Salida Marathon - Check

Start time 9am, in Salida, Colorado

Running through time...and SNOW! wtf?! hahaha

Finish line pic, with our obligatory PBR. and a google earth gps mapping of our run.

That was the hardest race I've run...yet. :D But it was worth every bit of the pain, hangover, soreness.

I'll have a proper race report in a day or two. Have to get back to work, but feeling really good despite the race stats.

Start at: 7400 feet

Peak at: 9100 feet

Finished in: 6:47

Distance 26.3 miles

Between the altitude and minimal miles run, it all worked against me. But it was a perfect way to test myself and see what I can do. For now, I've decided to set my eyes on my first 50 miler in January 2011. Yes, I plan on doing some 30's before that, and another couple of marathons, but that will be my biggest leap in miles.

I think the biggest reason it was so fun and tolerable this weekend is that I did it with a good bunch of friends/retards. We drank a lot, we laughed a lot, and we ran a lot. Eating at Moonlight Pizza was phenomenal.

Earning 2 "Clean Plate Stickers" at Kings Chef in Colorado Springs was also a highlight of the visit.

Running through Red Rock Canyon and the Garden of the Gods was simply breathtaking. Especially with the fresh snow and sunny skies contrasted with the red canyon walls.

be back soon. with even more photos. :D

BRASS MONKEY H3

HAHAHAHAHAHA this photo cracks me up so much. A few weekends ago with some great friends and hashers in Houston for the inaugaral Brass Monkey H3. goofing for the camera, I got this picture sent back with a messed up caption. LOL

Brass Monkey H3 - in the Woodlands

Well, screw it. I'm outta here. I was going to wait till tomorrow, but after the rousing fun we had with Net this morning, I'm all jacked up and ready to run.

so off to San Antonio for a run and some beer drinking.

meeting with KOA tomorrow afternoon.

Riding to Houston hopefully after that meeting.

BMH3 all weekend.

Sunday, ride home...maybe make the Austin H3.

Rock climbing, somewhere in there.

hahahaha

on on to another great weekend of ....uh...... training. :D

aCHUMP H3

Alamo City Humpin H3
Redneck Centerfold, Dark side of the moon, May the Foreskin be with You, Nipple me Elmo, Forest Hump, Cockarazzi, Freak on a leash, Brother Darryl, me and Done Dirt Cheap.

Good times in San Antonio last night with the Alamo City Humpin H3. Quick trail, live hare, lots of orange food and hot wings. Great circle and good times. Laid back, small hash which I enjoy for the entertainment without so much of the BS found in uber-large hash groups. :)

Basic power down downs, gorilla down downs, sit around the fire, accuse your friends of crap and drink under San Antonios flight path! LOL

New Orleans!!! or bust!

Friday, October 23rd, 2009: Shake down run for the new wHip. Or as I like to call it "Parrandiando con la otra mujer" ;) la mujer siendo la negrita que esta en la primera photo.

Here are some photos of the trip I took this last weekend. Since I bought the bike on Friday, and had the weekend off, I figured why not make a run out to New Orleans to visit some hasher friends. P.S. Knave and Spread'em.

Starting mileage, 16,018

After getting home and throwing a bag together, I decided to roll out and get some lunch in Lockhart, Tx. Home to some of the best barbecue in the world. hahahaha I love these small town courthouses....they are elaborate and historic in nature, as well as unique each town you visit. (M)SS told me to go to Smitty's bbq as it was one of the best.

Below is a photo of the bike in front of the courthouse, and then the old entrance to Smitty's.

I have to agree, that BBQ was unbelieavably good. The brisket was beyond tender and juicy, with just enough fat to add flavor.....I think this is the first time that I have eaten BBQ without adding any bbq sauce...because it didn't need it.

the fires on either side of the smokers, providing the heat for the slow cooking meat.

photo below, is where I pulled over on the side of the road to put on my sweatshirt...it started to get chilly

After a good lunch, I hit the back roads to 290 and then east to Houston...it was pretty late in the day, so I decided to go as far as Houston only....The Woodlands to be exact. :D After arriving around 6pm, and some cool riding, and watching the screen on my bike go to a light tone of blue.....I got together with DTR and his brother and we went out for food at some sushi place.

a final shot of DTR his brother and a friend of theirs...before I called it a night. hahaha

The next day (Saturday) I was going to book it to N.O. Knowing that my friend Virginia was in New Iberia for a high school reunion...I called her, and told her I was in Lafayette, La. on one of my fuel stops. She said to wait there, and was only 23 miles away...hahahha awesome. so we decided to go and get some food, and being that that is one of the reasons I was out here, I was game. Off to Poche's on Breaux Bridge for some authentic cracklin' and Boudain. Damn good stuff. From there we rolled to her sisters house and we made plans for the following day for lunch with them, since they were cooking up a storm the following day and watching the undefeated New Orleans Saint's (5-0) wtf?! hahahaha

After a while, I rode out to N.O., being only 45 miles away...since Knave and Spread were waiting for me. I arrived to a sunset sky, that looked like it was on fire, with blazing orange clouds.. Pretty spectacular as I haven't been to the south in a long time, and haven't been through the storms we're going through right now. I love it, and miss the heavy downpours a lot. So after getting ready, we headed out to a H3 benefit for some charitable organization. We just showed up for the free beer. LOL

Photo in the middle, is Kelly, Ryun and Myself. (Spread'em, P.S. Knave)

We had a good time, and it was at a funky Art Gallery (can't remember the name) but they had some creepy shit on the wall (although I liked a few of them :D) So knave and I went about impersonating the art pieces...and got spread, in on the action.

I can't remember that short ladies name, but she is a hasher, her dad was a horse jockey....and she was hilariously hammered. After a while we got bored, and the festivities were wrapping up, so we went out to a bar for some beer, where Knave and I serenated each other on a fabuloussssssssly sequined/bedazzled piano. LOLOL that last song was for Brownie. Then we needed to get all kinds of photos with weird shit across the city. So with beers in tow, we stopped by these eye statues. Pretty cool shit. And then Knave said we should scale a wall and go see this huge metal statue, and he convince Spread to go in first so I'd go too...hahahaha we got the above photo...again, I'm pointing at what Brownie likes the most. Cack!!

Then we found this head that's semi covered in bushes. climbed all over that, and then off for some Beniegts at Cafe du Mond!! Where Knave showed me how to eat them.....basically you put as much powdered sugar on them as you can. Goddam, were they good!!!!

I think I took that picture of Kelly to show how huge the guy sitting behind her was. hahahaha, I think it kinda scared her when he plopped down. :D

Above is a picture of Jackson square with some time delay shutter speed. Then I took a picture of this ginormous Clarinet on the side of the Holiday Inn. hahaha
We ended up in the quarter, and hoped around to some bars. Apparently police horses can take a piss wherever the hell they want. LOL We were at another bar, and a zombie kickball team came out and attacked Kelly on the sidewalk. ahahahaha, Then Knave convinced her that it was a good idea to climb up on the art piece for a photo. I happen to agree. Cool ass photos and a hilariously good time with these guys.

Being that we've been drinking pretty good, and it's now near 2am, it's time for food. Knave asked what I'd been wanting, and I said, on my list was a Fried Oyster Po'Boy....so off we go in search of a place that is open...and some other locals point us to Verti's Market on Royal St. That's me and Knave up there ordering food, ate the whole damned sandwich. so good.

P.S. Knave says, "how can I be drunk when my eyes are still open!! "LOL

The next morning, Kelly made us breakfast and I needed to head out.

Sunday morning:

This morning I had plans to cross Lake Ponchatrain north of New Orleans, and ride on the longest bridge in the world.....The Ponchatrain Causeway...

Here are a few self photos of myself riding across. It's crazy to be out in the middle of the lake, and nothing but water, and this one way road. If a crash happens out here, it can get backed up for hours upon hours. With this ride across the Causeway, I get to cross it off my list of things to do.

I got across the Ponchatrain and hooked a left on IH-12 and headed to Baton Rouge to meet up with Virginia again since they were in the middle of cooking up and watching the game, and that means....home made gumbo, and jambalaya and other southern treats.

after a long lunch, I rode off into the sunset......and got hit with food coma bad....hahahaha, so I had to pull over and get a Monster Energy drink before I ran into a car or something.

I was getting close to Houston, and the sun was about gone (photo below) .....I'm now racing to make it to Austin for the Tragically Hip concert that my buddy invited me to, and I have a ticket for.

Funny, this was a really good photo that I took on my camera phone...and it really defines how the night was going to be. It got dark quick, and IH-10 is dark and lonely. hahaha After riding through some heavy and fast Houston traffic (feels like an all out assault of adrenaline and gasoline as I twisted the throttle and skirted cars at near a buck through the city center), outside the city I linked up with some fast movers, and we cruised at about 85-90. I was running really late, and had almost resigned myself to not making the concert, and after turning on Hwy 183 north, it was really late. I figured I was out for the concert.....so I rolled into the house, and txtd Marcus. I get an immediate text back, "they're still playing, get down here", I look at Chris, and say "I'm outta here" hahahahaha, I made it down to La Zona Rosa and saw a whole hour of the show...they played for 3 hours, including the encore. Holy shit, that is a long time to play.

Some parting shots of myself, with Heather and Marcus before they headed home at 1am. Also a shot of Gord, lead singer for the Tragically Hip.

one last addendum, I heard today from Marcus, that they had a blow out on the way home in the middle of the night, and he's in a parking lot, changing the tire, when the sprinkler system along the side turned on, and water is cascading down on him as he lays under the mini-van trying to take out the tire. HAHAHAHAHAHAHALOLHAHAHAHAHAHA and Heather, who was "done" earlier...I think was of no help. :D

end miles: 17,192 (total of 1,174)

Seattle roadtrip

It's been a while since I visit Seattle, Wa. So I figured what better time than the Tacoma H3's 600th run out in Landsburg, Wa. The illustrious hare, Magot, should be putting on a fine trail up in the mountains, as well as providing his milk goats for warmth and caressing at night. LOL

I talked a friend of mine into going with me. This was kind of a last minute deal, as I like to be spontaneous, sometimes...hahaha most of the time. Well, truth be told, I was told to quit making things so spontaneously, as most of the guys can't ride out on these trips, cause I don't give them enough heads up.

Either way, Ben, works from home, so he's packing his lap top and is in.

Leaving in a few hours, and after goading Jason into it, he is going to ride down, from Seattle, after work this morning and meet us somewhere in mid-Oregon.

Looking forward to getting out on the road, punching out some miles, listening to some music, and spending the weekend with friends, regardless of how far the bike makes it. I say this, in an effort to ward off any gremlins that may rear their ugly head. I keep saying that the Duc is not going on any more long trips, and yet, here I am, blasting out of town in a few hours.

Finally got some hours in at work, as we've been super short on patients (mostly cause one of our surgeons went on vacation), so now that I have rent and food covered, it's all good. :D

Plan is to go home right after work, nap for 2 hours, the bag is packed, and Ben will come up around 11am, for our departure. Slab it up the IH-5 for about 280 miles, turn off at Weed, Ca. (hahaha), and north to Klamath Falls, Oregon area. Gonna try and swing through Crater Lake National Park . For some pictures and some twisty roads.

The plan is to make it to northern Oregon, meet up with Jason, chill with some beers and food, and then on Friday, we'll bug north and arrive Seattle, for the hash happy hour. My idea was to ride around Mt. St. Helen's area, and grab a couple shots with the bikes up that way. I haven't been there in about 5 years, and a few years back, the mountain started belching smoke so bad that they had to reroute flight paths for commercial airliners. Kinda want a good picture and ride through there before it blows again. :( Here is a short video of the 1980 eruption that killed 53 people, and whose volcanic ash made it around the world, basically leveling an entire mountain.

BOHICA campout

Rode down to Lake Isabella area for a hash campout, after bagging on the races for this weekend (July 11th)

Started off as a long night on Friday with the Bostones at the fillmore, and lots of beer till about 4am. Well, there went my well laid plans to leave at 0530 to make it in time for the mountain bike bash. hahaha Regardless, I got up around 9am, had breakfast at the pork store with everyone that spent the night at my house. After a very leisurely morning, the guys kept harassing me to just stick around. and even bet on it. Well, that led to one thing.....I'd be rolling down to southern California without a doubt. :D

About 1pm, I was packed and ready to roll. one change of clothes, some shorts, my runners, and my sleeping bag with my hash mug attached, and I was out the door, much to the surprise of the guys who are worse than women when it comes to getting ready. The ride down was pretty uneventful, I was just going for time. So bombed down the 101 to Gilroy, and then over the 152 and Pacheco Pass onto IH-5 for the run south. 100 miles later, I cut east past Hwy 99 and onto hwy 155. I realized I'd been on here before with Leyla many years before. There is a nice spot to get off the road and take a break, up in the mountains. ;)

There is no cell service up at the A frame, so I would be going on coordinates alone and hope to find it. After turning off on Kelso Valley Rd, and going 25 miles, I found the dirt road that led to the property. 8.5 miles of this, and I'm almost there. and ready for some beer.

Long shadows in the evening, but the bike is running fine, and not doing too bad in the dirt. I'm ready to get off the bike though.

Once I arrived, there was no mistaking it...as the bike is loud enough to hear from miles away. Everyone was in the hot tub (situated just to the left of that big boulder in the photo above). It's a man made hot tub, with a wood burning stove next to it, that cycles water through it, heating it up, and making it a kickass thing to have up in the mountains. No sooner had the bike been turned off, that Kenna was hollerin' for me to grab a beer she had poured. I think I was down to my skivies by the time I hit the hot tub a mere 20 ft away. :D righteous way to finish a long day of hangover and riding.

Dusty boots. The dry clutch does not approve.

Allison and Kenna being very welcoming. I love the BOHICA.

The toy. Polaris Razor. So Saturday night, Jimmy took this thing out and was giving folks rides. Phallus was in it with him, when they were drifting (sliding) around a corner at full throttle, and the left side tires blew out (pressure was probably too low) and the wheels caught in the dirt and launched the 4 wheeler in the air, then rolling 1 1/2 times. so awesome. All the guys were jealous that she was in the car and not them...including me.
Cause it must have been a helluva ride.

The next day everyone pitched in to try and get the tires back on and catch the bead while trying to air them up.

It was obvious after we got the two tires aired up, that the rear axle was jacked. as the right rear tire was further forward than the left rear tire. so much for rides. so off to lunch/breakfast we went.

Stripper dogs are the best. Bacon wrapped hot dogs, with beer for breakfast and dinner.

With that done, and a trail already laid by Numb Nutz, and us having completed it, it was time to make BOHICA shirts. So the stencil and the spray paint came out.

Pretty snazzy way to make event shirts if you ask me. cost? a couple cans of spray paint. how? well, the hashers bring a shirt of their choice, and then the logo is spray painted on the shirt. My shirts have gone through the laundry plenty of times, and the logo is still happily bright and clear.

Of course, shorts were made too. This was the first ever BOHICA shorts made. Much to the pleasure of all the guys at the campout. hahahaha It also became the first ever BOHICA (butt)tattoo, as the paint went right through the spandex. god bless harriettes. :D

On to circle, with chewcaca having driven in from Oklahoma to arrive at about 3am on Sunday morning, to drink, run trail and then get on the road to go see his family. hahaha

GA + Y = well, you know the rest.

A future Bohican/Knuckledragger.

After drinking all morning on Sunday, I tapered off some, and decided I needed to get home. 355 miles to go. not feeling the best, but I took off. Got off the mountain, and the heat was brutal. At my first gas stop, I almost puked....got some heat exhaustion, chugged some water and gatorade and made my way out on hwy 155 again, into the central valley. Hot as HELL!!!!

had to stop and rest at my gas stop on IH-5, but got home reasonably early...about 8:30 pm.

Rolled into the cave (my room) and chilled the rest of the night.

I have to say one thing about the BOHICAn's, they truly are the essence of what a hash campout should be. No bitching or whining, they are all very self sufficient, most of them run long distance, if not mountain bike regularly, so no one complains about the difficulty of trails, mtn bike or running....and they like to drink heavily, and get crazy. it's small enough, so the big planning is non-existent, and I always have a blast with them. hence I keep going to visit. To me, that's the secret to a great H3 campout. On to the next one.

A quick shot of the bike on the way down the hill. No more photos from here, as I was just on a mission to get home. Great time.

"May your air be filled with tires" -Bohica