Random Post

I am still alive.

Quick recap of the last 2.5 weeks.

Week 1.

Family reunion - Parents 50th Anniversary celbration.
Highlight - Got to run with cousins who I used to swing aroung by their arms and legs. They are all over 6ft and 200lbs plus. Great times.

Week 2

Started the new job-
Last week - Houston
This week - Colorado.... Sorry, no time to venture to the mountains for a run. Bummer
Next week - San Fran for a week of training and orientaion. Trail run will happen there.... some how.
Week after - Chicago.
Then San Diego, then Dallas.

It is all good.

3 weeks ago I started ramping up the mileage. I am back up to 40+ per week, and might hit 60 this week. What am I training for? Not sure yet.... but with only 3 entered in Wild Duluth 100k.... I am pretty confident I could secure a top 5 finish.

The emails about Ozark 100 are tempting.... but the last 2 hundreds were not good showings for me.

So it is just get back to the miles for me. Once the summer humidity breaks, I get fired up to compete. Hence the base training.

And..... I might be changing the title of this random blog to somehting a little more appropriate to where I am right now.

Great job to all who ran Voyageur last weekend. Looks like the Matt's took the year off.

Afton video part 3

I put the video here because Youtube disabled the audio.

Big News

Back in May, the week after Ice Age, I said "I had a bad week".

For those of you who don't know what was going on in my personal life, it was simple.

I lost my job. 2nd time in 16 months.

But... I said ultrarunning has taught me how to deal with adversity, difficult times, and how to keep your eye on the prize.

I decided after this lay off that I was going to be aggressive and do things a bit differently. I decided to call a company I have always wanted to work for, and start a conversation on why they should hire me.

To make a long story short, they had recently decided to put a position in the Midwest doing the same thing I was doing in my last gig.

One thing led to another. I battled hundreds of others through the interview process.

I got the call today that I got the job.

This is pretty close to a dream job for me at this point in my career. And it is incredibly ironic that this and my last job (which I also loved), came to me in the worse economy of my professional life (or life period).

This job transition is a major reason I took such a huge step back. I was emotionally tapped out, and running well was not something I even cared about.

So now the table is turned.

I am very fortunate to have this opportunity, as well as the support and kind words from all of my running buddies in real life and on the blogosphere.

The area I cover will stretch from Colorado to Ohio, Canada to the Gulf. That is a lot of trail running.

Call me the lucky dog.

I will still be based where I am now, so I will still be around to battle the faster Matts.

Thanks to everybody who has been a friend in this trying time.

Now I have to get back in shape..... the trails are a callin'

More Afton Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNlXF6AaDus

Afton Video

I filmed a little bit of everybody at Afton 50k and 25k on Saturday. Thanks to John S. who took pictures for me while I filmed.

The first video chapter is done and can be seen here

More editing needs to be done to get the next group of runners on tape.

Pay close attention to the runner in the video at 2:45. I think he is fast because he has an artificial spring in his step. I only heard it after watching the video.

Cheater!

Pictures can be seen here.

I am glad I did not run. I was HOT!

Oh yeah.........

Only one LPTR was there... and....