And now I'm a Midwesterner?

About two months ago, my Subaru Forester and I traversed over 2000 miles across the western United States to my new home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The journey here, in some way or another has lasted 10 years since I completed my BS in Biology from Oregon State in 2006.  Computer store geek, mascot, Peace Corps Volunteer, Student Success Coach with InsideTrack, and now graduate student and Academic Advisor at the University of Minnesota, my journey really has taken me tens of thousands of miles around this globe.  I'm excited to be in a new town, with new people, pursuing Comparative and International Development Education within the College of Education and Human Development here at the U, and I'm excited to have an opportunity to explore new trails, midwest winter and all (though we'll see what kind of winer it will be after the mild winter of 2014 I've heard about).

For those who don't know, I didn't begin running until late 2008. A Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda, Michelle, had suggested that anyone could run a marathon, therefore, training commenced. Training ended a couple months later with a week of gluttonous behavior during an inservice conference, but my curiosity of the activity didn't diminish. Seven years later I find myself looking ahead to 2016 to run my first 100 miler if I get selected in a lottery.  That said, I have been absent from this blog over the past few months, partially due to my transition from Portland, Oregon to Minneapolis.  I'm providing a brief overview of the events I've participated in since the Beacon Rock 50k, which I posted about June 19h, and will be posting soon on my next race which is tomorrow, Saturday, October 24th, the Surf the Murph 50k in Savage, Minnesota.

June 20th: White Salmon Backyard Half Marathon
The White Salmon Backyard Half Marathon was a beautiful, well-run, half marathon in the Columbia River Gorge with some brutal hills, panoramic views, and more than rocky terrain. When I say rocky I do not mean small pebbles, I mean I initially begrudgingly wore my Montrail Mountain Masochists, but in the end may have been one of the happier runners along the course as I powered through the rocky terrain.

Ultimately, I love this race because it is donation-based. That does NOT mean that one should not pay. That means one should pay. The proceeds go to the White Salmon Columbia High School Cross Country Boosters, and the majority of the race volunteers are the high school cross country youth and/or their family.  I'd run this in the future if I were you.

July 31st-Augst 1st: Cascade Lakes Relay

A staple of mine over the past 3 years, the Cascade Lakes Relay is heading in to its 9th year in 2016 with its 216.6 miles of Eastern Oregon beauty from Diamond Lake to Bend.  12 people, 2 vans, a lot of BO, and plenty of fun. I'm already looking forward to 2016 when we bring back our team name More Cowbell after a two year hiatus being Cool Runnings.








October 2nd-3rd: Ragnar Relay Cumberland, Maryland - Washington DC
My first Ragnar Relay and it definitely won't be my last—and that's not just because nuun is a sponsor for Ragnar Relays! I flew in to DC and soon our first Ragnar team headed northwest toward our hotel for the night. I hadn't realized that none of the other 11 runners on our team had run a relay race such as this before. I tell you, they were all rockstars and am excited to jump in with this hodgepodge team again. I say hodgepodge because I was the dude flying in from Minneapolis, we had a couple others drop out and had to find replacements last minute, and the team came together like glucose/fructose-electrolyte mixture burst to the inside of a pocket.

It was great seeing nuun at the start/finish/major exchange(s) and to also introduce nuun to a lot of my team. Many folks hadn't heard of it, and nuun definitely powered many of us through the nearly 200 miles of horrible weather that Maryland and DC had in store for us as Hurricane Joaquin was debating making landfall.






October 24th: Surf the Murph 50k
Tomorrow, I will be running my first official race since arriving in Minnesota (aside from the Ragnar Relay). I'm excited to be jumping in to the Surf the Murph 50k in Savage, Minnesota, just about 30 minutes outside of Minneapolis.  I've scouted the trail for this 50k a couple of times and I tell you, if you haven't been out to Murphy-Hanrehan Park before, you're missing out.  The race tomorrow is comprised of two 16.7 mile laps, each having just about 2000ft of elevation gain. Many of the trails are generally shared with cyclists, hikers, horses, and folks just out for a stroll...it's been raining all day today though, so we'll see how the trails are tomorrow.

I will be breaking in a brand new pair of Altra Lone Peak 2.5 which I am excited for. Oddly enough, I'm not concerned about never having worn them before. I will be bringing along my trust ol' Montrail Mountain Masochist II for my drop bag though. My selection of food is not what I'm used to. While I will have my nuun and plus for nuun with me on the trail, I failed to purchase any Shot Bloks or Clif Shots, which are typically my go to...I guess I'll just have to stomach a random assortment tomorrow.

I admit that I have not been training as well as I would have liked. Moving to Minneapolis, working, at times, nearly full time, and being a full time student, the time I devoted to training was not as great as I would have liked it to be. That said, I do feel prepared for tomorrow, and I am excited. And I am supposed to hit the trail in 7.5 hours...so I should probably get some shut eye.  Race report on Surf the Murph will be coming in the next week.