A quick Photo Recap 3.10-3.18

I successfully finished my third week of work and kaylee her second. Kaylee made a new friend this week (hooray) and we did some exploring near our house.

The Week in Pictures:

Carpooled down through portland to Molly Davies wedding in McMinnville last weekend:

The Grand Ballroom in McMinnville



Our group vacation home, shared with 5 friends (although we got the master suite). :)



Addy and her best car buddy, caitlin.









The McCabe Chapel...in wine oregon country.

Friday Night excursion to Richmond Beach!





Fremont Market shopping with brian and katie raynor



Quick trip to Bellingham for Chuckanut 50k, touring town, seeing friends. Top 10 finishers below including MT's Mike Foote and Mike Wolfe!


Drove down Chuckanut Drive on the way home...

Lake Washington and the world of IKEA

Today we decided to explore our new surroundings so I purposed a circumnavigation of Lake Washington. Edmonds to downtown Seattle to Renton to Kirkland and back to Edmonds. After grabbing coffee and making a quick stop at Urban Outfitters, we headed out to IKEA.

IKEA successfully blew my mind. From a logistics/supply chain/marketing/HR/display standpoint, IKEA is astounding.

I've never seen a business that creates its own business multi plex park with hundreds of thousands of square ft of parking, then figures out how to successfully and gracefully run 5-10,000 people through their maze. The maze is so taxing that they treat you to an intermission; a high school sized cafeteria and bistro complete with most any food you could imagine all at staggering low prices. One hotdog and an ice cream cone? $1.50.

They literally created a yellow brick road of a shopping paradise. Its like being transported inside a Sears catalog and viewing the displays firsthand. Everything about it is 100% surreal.

I couldn't tell if I wanted to run and scream, or thoroughly investigate the displays and start shopping. As with most shopping trips performed by men, the trip is palatable only if the shopping mission has utility and my pocketbook has the funds to backup our current "needs". Some people call Costco the $100 store. If that's the case, lets call IKEA the $500 store.

So after winding our way through the current of humanity, taking the obligatory intermission at the cafe and agreeing upon our items, we arrived at the "pickup warehouse". All 70 aisles worth. I don't do a lot of furniture shopping, but apparently IKEA is SUPER cheap. Their sercret? Outsourcing labor. That's great, but they are actually outsourcing their labor to husbands, boyfriends, and that guy from econ class that is somewhat handy. Its deviant, bold and brilliant. And it costs them...nothing.

Lets just say I know what ill be doing ALL tomorrow afternoon...

Entrance to the madness...



Taking pictures of potential (eminent) purchases...
Addy snaps a shot from the cart...



If you ever visit IKEA and are serious about shopping there, do NOT drive a KIA

After the shopping adventure, we finished our circumnavigation of Lake Washington by cruising into Kirkland, and playing at Waverly Park. Very windy.

3.1.2012

27 years old and a full plate of responsibility. Although when I look around I quickly realize that I wouldn't want it any other way.

JOY!

Please notice the german chocolate cake made from scratch....



The baker...



Record player!



And nina...

In the books

First day of work is in the books. The day flew by as I attempted to decipher aeronautical speak and the NATO alphabet.

We celebrated with sparkling cider, cabernet, molasses cookies and by building a cardboard airplane that addy "flew" down the stairs.

It feels amazing to establish a family routine after years of a chaotic schedule involving working nights, weekends and shuffling addy back and forth between houses.

Enjoy the pics.

Winter mtn biking

Got out today on my Jamis and rode some single track with Brian Howard. Forty degrees and drizzling made for a sloppy day. Only crashed 14 times with 1 brilliant superman that put me 5ft in front of my bike.

Grants Pass (?) provided a plethora of trail options including a myriad of man made features including drops, ramps, etc. Pretty amazing place.



Excited to keep exploring the trails here...still can't believe you can mtn bike in the winter. Wild.

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2011 Ultra Running Awards- A Look Back

Oh looks, its the 2011 UROY.


UROY is great. But there are so many more categories of awards that the Ultra-Community is sorely lacking. Thus, I present a (more) complete package of 2011 Awards.

Writers Note: I live in Missoula and I want to see Mike Foote and Wolfe win everything...so I freely admit my bias. That being said, enjoy.

UROY
(If you consider quantity of top finishes most important, Wardian wins, but if you want quality, badass runs against the best fields of runners ever assembled, then its an easy choice)
1. Wolfe (Blistering win at Way Too Cool, 2nd at WS and Miwok, and a devestating performance at NF50, his only head-to-head with Wardian)
2. Wardian (ALOT of results, amazing road performances but no major TRAIL wins)
3. Mackey (solid from start to finish...could have won UROY with a win at NF50)
4. Clark (WS/Hardrock Record! a TON of top 3s...love this guy)

“People’s” Choice of 2011
1. Nick Clark- Nick’s new WS/Hardrock double record is SO OUTRAGEOUS. As Dakota said, I think he may have a twin. Then 22 days later, he crushed the hardest 50k ever. And I like that he has an ongoing duel at the Turkey Day 4 miler with the fastest lady in town.
2. Timothy Olson- The only ultra-runner more underated than Wolfe is this guy. Amazing finishes at WTC, Chuckanut, Western States, White River, NF50 and a WIN at Pine to Palm. I think if I lived and trained in Ashland, Tim and I would be friends. Hal could hang out too I guess.
3. Mike Foote- Remember when the greatest American contingent of ultra-runners ever assembled crossed the pond and then laid the largest goose egg in French history? And at the end of the day who did we have to represent the starts and stripes? FOOTE!!! (shout out to Pedetella as well). Now the 3rd Mike on TNF...of Missoula, MT!


Top Blog of 2011
1. Nick Clark- Nobody does a better job posting milage, pics, race reports, etc. Nicks writing is clear, concise and perfectly sarcastic. For an ultra-runner (me) with time to train just 5-10 hrs/week but with time to scour the blogosphere, Clark is the best read. He has a wife, child, drinks beer, works a real job...what could be better?
2. Dakota Jones- Young $ definitely wins “most humorous” blog, but his posting frequency is somewhat poor (1/month). With “Living The Dream” you get quality not quantity. This post got me laughing harder than I ever have after an ultra blog. Love it.
3. Joe Grant- Love Joe’s writing and whimsical, “On the Road” travels. Oh, and his photography is stunning.
4. Geoff Roes- Solid consistency, interesting topics and brief attempt at humor recently.

Thus, considering all three categories...overall winner of 2011 is....Nick Clark!!! (with two firsts and one honorable mention).

Happy running folks...cheers.

ejk