Girls Gone Wildwood

Let me start off by saying we are not starting at zero, we have been running pretty long distances most of the summer, but we never came up with an official training plan for the   Silver Falls Marathon . Instead we both went on vacation for a few weeks in September and decided to trail for the marathon in 3 weeks after we got back.  Week 1 - 15 miles  After getting back from vacation and not seeing each other for almost 3 weeks, a cold and rainy 15 miles went by incredibly quickly.  We ran from Springville to Wildwood all the way to Birch to NW 53rd, climbing over and under trees to get close to 15 miles.  Tree blocking the trail. Down tree on Birch Week 2 - 20 miles (~20.78) Susan was out of town this week, so I was going to invite Dana or Kat to run with me, but I forgot the Portland Marathon was going on and they were both running it. So instead I got to run my furthest solo run to date, I queued up several Trail Runner Nation and Ultra Running Podcasts to keep

I spent the weekend in Baltimore for a wedding and stayed at my brother's house. On Sunday, the day after the wedding, he took my on a run from his place along most of the course for the Baltimore Half Marathon , which he ran this weekend. Ted bombing downhill For the past few years, my brother and dad have run both the Baltimore Half and then the Columbia Gorge Half , two weeks later. They always tell me that Baltimore is harder and hillier-- despite the fact that Columbia Gorge has  2,350  ft of elevation gain, and Baltimore has  312 (according to someone's MapMyRun info) . Don't stop for the next six blocks After running the route, I can see why. Although the course map would make it look much easier, it feels awfully difficult. Part of that is the setting-- Columbia Gorge is in a beautiful, scenic area with fresh, piney air and mountain views. Baltimore goes through some of the worst neighborhoods in the city, dodging trash and drug deals. And the air was so

John, our friend Hans and I recently completed a 9 day hike around Mont Blanc in the Swiss, Italian and French Alps. We followed a pretty similar route as the UTMB , but we went clockwise and counted our progress in days not hours. Some day I would like to run the UTMB, but for now I am fine with hiking in the Alps.  Our route for the most part follows the one described in the  Tour of Mont Blanc book by Kev Reynolds, except we did our trek in 9 days instead of 10. We also stayed in a few different places than Kev suggested, since quite a few of the huts/rifugios close after September 15th.  TMB trail sign Below our my daily notes from each day of the trek. We had a blast and I can't wait until our next adventure in New Zealand, which will involve an ultra.  Day 1 – Champex Lac - Ferret Our first day was an easy 11 miles on old roads and trails through small villages, with good views. The forest we started out in had wood carving sculptures of squirrels, m