Whitewater Rafting

Saturday, June 7: John, Jesse, Dan, Avi, Charlie, Ai Lee, JT, Katie, Harold, Alyssa, and myself did a little whitewater rafting through the Royal Gorge on the Arkansas River. The river was flowing at 2980 CFS (or something like that). Commerical rafters aren't allowed through the Gorge when the river is over 3200. The Gorge had been closed virtually all week--but luckily opened up for us Saturday morning.

One commerical raft flipped spilling people, oars, and other equipment everywhere...and some of our group came pretty close to taking a swim. Pretty exciting ride!

John, Will (raft guide), me, Jesse, and Dan:

The entire crew (less Harold and Alyssa):

Law Day 10K

Crossin' the finish (Friday, May 30):

Weekend at Steamboat Springs (5/30-6/1)

Friday (May 30) I did the "Law Day 10K" race with brownie. Susan Mopper was nice enough to come down and chill with us afterwards. This race was messed up (much like our legal system I suppose). Arrows were provided to indicate the race route only on straightaways (like there is any ambiguity there)--at places where the trail forked off in two or three directions, no arrows, no course marshals! I really didn't care--but it added a good three minutes to my time while I was screwing around trying to find the right way. Eventually I came to the 6 mile marker--while my GPS said ~5.5. So, I quickly made up the distance by running down the street and back before crossing the finish line. Gee whiz...but the PBR and Ruby's burger made it all better! ;)

After all that I took off for our condo in Steamboat Springs and caught up with Allison, Tara, Ryan, and Stacey. After that lovely 3.5 hour drive I was pulling into the condo at about midnight. We still stayed up until at least 3 AM drinking and playing cards...

Harold, Alyssa, Chris, and Nikki showed up Saturday. Sunday morning we were all up around 5 AM and Ryan and I were on the half marathon bus by ~6 AM. Of all the people that signed up for the Steamboat half or 10K--only Ryan, Harold, and myself actually ran. Others (with the exception of Allison) had a bunch of lame excuses! ;) Poor Allison got some weird food poisoning or something (we aren't sure) on Friday that lasted all weekend--but she was a champ and hung with us for the duration.

I kicked butt on this race (granted it was mostly level and downhill): 01:36:58 (52nd place out of the ~1000 half marathon runners):


Finished off the weekend soaking in the hot springs near Steamboat...

Bolder Boulder 10K

Couple of pictures from the Bolder Boulder. I'm pretty sure my official time is lost. Perhaps bad timing chip. I'm providing these as proof that I did this race--note the timing chip on the shoelace and the timing mat that I just crossed! ;)

Digest of last week...

"The Cure" at Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Wednesday, May 21):



Jenny Greenstreet, Avi Knoll, myself and others attended this concert. They did 3 encores! Amazing how long these guys have been around! Lead singer Robert Smith is the only member to stay with the group since their inception.

Thursday, May 22 was Dani Davis' birthday. A group of us met at Porky's to play sand volleyball and horseshoes.

Saturday, May 24: We did some whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River from Buena Vista. Damn that water was cold. We had to stop half way and do jumping jacks on the shore to keep the hypothermia from setting in...

Sunday, May 25: Susan Mopper and I went up to Boulder, CO to party with the rest of the crew running the Bolder Boulder the following day. As we do each year, we all crashed at Ryan Shininger's place...

Monday, May 26: Ran the Bolder Boulder 10K in approximately 0:44:15. Can't find my official time online yet. I'll post a picture or two when these come through online as well. Weather was perfect for running--but when the race was done, it started raining, my core temperature dropped, and I was not a happy camper. Nonetheless, I still took the time to pick up a bunch of free shwag at the expo outside of Folsom Stadium before getting a ride back to Ryan's with Bloody Z...

Busy week. I could barely stay awake in the car on the way back from Boulder. Good times!

Indy 500 Half Marathon

Couple of pics from the half...

Weekend in Indiana...

Flew out to Indiana with Ryan Shininger and Stacey Spence to participate in the 2008 Indy 500 half marathon. We flew out of DIA to Chicago and then rented a car to travel from Chicago to West Lafayette, IN. Stacey dropped us at Ryan's brother's (Keith's) house and she traveled on down to Bloomington, IN for her sister's college graduation from IU. We partied Thursday night in West Lafayette and hit the road Friday for Indianapolis--but first we took a trip over to Purdue University (Ryan's alma mater) for a little site seeing. When we got to Indianapolis, we met with the rest of Ryan's immediate family. We picked up our race packets from the convention center and started the carb loading. Took it easy Friday night and played Nintendo Wii. Saturday morning was the 13.1 mile race. I ran it in 1:44:38 (a new PR for me I guess). The total attendance for the race was 35,000 runners. Sunday we went back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to check out the hall of fame, watch the rookie training, and listen to the bands. The Indy 500 is Sunday, 5-25-08.

Me and Neil Armstrong at Purdue University (no, I'm not trying to break his neck!):


Ryan and Matt after finishing the half marathon:


Crowd after the marathon and 5K:


Mary, Ben, Lori, Mom and Dad Shininger, Matt, Ryan, and Keith at a pizza joint the evening after the race:


Ryan and Matt at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (opening day, rookie training):