Mt. Rainier

On September 12th 2009, Mike and I went up the Schurman Route on Mt. Rainier. We never made it to the summit but we had an amazing time. It was a great trip all in all. Then again any time we spend outdoors is so much fun. The weather was perfect, very sunny and clear. This trip was the first time I ever fell into a crevass. HAHAHA! I didn't fall far down since Mike and I were roped. (safty first)

Polar Circle Marathon, Greenland

The Polar Circle Marathon was in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland on October 24th 2009. After a full 24 hours of flying from Seattle to Washington DC to Amsterdam then to Kangerlussuaq. I was beat!!! But it was an amazing sight flying in....not much but snow and ice. The town was very small but with a history. The airport was also the hotel, bar, restaurant and gift shop. Across the street was a general store and a pizza place, yes pizza. Not the best pizza but after a marathon....it was ok. You could walk the town within a few minutes. But you didn't want to be out long, it was very cold outside. I was in my full winter snowboarding gear. 2 layers of wool socks, 2 pairs of gloves, wool pull over, down coat and insolated pants with long underwear. It was like -10 out. The first night there we all got to see the aurora borealis. What an amazing sight to see. I didn't get pictures of it, it was way to dark. In the pictures you will see the post office. It had a very huge mailbox for Santa. There wasn't a whole lot to do but we went to the polar ice cap (where part of the marathon was) to check it out. On the way we saw rain deer and musk ox. Neat animals. On night we even had musk ox burgers. Tasty. Oh and we had some amazing trout that they caught that day. The day of the race was buzzing with excitement. We were all cold waiting for the start of the race. They trucked us all out far away from town and dropped us off. We all huddled together like penguins until the gun (real gun) went off. I had a hard time getting into my rhythm but finally found it. I did well on the ice cap; probably due to my mountaineering experience. The race was rolling hills of snow and ice. I met up with a fellow runner about half way that i ran almost the last half with. Its always so nice to be able to talk with someone. At this point I realized my butt had froze. I could not feel it at all. I had gloves and a hat as well as a coat. I was warm enough. My hat froze to my head and my ponytail froze outward with sweat. Very funny to realize when I finally crossed the finish line.

May 8th, 2009; I went to China to run the Great Wall of China Marathon. What an amazing trip. I met some great people and saw so much of China. My 11 day adventure included a 2 night trip to Xian where I climbed Mount Huashan and got to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. we also saw the Tang Dynasty Show. Back in Beijing we stayed at the Capital Hotel and toured the city seeing: The Forbidden City, The Silk Factory, The Acrobatic Show at the famous Chao Yang Theater, Tiananmen Square, The Imperial Palace, The Pearl Market and lots of shopping. Of course the Great Wall was very powerfull to see in person. What an amazing sight! We ran only 6 miles of the 26.2 marathon on the wall. And that was enough of the wall for me. It was very hard to run on. Every step you took was different from the last. A true challange. It was remarkable to say the least.

New start

Hey friends and family and people I don't know,
I'm totaly new at this thing but everyone keeps telling me I need to blog about all of my adventures. I'm going to go back over this amazing year I have had. I know some of you have not seen pictures from all or any of my trips. Here we go....