db and I R still searchin for a house, homestead, humble abode!
It's been fun but draining at times.
I guess it's a big deal? B/C of the amount of mon$y involved.
but like she and I discussed U gotta pay rent wherever U R, so wouldn't it be better to own the place...blah blah blah...

yes it's been a while since I've blogged but that's b/c I'm house hunting!
hope all is well - special recognition to friends all around - Brody in Prague at the Ultimate Frisbee Championships - goodluck.
Joe and Rachel w/ their debut album due out in a day or to - it's awesome and intense - thefantasizerlives.com
and to everybody else - I hope summertime is awesome!

kishout

"Two riders were approaching...and the Wind began to howl"

it's time to bid New Zealand Farewell.
I don't have any photos to upload as of yet but one day.
Our 45 day stint in NZ was great...exclusively spent on the South Island - we hiked/climbed/spelunked/road tripped/swam/hitched and met some really good folks along the way.

The biggest lesson learned on this trek was - buy a car when visiting NZ...it really is the best way to roll...hitching is alright and free but you're always at the whim of the roadverse...sometimes for me ... but not always.

highlights: well there are so many, but I finally got to walk the Milford - and yes it was worth it...we were lucky with the night skies on night one, and getting an amazing naturalist Ranger...met a really nice couple from Bavaria - can't wait to go visit them sometime! Then we ended up in the Sound - a true icon of New Zealand.

Took our time with the car - so many thanks to shawntel for the luxury - got to see the East coast like never before and yellow eyed penguins.

The Kepler Track was awesome and then completely blustery - worth hiking up to mt Luxmore forsure!

Mt Cook - ahh gotta say this was top of the list - just looking at that thing was mesmorizing -what a peak, would love to climb it someday.

Cascade Saddle - wow brilliant! what a day in the mountains...

Wanaka and friends: making crepes for the gang was a highlight - good food/good peeps!

I especially liked Marfells beach - perfect way to ease out of the trip, by the ocean with great views and perfect sunnies...

St Arnaud - one day was perfect then it went back to misty and wet...wanna come back for that epic hike ... someday... someday!

The Sunset at Tekapo - pretty much the best one ever!

Anyway, thanks to all the folks that gave db and me a hitch...
That's it for today's blog - On to Hawaii in two days time...does that count as 'Stateside'?
if not, we'll be in LA on the 21st of April and Dallas on the 24th...Denver sometime soon after...
until then - kishout

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