thirty-one on my thirty-first.

Today is my 31st birthday! I got up at 2:30am, and started running around 3am. I ran 31K (19.3 miles) to celebrate :) It was a good run, I was definitely doing a bit of a death march at the end. I was pretty wiped out from the lack of good sleep. Its hard to get up that early! Thanks to Doug and Mike for joining in and keeping me going at the end.

I am skipping the Cascade 1/2 marathon this year. I was gonna do the 10k option, but I missed the early sign-up so they wanted to charge me $45 to run 6 miles. I dont think so!

Good luck to Luvin, Pain Train, and J-Dogg on Sunday. I hope you guys have awesome races! Pain Train, I hope you PR the heck outta that 10K.

Seatbelts.

closed the book

I recently "deactivated" my facebook account. Long story short, they changed the security settings and I couldnt stay as anonymous as I wanted!

I ran today for the first time in a few days and it was good. I did about 6 miles. Im finally getting over this second round of a cold. My parents and younger sis, her husband and son are coming to Salem for Christmas. They get into town this Thursday. I am expecting it to be a fun visit with everyone.

What are your Christmas plans? I hope everyone has a great Christmas! Happy holiday eating/running! If anyone wants to go for a run over the Christmas weekend, let me know. If it is early enough, I will be able to go.

Seatbelts.

expensive trail run/not feeling well

I did the shellburg falls trail run a couple of weekends ago. It was a blast! Gary Terlecki from www.runwildadventures.com did a great job organizing and setting this race up - The Pain Train was invaluable in getting this race off the ground. It was a free race which appeals to my frugal nature and I was very a happy about the lack of cost.

On the way home from the race I had to drive my VW Jetta over a bunch of gravel any my skid plate ended up acting like a scoop and scooped up a ton of the gravel. Any way, got home and parked the car for a sec so Jess could run in and grab something, she came back out and we backed out of the driveway and there was a small oil spot on the driveway. We drove around for about a half hour then came home, parked the car and forgot about it. Three hours later we had to go somewhere and we got out to the car and there was an enormous oil puddle under the car.

Long story short, we had the car towed to AJs in Salem and the "free" race ended up costing me $907 in car repairs! Wow. It was still a great race though.

Ive not been feeling well lately, lots of cold symptoms - head congestion, sore throat, coughing/sneezing. It sucks. Its impeded my training quite a bit. Hope to be on the mend soon. Hope all is well with everyone out there!!

Seatbelts.

Polar Plunge!

Hello loyal readers! This is Kurtis and I am seeking donations for the upcoming Special Olympics Oregon Polar Plunge. Jess and I have been volunteers with Special Olympics for almost 5 years and we love it. Due to the oh-so-tough economic times, Special Olympics has had to severely cut programming and staff.

I would really like to raise $1000 for Special Olympics through this event!

If anyone is willing to sponsor me for this years Polar Plunge, please let me know and I will get you the info on how to donate.

Thanks!!

Kurtis

PCT Ultra Pics

For some reason, these all got posted in reverse of what I wanted.... Anyway, here are some pics from the event. What a day. Official Time: 12:15:00 I think I ended up in 97th place. I will take it!










Seatbelts.

50 Mile Finish Line!

I finished! The PCT Ultra was an amazing experience. It was a great race with awesome helpers/volunteers, and fellow runners. I wasnt sure how I would do with it all, but it was a very do-able race. I took it one mile at a time and just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I walked alot of the uphills, and ran most/all of the downhill portions. I wasnt out there to win, I was out to finish. My friend Mitch crewed for me and that was a great help. Just knowing he was gonna be at the aid stations kept me going. Also, I didnt want to DNF because he had sacrificed his whole day to help me and I wanted to make it worth his time! Around mile 34 or so I felt the best I felt the whole day, It was on a down hill portion and I was belting out Kenny Rogers while running downhill! :) it was alot of fun. The only physical problem I encountered was a blister (big) with 4 miles to go. I just ignored it and kept moving. It hurts like crazy now, but it will heal soon enough. The finish line was a sweet sweet feeling. Jess, Ari, Jolene, Katie and Mitch were all there cheering and that was awesome.

A special thanks to The Pain Train, Mike Luvin', Mike Studer, Doug Slama, and Mitch Duke for all their encouragement and prompting during the race, and during all the training (or lack thereof).

There is another 50 miler in October and I am considering it - mostly because of the fresh belt buckle you get if you finish, and I will definately plan on running the PCT again next year. I have a better handle on how to train, I know I can finish and I know I will do better all the way around.

William (pain train) said that he definately considers a 50K an ultra, but once you run a 50 Miler, you really feel like an ultrarunner - He was correct. I very much feel like an official ultrarunner. I will feel even more offical after I do a second one!

I will post some pics from the race very soon. *--Luvin', I told my buddy Mitch to get some pics of you - but you were too quick (or I was too slow) and he missed you at all the aid stations... sorry dude!

Seatbelts.

not giving up...

well, with the encouragement (via blog comment) from William and Mike, as well as the encouragement of Mike Studer, I am at least gonna show up to the PCT Ultra. I dont know what will happen there, but I will be there giving it a shot.

Thanks Mike and William for the nice comments and encouragement. I appreciate it alot!

Seatbelts