Longest Bike Ride

Miles Run:122.9

Miles Biked:129.09

Miles Hiked:8.70
Total Miles:260.69
Stadium Stairs Run*:2244
Steep Steps Run*:1340
Days to Rainier:104
Summit Team:7
Aspirin Tablets:42

My week has been fun. My work, which is in a secret location, has been very varied and allowed me to share a little bit of the Gospel with my not-yet-Christian friends. I even got to build a library system for a pastor with a 1,600 volume library. Hopefully in two weeks his entire library will be digitized.

I even went on my longest bike ride yet from my house in West Seattle to the new Shoreline Campus of Mars Hill (25.7 miles). The first event at Shoreline's new home was a lecture/sermon by Sam Storms in the topic of spiritual warfare. The talk was awesome (check it out at http://bit.ly/fame6u). Their facility is amazing. It seats 357 people with additional overflow rooms. Their children's space is huge with plenty of space to grow. Donald bought me teriyaki; that was soo kind and soo amazing, I was blown away by his generosity. Charlie and Lacey gave me a ride all the way back to West Seattle. Then I hade the highlight of my entire day! The back door was wide open at 10:30PM. I got to do a room by room clearing drill! So much fun.

The downside of the week is that my summit team is in decline. I lost my guide, who has been to the top; he is no longer able to lead us up Mt. Rainier. So unless I can find a new leader, our team has no first-hand knowledge of what lies above Camp Muir. I know only 40% of the route. I cannot lead this team in good conscience up to the top. So if no leader emerges, I will have to call off this adventure again. That means a fourth failed season.

I am considering soloing Rainier. I cannot endanger my team. But I am in the best shape of my life and I will be more-than ready for a summit. I know a secret campground at Camp Muir which will enable me to avoid the Ranger checkpoint. I can then cross Cathedral Gap onto the razer ice field on Ingram Glacier. After traversing the steep field, I can scramble up Disappointment Cleaver to the longest 2 miles of my life as I work up to the Caldera. Then circle to the true summit.

I can do this alone. But if anything goes wrong, if I slip, if I get disoriented, if the volcano produces nasty lenticular clouds or storms I might not come back because there will be no one to help me.

I can't invite someone else to join me on this journey. I can't ensure their safety.

Oh and Easter is only two weeks away! 20,000 people will come to Qwest Field on April 24th 500 will be baptized, the biggest church service in the history of the Pacific Northwest! Come. It will be amazing!

Miles Run:50.74
Miles Biked:85.99
Total Miles:136.73
Stadium Stairs Run*:2244
Steep Steps Run*:1340
Days to Rainier:140
Summit Team:8.55
Aspirin Tablets:42
*for each round trip only the upward steps are counted

Today was pretty great. Aside from all the running. I ran out to Lincoln Park, after sleeping in on my day off. Right down on the Puget Sound the wind was fast and furious. With a high of 33 degrees and a sustained wind of 18 miles per hour, the temperature left something to be desired, but the sun was out and that makes all the difference when you live in Seattle. When I came to the Coleman Saltwater Pool, I took a brief break to do some more dynamic stretching after the 1.3 mile warm-up. Just as I was about to resume, I looked out into the Sound and saw two harbor seals about 25 meters out playing in the white caps. Probably a mother and her adolescent pup.

Just think about it. About 11-ish billion folks have been around since the year 4,000BC. So out of all of them, I get the privilege to sleep in late, turn on my MP3 player, fill a water bottle, grab two pre-packaged bags of trail mix, run some miles to prepare for the hike of a life-time up a giant mountain, oh and by the way I get to stand and watch two seals playing in a scene that can only ever be described as beauty-incarnate. Damn! Thank you God! How did I get the honor to live such a life? What good thing did I do to be rewarded with this? Nothing.
WHY?! I know women who have lived in torment for years; they get horror, and I get sunshine?! I know a man who will never walk again, lives in ever-present fear, and whose worst nightmare is going to bed because when he does he will have even worse nightmares. And I get to run (complaining when I do nonetheless).
Where is the fairness? Why am I not justly given a sentence of suffering, hunger, destitution, and the like?
Man, I am so freakin' blessed. God has been amazing to me.

Dangit, every once in a while the Ghost opens my eyes to the life I live and blows me away.

Pictures. Here is some fresh content! First off a picture from Monday night when I went for my longest run yet: 6.38 miles.

When I started, there was just the mildest hint of snow in the air and bare wet pavement. After an hour, I was still 2.5 miles from home and all the sidewalks were totally white. It was about 24 degrees, and I was glad for the balaclava.
As promised, here are some pics of the stairs and one video of what the view from the top is. When Rainier comes, I intend to show the very same thing.





With that, I bid you all long days and pleasant nights.

Stairs

Miles Run:39.72
Miles Biked:85.99
Total Miles:125.71
Stadium Stairs Run*:1020
Steep Steps Run*:536
Days to Rainier:144
Summit Team:8.55
Aspirin Tablets:35
*for each round trip only the upward steps are counted

Dang, soon the stats alone will be their own blog post!
Wow! I really don't like running but I found something I like even less. Running stairs! Yeah it is pretty much the reason they invented Tylenol (Also known as the soldier's candy). Being a total rebel, I decided that Aspirin is the real non-conformist pain salve. (Actually I am just too cheap to buy the more powerful stuff to numb the achilles pain). The upside of the stair addition to my routine is that now I have a new stat. Since the progression of stats is denominated in miles, people, and pills, I will record my stair progress in ascended steps, so the number can look all cool and impressive.
So where do I run steps? Naturally I had to choose the most ridiculous place in three states. It is called "Rura Penthe". That is my name for it (ever seen Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country? In the movie, Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy are sentenced to a life sentence to be served at the Klingon dilithium mines on a god-forsaken ice planetoid called Rura Penthe). The stair's official name is probably something like "the Thistle street pedestrian link." Regardless of my fanciful name or its official designation, it is factually the longest continuous set of stairs in Oregon, Idaho, or Washington State. It is horrible.
Pictures will come at some point.
That stair case kicked my butt. The first section is a set of 204 wide steps with a similar height and tred dept as a typical flight at UW's Husky Football Stadium. The average height of each step is about 6 inches. The upper section boasts 11.5 inch steps andan indeterminant number of steps. I tried to count them, but each time I decended from the top, I kept losing count! It seems my body had determined that death was iminent therefore blood no longer needed to be pumped to my brain. Apparently, my body was indignant at my brain for deciding to destroy the body and "turned off the tap" as it were.
That is the first time I have ever been so winded that I couldn't count.
Each step required a leap and delicate landing only to precariously teeter on the edge of oblivion, the only option was to launch myself toward the next towering step. Each of the four times I found myself at the antipenultimate step, my heart was a roaring jet engine deafening my ears; at the penultimate step, every fiber demanded a halt; at the ultimate step, my soul rallied, my imageo-dei was recalled, and I rejoiced. The culmination of each conquering trip toward heaven was my knife.
Carving another tally into the heart's wood of some long-since-dead pine tree, a cellulose Ebeneezer to God's gift of pain and expectation of my goal: Rainier.
Only 144 days left.
Also the cadre grows: Greg (who has beaten some 14,000+ Colorado peaks) and his bride-to-be Melissa (who has run the 26.2 tour de morts some strange folks associate with that beautiful and desolate plain in Greece).
We are men and women dedicated to a cause. Our espirit de corp is high, our passionate temporaires raison d'etre is a white rocky peak less than 200 miles from where I sit.

So why do I keep writing these awkward diatribes about pain and foolish self-abasement?
I really want to stop doing this whole training thing. I just want it to be over. But I am committed (not institutionally, though sometimes I wonder if I ought to be, :P). And I need to remind myself. I need to keep the goal in mind. I write these for the same reason that I sing the song All My Tears by Ex Nihilo; I need to be reminded that after this is finished there is a glorious End.

Costco

Miles Run:12
Miles Biked:45.49
Total Miles:57.49
Days to Rainier:199
Summit Team:4.5
Aspirin Tablets:6

Today was a good day. It is my one day of total relaxation and rest each week. I volunteer my time from Sunday-Thursday at Mars Hill Church in a variety of ways. Saturday is my project day to catch-up and prep for the next week. In obvious contradiction to my previously defined day of rest, I installed 20 feet of 12-2 Romex and a new receptical (Romex, if you don't know what Romex is you are not a DIY type of person, tisk tisk). So without being electrucuted I updated and rewired the power to my bedroom to ensure that my new shiny computer monitor would be well grounded. I then knocked out 25.25 miles on my mountain bike in the driving wind, with only one minor injury (Biking Map). Finally, I cooked some amazing shrimp Linguine and watched Swordfish with Travolta and Berry. I know God said:

Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. Deut 32:35

But something in me is stirred when Gabriel (played by Travolta) says:

Someone must bring [the terrorists'] war to them. They bomb a church, we bomb 10. They hijack a plane, we take out an airport. They execute American tourists, we tactically nuke an entire city. Our job is to make terrorism so horrific that is becomes unthinkable to attack Americans.

I guess I am just a jacked up guy, but vengeance...
This sympathy with Gabriel or Clyde Alexander Shelton (played by Butler in Law Abiding Citizen) and their causes of justice and liberty leads to a fear in my gut. Should I ever be blessed with a wife or a precious daughter. I know there is no power on Earth that would stop me from repaying anyone who hurt them fully.

Wow, man I got off topic. Like James Harleman says, "there are few experience specifically as compelling or challenging as being pulled into a film's story for a few hours."

So what was I going to write about? Oh yeah Costco!
"Costco?", you ask. Yes, Costco. Every year my mom and I go to the Costco shareholders meeting in Bellevue (except last year when I was on my Epic Road Trip). "Are you a RICH GREEDY CAPITALIST who is ruining America and the World by promoting the corporate executive system where men make outrageous amounts of money yet have no incentive to manage risk, instead they live only for the short-term thereby ensuring we will all be subject to frequent and volatile financial crises?!"
No, no, no. I support that system of intentional instability when I pay my taxes.
Anyway, I hold a modest amount of Costco shares in my retirement account, so I get to go. My mom and I enjoy the event each year because it reminds us that Capitalism is lovely and saves the lives of hundreds of thousands each year. It also allows me to buy the hundred pack of socks. Jeffrey Brotman led the meeting, the video presentation of all the cool depictions of Costco in the media (Jimmy Kimmel at Costco was the best), and the Q&A. The best part is the free stuff. Don't get me wrong stealing made the top ten not cool list, but it's not stealing when they say, "Here take it we don't want to take it back to the office." So I got 2 gallons of laundry detergent, 4 containers of chocolate covered Almonds and Raisins, 50 pounds (!) of sealed trail mix, 6 2.2lb boxes of Natural French Truffles (one of my personal favorites), 5 cool self-sealing storage containers, 3 boxes of Flex Free Glucosamine and Chondroitin tablets, three pounds of shrimp, a dozen bottles of Kirkland Signature Vita-Rain, and a sweet portrait of myself,. My mom got about the same amount of swag plus a full-sized dog bed for Fritz.
Thursday's Costco outing was a total win. I even ran into my buddy from Ballard Campus Security. So now I am fully stocked with training food (50lbs of trail mix!) and am even well rested or will be after I publish this post and snooze.

I am still calling any manly man or womenly woman to join me on Rainier. July is just far enough away to prepare physically and mentally. Join me. Beat Rainier.

One Step Leads to Another

I took my first step toward Rainier on Suturday. Then there was another, and another, and before I knew it I was running. Have I ever told you how much I hate to run? I'm not even joking; the last time I ran was for the mile run in 6th grade. (7:12 for the smallest kid in the 1600 person middle school ain't bad)
My dad was a bicyclist, and my mom is an aikido black belt. So I should have some athleticism. Not so. I couldn't even make the baseball team in high school as a bench warmer. It's not that I don't go out side and exercise, it's just that I am very short, and if I am not intentional about planning out each meal, I lose 3 pounds a week.
So back to the point, I hate running. But...the training routine I have chosen on is a 5 a week Bike/Run routine. My first run covered 4.3 miles but I actually ran only 3.2 miles. It was raining and windy and cold. How can people do this stuff for fun? Each time I saw a dude walking his dog or an elderly lady peering from behind lace curtains I wanted to quit. My fear of man popped out as I imagined what they were thinking...{Old Lady's voice}"Crazy hoodlum, running must be looting..." {dude's voice} "Woah, crazy runner doesn't he know it's raining out here?"
Each time my heart would sink, I thought of this picture and the passion tripled within:

I want to see this with my own eyes, I want to be there and I want to summit.
{Using Pastor Mark's Intense Voice} "I'm looking for Men and Women who want the same thing Passionately, Who want to stand high atop Rainier and Earn it!"

Who is even moderately interested in coming with me? We hit rainer Mid July. It will take months of personal preparation. You might even have to run. It will take months of group events to hone your technical skills. It will take a lot of your time and probably $300-$450. Do you want it bad enough?


Special acknowledgements to my Cousin Tanya, she decided to take up running and now kills marathons. She is an inspiration to me.