Starting tomorrow afternoon I will be joining an all-star cast of Tahoe athletes for the Annual 177.6 mile relay race around the Reno/Tahoe area. I will have three legs totaling 14 miles in about a 14 hour time period and make it to work Saturday. We are shooting for a mixed team record. There are 99 teams total signed up right now, including two from Anchorage.
The group of mostly trail runners but unfortunately it's all on roads. Our teams name is the Squaw Valley USA Cutters, we are sponsored by Squaw who is providing vehicles and gas (thank God!)
The team has 12 runners including Peter Fain, trail runner, Bill and Sarah Raitter, both good trail runners, Jessica Hall, Paul Sweeney, trail runner, Shannon Rahlves, triathlete and soon-to-be trail runner also sister of Olympic Skier Daron Rahlves, Chris Luberecki, trail runner, Sam Skrocke, just got done biking from Alaska to Argentina, Katie Goldammer, Kelly Krueger, trail runner, and Todd Rose.
Go to www.renotahoeodyssey.com for more info, I am runner #2
For a story on our team go to www.sierrasun.com.

First XTERRA Triathlon as a prohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Photo courtesy of Gene Murrieta
Running up the first climb above Vail Lake

May 18th I competed in my first XTERRA triathlon as a pro just a week after finishing the G4 Challenge. I BARELY got my USAT pro license in time to race and probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for Dave Nicholas of Team Unlimited.
I drove down with XTERRA pro Dan Hugo and his girlfriend Ruth of South Africa who were great driving buddies and truly appreciated seeing the scenery off of 395.
We stayed with Brian Hinman at his home in Temecula looking over the valley. Brian and Lauren were amazing hosts and cooked us delicious meals every night.
I really wasn't nervous about racing pro--felt kind of funny. I guess in South Africa there's no pro and amateur and here everyone makes a huge deal about it so we made jokes about it.
The race was ridiculously hot so I'm glad I finished without passing out.
I finished 7th with a pretty tough pro field including Ironman champ Michellie Jones.
Made a major navigation error on the way home and did a detour through Death Valley or "The Valley of Death" as Ruth calls it. But things got back on track after we had Jack In the Box at 1am in Bishop. Made it back home at 4:30 am and had to work the next day. Luckily Dan and Ruth are still talking to me...must have been the JBX!
To read my Sierra Sun race report go to:
http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20080521/SPORTS01/380456417/-1/SPORTS

My Life G4 and After....

May 4 through May 10 I competed in the G4 Challenge Nevada Passage. I cannot say enough positive things about this experience. I got to drive a pimped out Land Rover LR3 around to some pretty remote cool places in the Nevada Outback with some really cool people. Land Rover and Team Unlimited treated us like royalty and it took some adjusting to get back to my real life.
I was teamed up with Dean Kruuse from San Diego by way of South Africa who was a great teammate/athlete and knew a few things about off-road driving and orienteering as he runs a independent Land Rover shop. With his navigation skills we won the time-speed-distance rally and the running challenge. I can also thank Inov-8 shoes for not slipping in the muddy run!
To read my Sierra Sun article go to:
http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20080515/SPORTS01/175238039/-1/SPORTS
Still need to finish my day-to-day report.

Catching up....Escape From Prison Hill

It's been a while since I've made a post but here's a rundown on my races and life.
At the end of May I did Escape from Prison Hill, a crazy half marathon in Carson City with 4000 feet of elevation gain and 4000 feet of descent. I placed second behind Olympic trials runner Gia Mandy so I was pretty pleased. You can read more at:
http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20080430/SPORTS01/712565421/0/FRONTPAGE