Wow, the season has slipped by!
That's awesome, even though I haven't kept ya'll up to date as much as I would have liked.
A few points: the music scene was great this season, and my band was awesome. Casey, Justin, Josh, and Sam really helped bring excitement to the music and energy to the shows.



All pics are from Icestock 2010! It was a fabulous day - sunny most of the day and no wind - it was AWESOME...
Well this took me all day to do b/c it's been busy - so I'll save more highlights for another day...so check back!

Well I'm walking with a little 'swagger' in my step these days - that means I'm recovering and I can feel my muscles a little more than usual!
I trained for it all season and last Sunday I ran the Ice marathon - all 26.2 miles of it!
It was great and I felt great - I enjoyed the entire experience and made it a point to soak it all in as I ran it.
The weather was unbelievable, and by that I mean it was calm - no wind, at least not until the final 3 miles, as if Antarctica was saying "you see it could have been bad" but for the last 100 yards I had a tail wind.

It was a flat light the entire day - totally overcast. Not too cold and like I said no wind - and that was the big variable.
Before race day my only long run was on Christmas day - 15 miles on the treadmill. In fact all my training was on the treadmill. I learned a lot - the actual pounding on the Ice surface took it's toll and was more work - ergo my 'swagger'.
Aerobically, I was prepared 100%. The bottom's of my feet - the foot muscles I guess? - got fatigued and were sore...I got a little chaffing on the last five miles but I was recovered and climbing Ob Hill in a day and a half! I was back to normal - all thanks to Deneen and the post race massage.

Deneen also was a race volunteer - she had an aid station at mile 10/16.
The race coarse was entirely on the Ross Ice shelf - it's the road out to Pegasus white Ice runway - the permanent landing strip for McMurdo Station.
It's 13 miles from the Scott Base transition to Pegasus. So we were shuttled from town to the transition on Ivan and then started the run on the Ice shelf.

So my first half was run at a pretty good pace ~ generally near 5.8 - 6.0 miles an hour, but the second half I geared way down...I ended up running the marathon in 5:44 but I never walked and I only stopped at the aid stations for water on the second half always under a minute...always running!
So it was awesome, I enjoyed it, and I'm already thinking how I could improve my training methods, time, etc...
But where else can you get penguins participating in a marathon?

sometimes you simply need to lie down!

Extra Extra Read all about it, the pressure ridges are melting away!
yep and so is all of McMurdo.
For about two weeks now, the temps have risen and the solar bombardment has all the snow melting out.
We had two significant snowstorms in November, and then the temps have warmed in December, so running water is happening all over town...in another two weeks it'll be a dustbowl...
I can truly say I know what to expect. This is my fourth summer season here and it feels like old hat. Climbing the hill is really pleasant and the sounds of water is exciting...
Also the Ice edge is about 18 miles out and you can see open water from high vantage points.
Work is going well, in fact there are only about 70 days left in the season! a few weeks to Christmas and a week after that Icestock. I found out the Marathon is on Jan 17th - that's about 9 days sooner than I thought, so I'm down at least a week of training but we'll see how it goes.
Marathon update: I've crested 9 miles each jog 3X a week, but, it's causing me to be late coming back from lunch so I can't do that anymore...this past week, I've only been getting 8 miles each time, but I'm planning on adding another day, making it four times each week...I'm still hiking the hill - up to 113 times this season, I'm not so sure I'll hit the 200 mark! we'll see...
talk to ya'll in a few... many happy birthdays ( some belated ) to Madelaine, Andrew, and Margaret!
hope the days are/were/and continue to be awesome!

miss everyone...kishout

pics from the pressure ridges as promised...
Happy Thanksgiving everybody - I hope it's a wonderful start to the holiday season.
I know there's always a lot of change out there in the world, I hope this day of giving thanks is wonderful...(as is everyday!)
I'm thankful I've been able to enjoy Antarctica in the summertime...one of the ways, is going to these wonderful formations...enjoy the photos...there are some neat features: Ice Flames, Seals, penguins, gargoyle's, squirrels, etc...
enjoy...
Of course there are amazing cloudscapes in this coldest of deserts...and the clouds do crazy things:

tendrils from a 'sky monster' going after the sun...on the verge of devouring it...you can see the nacreous clouds - the green and red hues...

sweeping skies...

Mt Discovery under blanket before the onslaught...

The ridges...as the Ross Ice Shelf thunders off the continent into the Southern Ocean, it encounters Ross Island and annual sea ice, creating giants in it's sublime persuit of freedom

the tour...

Power Ice

"the wave"

sculpted snow

heroic shadow

Gargoyle

Ice squirrel

Buttress

Fire and ICE

hands

Big

Ice seal

Careful - don't go into the Venus Ice trap!

close up - just don't get too close!

Power of the sun

I love the blocks and curves and jagged edges...those tiny striations in the background are giant crevasses on the flanks of Mt Erebus!

dollop of whipped cream!

Ice Flames - my favourite.

The kiwi's have spear headed a sustainable energy effort down here with a Wind Farm.
Finally!
instead of more 1 million gallon fuel tanks, lets do something better, with less impact...in a joint effort three giant wind turbines are being erected near McMurdo.
The first one is complete - although not yet functional...soon.

at the end of work yesterday, only the tower was up, by the end of my Pressure Ridge tour ~ 2 hours - 2 blades were on, and now this morning all three blades are on, and there's a webcam...I don't know when it becomes operational, or when the other two towers get completed...so stay tuned

Check out the webcam:
Antarctic Winds
You can see the sea Ice in the background - behind the wind turbine. Black Island, and the 'ripples' in the sea ice - these are pressure rollers beginning to form.
have a great day - don't get too full...I will miss celebrating with everyone...I miss the home cooking - no one does it better than mom!
Cheers...kishout

The Recreation dept is putting together Pressure ridge tours. I volunteered to be a guide. This photo is from our training session.
I was supposed to lead a trip today (Sunday) but the weather hasn't been cooperating!
We'll try again tomorrow.
The ridges are pretty amazing and big...more pics to follow later this week.
Marathon Update: 8.2 miles the other day w/ a weekly total of >24mi.
There was a big music event at Gallagher's last night, and while my band LeVel 5ive didn't play - 1/2 the band is out of town at field camps for a couple more weeks - I did run sound and sat in w/ some other friends on a tune or two.
I got to enjoy a fun night of music - the highlights were the Safety Orchestra, and the McMurdo Jazz Band.
There was good hard hittin rock n roll by "Next Flight Out" and some classic bluegrass by "Phatass Bluegrass"
Definitely a fun time, and it started snowing out and left Mactown under a blanket of clean - soon to melt out and turn to muck...
The season is just about at the half way point, tomorrow starts week 13...and it's gonna be a short week - T-giving is next weekend and then it's only a month from Christmas and new years - ICESTOCK; then the long slog of January to vessel in February to Redeployment fun!!!
So it's all gonna be a breeze from here on out...I'll keep you posted.
kO