohomish, Washington. Helen helped him adapt to a brand new world of grass, trees, flowers and rain. He was quickly introduced to the other three dogs, the family cat and 5 goats. These days he romps on 12 acres overlooking the snowy Cascade mountains, runs 6 to 10 miles each morning with Helen and her husband Bill and accompanies them on mountain climbs, hikes and ski trips.  He steals the show when Helen takes him to schools where she gives assemblies. Children meet him and instantly fall in love with him. He loves children and circulates throughout the classrooms, tail wagging, looking for pats and attention. He is loved by everyone who meets him. He has added a lot of joy to the human world. Charlie was also the star of the 1994 wolf study in which he, Bill and Helen walked 600 miles across the Canadian Arctic above the Arctic Circle to live beside a den of wild wolves in a unique study of the life of a wolf family in the true wild. Helen’s book about their experiences, Three Among the Wolves, is due out early in 2004. These days Charlie leads a life of happy retirement and whatever Charlie wants, Charlie gets. Charlie is indeed a very special dog and is treated accordingly.

Another really cool fact about Helen is that she lives right here in Washington.  The second time I met Helen was in person.  She was hosting a talk on Bainbridge Island and I felt that I had to meet her.  The room was packed, but she was gracious enough to talk to everyone who wanted her attention – including me. I just love her.  She is sweet, down to earth, and has a darling New Zealand accent.  She also has a pretty adorable husband who doted on her at every turn.

When I met her, she was walking with a cane because of a traffic accident she had.  The accident had nearly killed her, but did not stopping her from planning her next expedition which was to walk across Mongolia (which she has now done).  She not only does amazing expeditions, but she has now started her own program called “Adventure Classroom” whose goal is “To inspire students to embrace integrity, demonstrate courage, and assume responsibility for their actions.

She is truly a hero in her own right.  She does her own thing, her own way, and has a deep belief in her abilities.  Helen believes, “My journeys are like life itself. We all have our North Poles and our Gobi deserts, but we can all reach our goals just as I did, one step at a time, never giving up on ourselves. If we reach for the top and believe we can do it, we can make our dreams come true.”

When Scott and I were dating (yikes over 20 years ago) we held our very own competition we called the “No Sweat Decathlon”.  I think it was around this time of year.  We did the following events:

Bowling
Darts
Backgammon
Checkers
Putt-Putt Golf
Pool
Ping Pong
Driving Range (farthest drive won)
Shuffle Board
Croquet

Everything we did fell under the following rules: 1. All games/competitions had to be cocktail compatible and 2.  Absolutely no sweating allowed.  The competition was so fun.  I ended up winning in the end.  The grand prize was breakfast in bed with the Sunday newspaper.

This year our holiday season compeition will be a bit healthier, and equally as fun!  We will not be competing against each other, but instead, we will be “Team Charlie Sierra”  Details: 

Street Scramble

Saturday December 13, 9:30am – Downtown Seattle – Third Annual Street Scramble at the Market. Join us for the last Street Scramble of 2008! Checkpoints feature downtown’s festive Holiday atmosphere, the historic Pike Place Market, our beautiful waterfront and much more! 2 hours, foot only.

To register for The Street Scramble at the Market, visit our listing on Active.com For more registration options (in-store and mail-in) go to our website
Hope to see you there!

The Fall Beast Race was held in the Tahoma State Forest, south of Ashford, WA.  The race included mountain biking (17-18 miles), trekking (8-13 miles), navigation, and an extra “pro-course” for the top finishing teams. 

Ours was Team Verve.  Peteris Ledins and I were the team.  We had so much fun!  We started off on foot (see the videos here  up hill and here.  As you can see, it was Cold!!

We started on bikes and went down for about 20 minutes, then up for an hour 40 minutes.  The last mile was under snow, so it was more hike-a-bike than riding. From the ride, we continued on foot.  It took us about 3 hours to complete the 10 “standard” check points.  The scenery was amazing!!

Team Verve1

Team Verve 2

More Photos here

We then returned to the transition area for our “pro course” map, which only 3 teams had the option of completing.  This was about an additional 2-3 miles and 4 check points.  We teamed up with Glenns Team and had fun chatting with them while we bushwacked through the snowy woods. 

Then we were back to the transition area, on our bikes and down the snowy and icy hill for a very chilly 12 minutes.  At the bottom of the hill was the finish line, hot chocolate, a fire, hot soup and a warm welcome!  We finished around 3:15pm, 6 hours after the start. 

I just received an email from Peteris.  His description of our race is a bit different than mine.  Good to see another perspective. 

Yes, it’s that time of year again.  November in my family is the birthday season and I am once again facing another numeric increase in my data.  There is not a zero in the number, but jeeze, it’s so close I can’t believe it!

Last year I was getting on a plane to go trekking and climbing for a month.  It made the day pretty easy to ignore and enjoy.  Going to Nepal is one of my favorite things.

Last night,  Scott and I were talking about birthdays while on our walk with the dog.  I asked him if he remembered his 25th (even though it was nearly 25 years ago…).  He does not remember his.  I remember mine.  I did my first ever sky dive.  I went by myself, and took the ground school all morning before getting into the plane and jumping out.  The drop zone was in Snohomish, and in the mid-80’s you jumped with a big round parachute.  It was about 35 degrees that day and there was not a cloud in the sky.  I remember turning 360 degrees and seeing great, big, Mt. Rainier.  I was thrilled, excited and exhilarated.  Even the landing was a trip.  You had to land, roll, and hope you didn’t break anything.

On my 30th birthday I had a huge party in our very first house.  We were still skydivers then, I was probably up to jump number 100 by then.  I definitely had many, many shots of tequila, but also lots of hugs and fun times with a house full of friends.

Number 35 went by without any fanfare.  I do know that I had climbed many mountains by the time I hit 35.  It’s hard to climb in November in the Seattle area, so I know we didn’t do that…Humm.

Number 40 was a good one.  We went to Mexico and climbed El Pico de Orizaba an 18,700 foot peak.  We went in and out of Mexico City.  We fell in love with the local food on this trip, mainly because I did the worst ever job of planning our “on mountain” food while we were there. 

Number 44 was another great, great, birthday locale.  We were at Everest Base Camp huddled in a tent playing dice.  I LOVE spending my birthday above 14,000 feet!  Unfortunately, Scott forgot what day it was…..we don’t need to bring that up…

Now it’s time for number 48.  Ouch.  We are going camping at the coast.  We should be able to get in some beach running and mountain biking.  I love the coast of Washington.  It’s a good place to grow older. 

I am so grateful to my body for always getting me through birthdays energetically and pain free.  So far, so good.  I will have a special workout to celebrate the actual day.  Something hard, fun, and youthful!

Hey there.  We have made some great progress on Battle of the Betrothed!  We have Ivy Robinson from “Whose Wedding is it Anyway” joining us to plan our event!  We will be having a Wedding Planners competition that will coincide with our other competitions.  Stay tuned for more details.

We are now going to 2 new cities for 2009!  See us in Atlanta and Washington DC in fall 2009. 

Make sure you send in your videos!

Carol and Naomi are in my Monday and Friday Mt. Baker Goddess class.  We have all been working out for awhile, and they have been listening to me talk about some my adventurous outings for long enough to want to do one for themselves.

Murray, the knower of all things multi sport, suggested the following plan.  Launch boats (kayak or canoe) at the West end of the Sammamish slew and paddle to St. Edward State Park.  From there, follow the Orienteering Map course (there were 20 check points), and after that mt. bike the trails from St. Edward Park to and through Finn Hill Park.

Friday night, the eve before our adventure, we decided to skip the boating part, just due to the horrific rain.  Of course, it was not raining on Saturday morning, so I was feeling a bit wimpy, but oh, well.

I picked up Carol at her house at 6:30am and we then grabbed Naomi, and off we went.  When we arrived at the park, the office with our Orienteering map was still closed, so we

jumped on the bikes and hit the trails.  (I somehow forgot my helmet, and rode without one – not a comfortable feeling for me).  We left the car at 7:45am.

The trails in the park are in great shape, are super fun, and make for a great hour + of riding.  Naomi was on a borrowed bike, and she had not done a lot of trail riding and Carol had slicks.  No one went down, but Naomi did pick up a hitch hiker.

We looped back to the car, arriving about 9:30am, jumped off the bikes, changed into shorts (the weather was warming up and the rain was only intermittent) retrieved our orienteering map from the now-open ranger office, and were off again.

The course was really fun, and pretty easy.  It took us up and down the trails of the park and mostly were trails that we had not biked.  Carol and Naomi were in charge, and I tried to stay out of their learning

process, although also made sure they didn’t go too far out of their way.  We didn’t really take very many wrong turns….although we once tried to go off trail, only to be engulfed in neddles.  I am still stinging…..

We did check point 1 and 2, had to skp 3 in order to stay away from the cyclocross race, and then went on to do 4-20.  It took us about 2 hours total for the route, putting us back at the car around 11:30am.

We had so much fun!  I think Naomi is going to get a mt. bike, so we will have to find another adventure to tackle soon!

Yesterday I completed a Snoqualmie pass to Stevens pass trail run along the Pacific Crest Trail. This was not a race or an organzied event; just an outing with friends. The weather was fantastic!  Murray, Miles and I were the only three of our original 6 person roster to actually arrive for our shuttle to the trail head.

We started at 7:15am Saturday and finished at 7:05am Sunday.  We ran 71.4 miles, averaging 3 miles per hour.  Our total elevation gain was over 15,000 feet.

A few more numbers:
Estimated calories burned 14,250
Estimated calories eaten 5938
Number of times we filled our water bladders: 4 including the one we started with.
Percentage of time we ran 35% (ran the flat)
Percentage of time we speed hiked 65% (hiked the uphill and the rough spots.
Average age of our group: 41.66 years
Number of times any of us has run this far in one outing: 0
Weight of our backpacks: 12 lbs each

Check out Miles photos.

The scenery was beauiful, actually breathtaking.  At one point, we stopped at a lake.  I swam while the boys soaked their feet in the cool water.  The next highlight on the trail was a small brown colored black bear munching huckleberries right on the trail.  SO CUTE!

The moon was bright, and even through the night we could appreciate the beauty of the Pacific Crest Trail.  I was wishing we had daylight for the second half, but I guess I will just have to go back with a backpack some day.

I never in a million years thought I could run 71 miles non-stop……just shows me that unless I try, I never know what I am capable of accomplishing.