07-16-2011 Run

Happy to get in another little jog in what is the fittest city in the country..

Here is a link

Thats one of the things I love most about this place. There are always a ton of other people outside doing something. If I go running when it is 10 below zero, I know there will be other people out there with me. I love being surrounded by miles of bike trails, running trails, ski trails, lakes, rivers, all of it.. I love Minneapolis, but I really don't like the Midwest. I'll be sad when I move, but I know I will be a lot happier in the Pacific North West.

Finally. 6-26-2011

Finally got my first day off in over a month of 14 hour days. All the hard work has paid off because as of yesterday, all of the pipe is in the ground. I started working on this project in January 2008 trying to figure out how we were going to route it the 675 miles from Wyoming to California. Several accidental deaths, Four billion dollars, and Three and a half years later, the pipe is in the ground. There is still a lot of testing and clean up work to do before it is operational, but that is coming along quickly. I honestly never thought I would see this day.

Now apparently I am pushed along to another much smaller project in North Dakota. I'm not sure when I will be going, but sometime within the next few weeks is the best guess. The worst part about that is that the only town in the area is Minot, which if you have seen the news would know that it is currently under water. We are trying to figure out how we are going to live there and right now the discussion seems to be leaning towards building a camp because the already limited housing is obviously even more scarce now. It's only supposed to last 3 months, so I guess I can handle that. I'm kind of looking forward to being in the wide open prairie lands for awhile. As long as I'm outta there before the winter hits than everything is good.

Got my first pain free run of over 3 miles in since May 10th last night. I think I am good to start building back up now, I'm nervous and excited about that. I'm really hoping it goes well.

Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks.

Here is the last convoy of pipe being delivered on a nice rainy foggy typical Oregon morning.

One thing that I'm not gonna miss is hauling my awkward equipment up mountains to set it up.

This is one of the last stretches of pipe, strung out waiting to get welded together.

After the pipe is buried, one of the last things we do is place pipeline markers over it. This is one of the final stretches just as it turns South to California. Thats Shasta in the background. After we set the markers, the ground gets seeded with native plants, so in a year or two it will look a lot nicer hopefully.

And this of course is the California/Oregon state line. The end of the line for now. There is a big receiver station that has been built that other pipelines are going to tap in to.

05-22-2011 Update.

I haven't really been running since my last post. I have tried three times and each time got less than 2 miles before my illiotital band shut me down. Its a simple case of not running on hills for almost 2 months and then all of a sudden climbing them all day at work again and running on them after work.. I'm trying to let it rest for awhile. I'm guessing another couple weeks. A little disappointing considering that I live right next door to a mountain full of single track running trails. Obviously things could be a lot worse.

I did get the day off, so I took advantage of it and did a fast hard hike at Castle Crags over near Mt. Shasta. My goal was to summit Castle Dome, looking at the map it looks like I still had a half mile or so to go but it was freaking straight up. There were sheer vertical cliffs everywhere. I thought I was into the real cool area, but if you look at the aerial, you will see that I just merely got to the edge of the insanity. This was a really cool place, much like the rest of Northern California and Oregon.





My goal upon leaving my truck this morning was to go up there.... But after catching a glimpse, I quickly realized that it was way beyond my ability. I guess thats why I everyone that I passed on the trail was carrying rope and other rock climbing gear...

05-10-2011 Trail Run

Gorgeous night. It was snowing yesterday. Today I was wearing short sleeves.

05-8/9 -2011 Trail Runs

Well. I'm back in Oregon. I got an Apartment in Klamath Falls, very close to a lot of trails. Although the schedule as of now is 7 days a week, 12 hours a day until the end of July, hopefully I can find some time most evenings to run these trails. I won't be putting in any miles on the bike, but there is a pool and a masters swim team here that I would like to join.

Todays Run


Sundays Run

05-04-2011 Run

Two days left before I have to head back to work... This break has been great.. At least I get to stay in Klamath Falls this time..

05-01-2011 Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon

I loved this course. It took place in a beautiful area about 10 miles West of Minneapolis. I think I ran by Prince's house. It was cold. Maybe 34 degrees max. Windy, 20-30 mph. A little bit of snow and sleet. I had a really tough time getting going on this run. My legs were soo sore and stiff I was really bogged down for the first 7 miles or so. The pace was very easy cardio wise, just my legs were full of concrete... I definitely picked it up in the second half and ran a nice negative split! It was fun, I wouldn't be surprised if I passed 1000 people. No one passed me. It was just a constant passing of people. I loved it. Well, from a performance stand point I definitely would not run back to back halfs again, but I did enjoy this experience a lot. My next door neighbor Dan ran it with me and beat me by about a minute. I lost track of him right from the start because I got so far behind in the beginning and I was never quite able to catch up. I like having a neighbor that can beat me.



Unofficial results link has me 292 out of 2380 overall. It doesn't really have the breakdown of passing people like yesterdays unfortunately.