Trail Runner Photo Contest

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One of our photos made it into the Trail Runner Magazine monthly photo contest! Now just click like, so we can win. :)

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Hiking the Dolomites - Alta Via 1

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Our family hiking trip this year was to the Dolomites, more specifically Alta Via 1. John and I have done several hut to hut hiking trips in the Alps and planned them all ourselves, we never had any problems. As I started to plan our trip to the Dolomites, it became clear to me that it might be easier if we used a local company to help us book our accommodations and transportation. That way when questions came up from family members there was someone we could ask. Also letting the ultrarunner of the group plan the daily hiking itinerary probably isn't the best idea. 



I ended up contacting Dolomite Mountains, I sent them my itinerary, the places I had already booked and a few other specifications and Monica created an agenda pretty similar to the one I already had in mind. As much as I like to plan things myself, it was nice to have someone local and not feel responsible for 5 other people's vacation. Plus if they thought the hike was too hard they couldn't blame me. 





Staying…
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Girls Gone Texas -- A weekend in Austin

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Courtney and I spent last weekend in Austin and after reading a lot of how to spend a weekend in Austin guides, we thought we'd share how we spent a weekend in January in Austin. Overall we had a wonderful time, I think our only regret was not buy tickets to the show we wanted to go to before hand, but we ended up a cool bar instead. 
Friday night
Beers at Craft Pride -  a nice surprise that it was fairly chilled. They only carry beers from
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Tacos at a Sirena Taco Truck on Rainey Street - pretty good and cheap.

Sleeping: The W Hotel is in a central spot in downtown, lots of good places within
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Saturday

Morning: 

Run along the Colorado River on the Ann and Roy Butler Bike and Hike Trail.
Despite the trail being pretty popular it didn’t feel overly crowded.




Coffee at Caffe Medici - decent coffee at a chill location close to the hotel.

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Orcas Island 50k

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I signed up for the Orcas Island 50k as a solo run months ago when it looked like Susan wasn't going to be able to come to New Zealand to run the Tarawera 60k with me. I felt that mentally I needed to run a 50k by myself, so I wouldn't be as anxious about running Tarawera solo. The timing of the Orcas Island 50k was perfect, just a little over a month before Tarawera, plus it was being put on by Rainshadow Running. James and his team from Rainshadow Running put on some of the best trail races in the Pacfic Northwest. 
Oh me of little faith, Susan as able to get work, a family vacation and New Zealand all to line up and work out. But by this time that Orcas Island 50k was sold out, so she couldn't join me, and we had also changed from the Tarawera 60k to the 85k, I knew the 8400 feet of elevation gain on the Orcas Island 50k was going to be good training for Tarawera, but it still didn't make it any easier mentally knowing she wouldn't be joining me. I know people …
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Doing the (North) Nasty and then some

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Yassine of Animal Athletics decided to do one last long training run in preparation for his 3rd HURT 100 and invited a lot of the Portland trail running community to join him. His route was 4 loops of the "North Nasty", which is ~11 miles and 3000 feet of elevation gain. 


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