It's a Boy!

Haley and I knew this already, but there were those who doubted us. Things keep advancing and they gave us the pictures on a CD so click on the above picture to view other pictures of Seven’s new brother

And a Bonus ... A video

Baby 2's Heart Beat

Back To The Basics

Well here I am. The sign says closed... err always open but how is this post being published? Some of you may stumble upon this by accident due to the recent lull in updates that this site has seen. Long story short Haley and I surprised the family and kept it a secret from just about everyone that I was going to have some time off to come back and spend Christmas an the New Year celebration with them.
So...
“How have things been for me?” you ask...
I’m glad you care enough to let me elaborate.

Those that know me best might say that I use sarcasm often or that I tend to exaggerate to make a story better or to simply prove a point. That may be true and you can refuse to believe what I’m about to tell you, but here it goes.

Put simply... I love it

Sure it is painful at times and my body hates the pain that it is forced to endure most every day, but for the most part it is a blast. Most all the rumors are true of yelling, screaming, swearing, push-ups, running, more swearing and more yelling. But, after the first week or so it becomes almost normal and you don’t even notice it anymore. I think that the Drill Sergeants recognize that you don’t care anymore and just tone it down, but who am I to know I think I just got used to it.
As far as swearing and such, Doerfler Farms has the Army beat by a long shot so it was no big shocker to me some of the nick names that you pick up along the way. I have my summer of combining and swathing to thank for the easy transition into that arena. I only explain this because many were concerned that it would be awful and I would be effected by this in Basic. I’m here to say I am fine and no I don’t have a potty mouth now.
What have I been learning? Oh how this post would go on forever if I even began to touch on that subject. I will just mention some things that we have covered. Gas Chamber, M-16 qualification, Night Fire, SAW, 240b, First Aid, GFT, Ruck Marches ... etc. For those of you now completely confused I have a surprise for you. Haley and I have had to keep this a secret or my family would have known of my coming home for the holidays.
My Company has a website that is updated regularly with pictures and has a schedule of what training we are currently going through and upcoming training. You can choose to follow along or just look at the pictures. It can be a game of you searching for me among the many other soldiers.

www.foxtrot150.com

Some highlights for me were BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship). I was told going into weapons training that those of us who had fired before would have to forget everything that we learned and the Army would teach us the correct way to shoot. I was willing to accept that, but as time went on I realized that they Army way of shooting was already taught to me by my Dad. This made it much easier to just have a good time and shoot as much as they gave me the chance. My goal was to shoot expert, but that was foiled. To achieve expert you must shoot 36 or more out of 40 pop up targets ranging up to 300 meters. I hit all the 300 meters but missed a close shot. I thought walking off the range that I had hit 36 .exactly but wasn’t sure. Well, turns out I hit 35 and became the best Sharpshooter that you can be instead of the worst expert you can be. Oh well, it is only good for 6 months anyway and then I have to re-qualify again.
I’m glad to be home to see my wife and son. That has been the most difficult thing to overcome in the past few months. God has given me the strength to push that aside when I need to focus on the day to day tasks that are given me. I still know that I am where I need to be and love what I am doing. I hope to visit as many friends and family as I can, but with time restraints I know that I won’t be able to visit everyone obviously. I head back to training on the 2nd of January and hope to return some time in April when I have completed my scheduled training.
Merry Christmas to all that read this and let us all make 2007 the best year that we can. Remember that life is what we make of it and good or bad we need to be looking at the positive in every situation. I have learned in Basic that you can react to situations in life one of 2 ways. You can make excuses or make reasons, excuses to quit and reasons to look up, stay positive and keep moving toward the goal and objective. Lets all find our reasons this year and make it the best year yet!

So Long Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Good Night

Oh No! A foreign word! Time for an explanation.

auf Wie‧der‧seh‧en  [ouf vee-duhr-zey-uhn]
German.
until we meet again; good-bye for the present.

For the Record, I do know where this line came from, and if you must know I did not like the movie (sorry mom). But it did play into recent events very nicely.
For those of you who have read previous posts or who were at the parties you know that I’m going away for a little while. Not permanently... yet. But it has been the week of goodbyes for our family.
To bring those of you that don’t know up to speed a little I will explain why it is the whole family now and not just me. First off my plans have not changed and I leave the 18th for Fort Benning Georgia and won’t be back until I’m done with training in about 20 weeks plus or minus... probably plus. But we had some issues with our current apartment and long story short Haley has been moved in with my parents in Oregon and will be living with them until I get back and we move to our permanent station. So she is saying goodbye to a lot of people up here in Washington that up until a week ago were under the impression that she would be sticking around for a little while longer.
We had a party in Oregon and both Haley and I couldn’t have been more pleased with how it went. We think that we got to say goodbye to everyone that was there, but if for some reason you hid in the corner know that we love you and thank you for sharing in our time of goodbyes and celebrating the new chapter that we are entering.
We also just finished up our party tour in washington. Thank you Timm and Sandra for helping us with the location! We had such a good time seeing friends from all of the areas of our Washington life. It is amazing how fast 3 years flies by. It seems like just yesterday that I moved up here without Haley and was living on a futon at my old college roommates parents house (Thank you Phil and Lucy). There isn’t enough space on the internet to mention all of the amazing people that God has put in our lives in what now seems like such a short amount of time.
To those that were unable to make it to the parties we love you just as much still and understand that there is no way that we could pick a day that everyone could make it to. The reason it was so hard to make this change and potential move across the country wasn’t hard because of location or being close to cool places and stores. It was the people and friends that we always think of that make it such a hard decision. But, we know that this was the right decision for our family even as hard as it may be.

This weekend has been an especially hard one for me. I will bring the attention back to me personally. After all it is my blog and you can stop reading if you don’t want to hear about me.
This morning I said goodbye to my son for what could be the next 6 months. And for those of you who aren’t parents yet you can’t understand how it made me feel, but I learned a lot in 30 seconds. As I put him in his car seat and kissed him goodbye I turned around to my mom and for what I believe to be the first time ever in my life I knew exactly how she felt at that moment.
All the times that he pulled on my ears and kicked me in the morning when I was trying to sleep were a distant memory. All the times that he ate marbles, pushed buttons on the stereo, banged on my laptop and tried to escape out the front door were as good as gone. All I knew was that I loved him and didn’t want to say goodbye.

Mom -
I love you too. I will write you because I want to. You can blame this on you and Dad. You raised me to be strong and to fight for what I believe in. You must have done a pretty good job because that is what I’m going to do. I’m not gone forever, just a few months at this point, and look at the bright side. At least I didn’t do this until I had a son to keep you company while I was gone.

Dad -
I know you said that you tried to be quiet and not influence my decision. Well that isn’t possible because I can still read you like a book even in your silence. And you mentioned that I had thought of everything that you would have in this decision making process? Well I wonder where I learned that? So see, you did influence me. You taught me to be the man that I am. And if it isn’t tooting my horn too much I would have to say that I’m proud of you for it... I love you.

Both of you-
Please take care of my family, and please don’t spoil Seven too much.

So this is probably going to be one of the last posts for awhile. You can leave me comments here (haha) for me to read when I get back. I will also have email sometime after the first of the year so you can get my contact info from Haley if you would like. I’ve tried teaching Haley how to update the site, but I wouldn’t count on that, so you may be stuck with some of the current pictures for awhile unless something really crazy happens.

I will miss everyone while I’m gone, and look forward to seeing you all in the future. Whenever that may be... At least we will have something new to talk about.

Goodbye, Goodbye... Goodbye

Number Eight?

Well if you haven’t heard by now then you are either living under a tree or you just aren’t important. (JOKE!) The above picture is Erwien’s reaction to the exciting news. Seven is going to have a younger sibling sometime in may around the 17th! “We” are very excited, and some of our excitement is ramping up as we start this journey for the second time.
This time as you have been reading and now putting the dates together I’m sure will be a little different though. I am leaving on October 18th and should finish my first round of training sometime in February. Then I start the next phase for 3 weeks which then I get picked up for another 4 weeks following that. So if everything goes as planned, which in life most of the time happens very infrequently. I should be home towards the end of march to move us to our new home. Should things get delayed I may not me home until april sometime and as you can see now that is pushing the dates awfully close to “new baby” time.
We are excited though for this time and all the new things that will be coming our way. I know that everything is going to work out just fine and that in the end we will still be a happy family.
Seven needs to have his spotlight shared before he thinks that he is the only thing on the planet that needs to be paid attention to, and Nana is going to have to learn how to have fun with 2 grandchildren instead of just having Seven and her time whenever we travel south.

How Much You Wanna Bet I Can Throw A Football Over Them Mountains?

While most people sat around and watched football in their air conditioned homes and eating normal food I joined family (My Dad, Josh, Matt and Jules) on a weekend adventure that was well worth the effort put out. From the looks of it in the parking lot we thought that we were going to have an easy “mosquito” year. We were sorely disappointed and after examining the before hike photos we should have paid better attention.







We hiked about 4 miles to Moraine Lake at 6,450 ft which was a pretty easy hike with our “lighter than usual” but “not as light as we wanted them” packs. We made camp in one of the designated camping areas and ate our cold chicken on pita bread (your usual food preferences go out the tent door at this point).







We went to bed early. Well, I must clarify that the rest of us went to bed and Dad apparently froze all night long and got an hour of sleep. We woke up early and filtered some water for the hike to the summit. Dad, Matt and Jules got a head start while Josh and I finished filtering water for the sprint to the summit (as much as one can sprint 4000 vertical feet). The night before we learned that the original trail to the summit had been closed down for “restoration” and we had to take a longer route which added an unexpected mile to mile and a half on our daily travels to the top of the mountain.
Josh and I gave them about a 40 minute lead on us and then started up the trail with a light warm up jog. It became apparent very quickly that training in Seattle at about 4 feet above sea level wasn’t the most effective in preparing us for a 6,000-10,000 foot climb. We slowed our pace on the uphill portions to a quick walk and ran the occasional downhill sections which became more scarce as the trail got closer to the base of the mountain itself. After about an hour we caught up with Dad, Matt and Jules. Matt got his sunglasses from my pack that we had retrieved for them at camp and we continued on our way past them at our faster than comfortable pace.
By this time we no longer looked up where we were headed as often and focused 1-3 steps ahead and kept moving as best we could. We stopped about every 15 minutes for a 30-60 second break but other than that kept moving. We reached the false summit (the area that looks like the top when you are hiking up the mountain, but after getting to it you realize you have another 1,000 vertical feet to go to reach the top of the uphill trail). We took a look up the last leg of our hike and then began our way up the soft sandy trail. We passed every person that we could see on the trail from the false summit (we were quite proud of that) and after cresting the top of the hill only had .4 miles to go around the edge of the volcanic crater to the highest point on the mountain. We took some pictures and then sat down to eat our “lunch”. Cliff bars, trail mix and water has never tasted soooo good. We made the trip from camp to the summit including breaks in 2 hours 20 minutes. We waited at the top for 45 min to an hour until the other 3 showed up and then we hung out for awhile and shared in the joy of what we had all just accomplished.
Josh and I began the downhill decent at a comfortable pace. The top is mostly sand and loose volcanic rock which isn’t the best material for stopping yourself from running over a cliff or drop off. Once past the soft ground we stopped to empty our shoes of the sand and rock we had inadvertently and then began running. We ran until Josh had some muscle issues with running and finished at a pretty good walking pace. Our time coming down was 1 hour 30 minutes.
We Made it to camp just as Doug and Mary (friends that used to live in Stayton but now live in Bend). We hung out ate some food and talked while we waited for Dad, Matt and Jules to get back to camp. Dad took a nap and then we decided to pack up and head back home a day early since we had finished what we had made the trip for.
The best part of the trip though was going to Pizza Mondo. My judgement admittedly is way off after I get back from hiking, but it was pretty good pizza. I think that everyone would agree that they would have probably eaten just about anything at that point though.
I’m still sore from the trip and have a few bug bites to prove that I was out in the wilderness, but it was well worth it. The view was unbeatable, and the weather was amazingly clear. Here are some photos from the trip.

Specialist Lambert?

Well there it is... My rank for now. I am officially a member of the US Army!
I spent a lot of time saturday down at the Seattle MEPS. Shortly after arriving at 6am we were informed that the power was out for the the entire 6 block area and that they were hoping that it would come back on so that we could do our physicals. They heard back from the power company and they reported that the power wouldn’t be on until noon at the earliest. So they told us to go home, but as I was about to go out the front door in the dark still they turned us around and said that they were going to try and do some of the physical process with the back up lights and power. 7 hours later I had completed and passed my physical successfully on generator power only. It was a crazy experience, but at least I didn’t have to go back to finish what I couldn’t do because of power. I made the trip to Oregon and got there just in time to go to the tractor pull and monster truck show with my Dad, Josh and Jon.
I got back to my house in Redmond at about 1:30 am monday morning and then got up at 6:15 to head back to the MEPS to do the rest of the process and see if I qualified for Airborne Ranger. The computers were down on Saturday obviously so I should have been able to do the whole process in one day, but God was watching out for me and paving the way in a huge way, or so I was soon to find out. After talking with the job councilor I informed her that I wanted to be an Airborne Ranger. She told me that she hadn’t seen that become available in quite awhile but that she would look. She typed in the search and looked at the screen stunned and said “this is your lucky day, I have only one opening and I haven’t seen one in a long time”. How is that for an open door? I took the chance and the rest is monday afternoon history. I swore in and got my ship date.
October 18th I leave Seattle bound for Fort Benning for 16 weeks of training. And yes those of you that just did the math that means that I may be gone during Christmas. I “may” get 2 weeks leave during that time but I’m not counting on it. Besides the being gone part Haley and I are excited about this new change in our life and looking forward to the opportunities and experiences that are about to come flooding our way.

If you have any questions or want further details then you can do one of three things.
- Call me if you have my number
- email me with the link below
- or if it is a question that you think others may ask leave a comment and I will update the post with the answers

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

And it’s all small stuff!

So my last few blog entries have been all about running, hiking, more running, old trails, new trails, great goals achieved and even higher goals set. Well this entry is no different than any of the others. There is still an old trail and a new one. I’m still running but just different. I still have goals set, but they have changed.
To those that don’t know this may come as a big shocker, but to those that do I hope to maybe clarify some questions that you have and maybe even stir up some new ones.
Haley and I have been praying and seeking direction in our life for awhile now. God has been good to provide in the mean time, but at least for me I have not felt deep down that what I was doing was what I was meant to be doing forever (Josh can back me up an this one). I’m happy for the trail that I have come down. Neither Haley or I would claim to have made the best decision even most of the time, but regardless those are the decisions that have lead us to this point in life and we wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.
Ok enough matrix talk
WE ... I will repeat that for those in doubt ... We, meaning Haley and I have chosen to take a new direction in our life. After much council with those that know our situation, personalities, desires and whom we respect enough to speak into our lives We have decided that I should join the Army. After much looking around and research we decided on Army as our branch that we would like to serve in.
We are in the final stages of wrapping things up. Thanks to some bad apples in this world there are more papers and documents to go through than buying a house. But alas, to my utter surprise I am not a sex offender and have no outstanding warrants or tickets. That was a relief. Word to the wise... if you are wondering if you are a sex offender or have outstanding warrants or tickets just pretend as if you want to joint the Army and they will check for you... easy as pie
We are currently waiting on the Army doctor to put us in the clear to come down and take a physical and go through the final remaining papers.
To those that have gotten this far you are obviously very worried, wondering if I am kidding or actually curious what I will be doing for the next chapter of my life. Well I’m not kidding, you shouldn’t worry because God has protected me so far (my mom has been witness to that) and for the last one read on.
I have always been interested in the Armed forces to some extent and very curious about what it would be like. For whatever reason I always thought that it never lined up with my life but that maybe had things been different I would have given it a try. The area that I have been interested in the most ... surprise surprise... is the Army Rangers. They get to do the fun stuff, run further, camp longer and shoot the most (at least in the movies). Yes this is more dangerous but just read above again if you are worried.
I had to score a 110 overall GT on the ASVAB to choose the Ranger route which meant a 80 something out of 99 overall on the test. This worried me some at first because I have always been extremely bad at tests. So I took their “test” and got a 92 out of 99 which equates to an overall GT of 127. Not too bad I guess. After that my recruiter didn’t offer up any of his test score results and told me that I made him feel stupid (his words not mine). After this they took me a lot more serious in the office. I told him to give me until later that night or the next morning to make a decision on wether or not to go forward with it. Haley and I talked it over and we both agreed with no persuasion on my part at all (just clarifying again) that this was where we felt God was leading our family. We decided that we would leave the door open for God to close this off but that we were going to go through with it if He didn’t make it extremely clear that this wasn’t the correct path for us.
So at this point nothing has been put on hold and everything is going through just fine. I should be going down on Wednesday or Thursday to get my physical and sign the remaining papers. Then I will be off to training for the next year + or -

There are a few things that stand out that made this decision and step of faith a reality.

1. God - He has a been laying this into place for quite awhile now and that has become more evident as time goes on.

2. Haley - from the 100 challenge to get me in shape to being supportive in what ultimately means our family being separated for long periods of time.

3. My Parents - They have taught me how to weigh the big decisions, to trust God and also that this is a great country worth fighting for.

4. Friends/Family - many of you have been supportive and uplifting and excited with is through this up and coming quick change.

Now that we are in the foot note let me answer a few Frequently Asked Questions I’m sure will come up.

- Don’t you know this is going to be hard?
That doesn’t mean I have to admit it, and you don’t need to tell me.

- Don’t you know that not all make it?
I’m not a quitter, they will have to pull my still body from the training grounds before I give up. That is what will make me better than the rest.

- Don’t you know that it is dangerous and you could die?
I’m not a coward and I know what this country was founded on... And it wasn’t anti war marching morons that have no idea the blood that was shed for the freedom of speech.

- Don’t you know that you aren’t single and have a family to take care of?
What better example can I give my son than to stand up for what I believe and lay my life on the line to protect the freedom that was bought at such a high price?

Truth in the Numbers

Have you ever given thought to what our country and other countries constitute as illegal substances? On the surface it is extremely obvious to even the below average intelligence life forms the reason why most of these things are deemed harmful to not only the person taking them but also those around them. But those that partake in supposed “joys” of the high (if you ever listened to Michael Medved you know what I mean) swear that it doesn’t harm them and that it is a feeling that they never want to give up, even when it is made illegal.
141 Days ago I started running and I hated it. I would not have really called what I did running, but it was the beginning of something I was sure at the time I would hate. I could barely run 5 minutes at a 12 minute mile pace without hyperventilating and the thought of actually being able to run a few miles was just sickening.
36 days after I started “running” I actually completed what I had set out to do. I ran for 50 minutest straight at a 12 min mile pace. I wasn’t breaking any world records, but it was better than I had ever done in my life and I was proud of it.
3.1 miles seemed like an eternity when I started running. I completed my first 5k race and got completely addicted to the idea of running. I started searching for more races that I could take place in and set a goal to become faster.
4.9 miles used to seem like an impossible goal for me. If you would have told me last year that I would run in an 8k race and actually run the whole way I would have thought you should be committed. But, I did run the 4.9 miles and I loved it even more than the 5k race. This is when David (my cousin) gave me the book about Dean Karnazes (see previous post “Confessions of an All Night Runner”). I read the book and became inspired to up my pace and my distance. I had given the thought to running a marathon “someday” but hadn’t really committed (there is that word again) myself to anything yet.
13.1 miles even 2 months ago seemed like such an extremely long distance for anyone without at least a powered scooter. But I conquered that distance 2 weeks ago and loved ever minute of it.
So that brings us to the final number. If you studied the picture above too much I’m sure you know what it is, but it has to come with a short story (though it didn’t seem short at the time). I have been training for the Seattle Marathon, but due to some unforeseen circumstances I am going to run in another marathon as well. The problem is that it is at the end of September and not the end of November. To those that don’t run that may not seem like much of a difference, but to those counting the weeks I lost in my training it is a lot more time than one would think. So I adjusted my training to meet the new schedule.
My new schedule called for a 12 miler on saturday, but what killed me was the added mileage during the week. I had completed the weeks schedule and taken my day off to prepare for my 12 mile run but was still uneasy about it. I decided to run it early in the morning to avoid traffic and because we had early afternoon plans with friends that I wanted to be ready for on time and not have to rush to get done.
I started my trek at 2 am. Josh was leaving my house and gave me a piece of pizza and I was off on my run eating my pizza and enjoying the night. The first 10 miles were fairly easy and I decided that I was going to go further than my 12 miles. I had all night to run so why not take the opportunity to PR (personal record). I ran through downtown Kirkland and Bellevue. It was a beautiful night. It was clear out but not too warm. I had to stop to refill my water once and I walked a few times so that I could actually drink water easier and not get it up my nose. At about mile 19 I felt like jumping in front of a bus, but it was too early in the morning and there were not even any cars on the streets yet. I was fine after that until about mile 22. Then I hit some sort of wall, I was mentally and physically drained running through downtown Redmond wondering what the chicken I was doing. I pressed on because I knew that if I gave up now I would kick myself for not going just a little further.
Then I heard the words that I had wanted to hear all morning. After the sun had rose and the fog had burned off I pressed the button on my iPod and the voice said “Twenty-Six point Two-One Miles Completed”. I slowed to a fast walk and began the mile walk home (uphill). So that is the number of the weekend

26.2

How Much You Wanna Bet I Can Throw A Football Over Them Mountains?

While most people sat around and watched football in their air conditioned homes and eating normal food I joined family (My Dad, Josh, Matt and Jules) on a weekend adventure that was well worth the effort put out. From the looks of it in the parking lot we thought that we were going to have an easy “mosquito” year. We were sorely disappointed and after examining the before hike photos we should have paid better attention.







We hiked about 4 miles to Moraine Lake at 6,450 ft which was a pretty easy hike with our “lighter than usual” but “not as light as we wanted them” packs. We made camp in one of the designated camping areas and ate our cold chicken on pita bread (your usual food preferences go out the tent door at this point).







We went to bed early. Well, I must clarify that the rest of us went to bed and Dad apparently froze all night long and got an hour of sleep. We woke up early and filtered some water for the hike to the summit. Dad, Matt and Jules got a head start while Josh and I finished filtering water for the sprint to the summit (as much as one can sprint 4000 vertical feet). The night before we learned that the original trail to the summit had been closed down for “restoration” and we had to take a longer route which added an unexpected mile to mile and a half on our daily travels to the top of the mountain.
Josh and I gave them about a 40 minute lead on us and then started up the trail with a light warm up jog. It became apparent very quickly that training in Seattle at about 4 feet above sea level wasn’t the most effective in preparing us for a 6,000-10,000 foot climb. We slowed our pace on the uphill portions to a quick walk and ran the occasional downhill sections which became more scarce as the trail got closer to the base of the mountain itself. After about an hour we caught up with Dad, Matt and Jules. Matt got his sunglasses from my pack that we had retrieved for them at camp and we continued on our way past them at our faster than comfortable pace.
By this time we no longer looked up where we were headed as often and focused 1-3 steps ahead and kept moving as best we could. We stopped about every 15 minutes for a 30-60 second break but other than that kept moving. We reached the false summit (the area that looks like the top when you are hiking up the mountain, but after getting to it you realize you have another 1,000 vertical feet to go to reach the top of the uphill trail). We took a look up the last leg of our hike and then began our way up the soft sandy trail. We passed every person that we could see on the trail from the false summit (we were quite proud of that) and after cresting the top of the hill only had .4 miles to go around the edge of the volcanic crater to the highest point on the mountain. We took some pictures and then sat down to eat our “lunch”. Cliff bars, trail mix and water has never tasted soooo good. We made the trip from camp to the summit including breaks in 2 hours 20 minutes. We waited at the top for 45 min to an hour until the other 3 showed up and then we hung out for awhile and shared in the joy of what we had all just accomplished.
Josh and I began the downhill decent at a comfortable pace. The top is mostly sand and loose volcanic rock which isn’t the best material for stopping yourself from running over a cliff or drop off. Once past the soft ground we stopped to empty our shoes of the sand and rock we had inadvertently and then began running. We ran until Josh had some muscle issues with running and finished at a pretty good walking pace. Our time coming down was 1 hour 30 minutes.
We Made it to camp just as Doug and Mary (friends that used to live in Stayton but now live in Bend). We hung out ate some food and talked while we waited for Dad, Matt and Jules to get back to camp. Dad took a nap and then we decided to pack up and head back home a day early since we had finished what we had made the trip for.
The best part of the trip though was going to Pizza Mondo. My judgement admittedly is way off after I get back from hiking, but it was pretty good pizza. I think that everyone would agree that they would have probably eaten just about anything at that point though.
I’m still sore from the trip and have a few bug bites to prove that I was out in the wilderness, but it was well worth it. The view was unbeatable, and the weather was amazingly clear. Here are some photos from the trip.

Confessions of an all Night Runner

Well this weekend has been a weekend of firsts for me (in running that is). I began my saturday with a little jog around an 8 mile block with some pretty decent hills. That was my first time to run over 6 miles at one time and also my first time to run from one city to another.
I met friend in seattle at his condo for a Mariners game (they lost of course) and ran from his condo downhill to Safeco Field 2 miles away. That only left one more run for the day for me. Uphill 2 miles back to his condo for a BBQ.
I was pretty sure I had the next few days off of running. But, as you can see from above I was very wrong indeed. Krista (my brothers wife) is out of town for a couple of weeks so Josh (my brother) came over and we played some Tiger Woods on the 360 and then decided to go for a little stroll at 2:30 am.
Long story much longer now. We ran from my house uphill on redmond way into downtown kirkland which is about 3 miles. Then we ran south towards bellevue for about 3 miles and then headed east for awhile following the surface streets next to highway 520. Then we made the long trek back up 148th towards our apartment to make the 12 mile block. Then because we were so sleep deprived and delusional we decided to make it a half marathon and pass up our apartment and continue running. We ended somewhere in Redmond at 4 something o’clock in the morning.
We ran for 2 hours 8 minutes 58 seconds. 13.15 miles continuously without ever stopping to walk or rest. This was definitely a first for both Josh and I. We had some amazingly long uphill battles (pun intended) but we conquered them all and had an overall average pace of 9:40 per mile. A pretty good pace for first time half marathoners.
Some may say that we are insane or crazy. I know one thing for sure. The garbage truck man that passed us twice at 3 am I’m sure thinks that we are nuts.
If you think that we got this idea to run late at right from our own creative heads then I thank you. It is a compliment that you would think we actually come up with these crazy things ourselves. But I must admit that I was inspired by a recent book that I read. Even if you aren’t a runner and possibly want to hurl at the thought of running even 1 mile without stopping, you can be inspired by people like this.

- Ultra Marathon Man - confessions of an all night runner
Dean Karnazes

This book reminded me that I don’t have much to complain about when I’m running and my side hurts, or my feet feel heavy and tired. I won’t spoil the story but lets just say that the man has run the Hood to Coast relay and he was the only person on his team. He ran all 197 miles straight and ate while running. And you thought I was crazy for running 13.15 miles in the middle of the night?

I have only just begun!

Run For Fun!

Whenever I think of running for a long period of time I can’t help but remember that scene from Back To the Future III (my favorite movie series of all time). Doc is at the bar and talking with a man from 1885 and telling him about the future (bad idea if you don’t want to disrupt the space time continuum). He says that they have great forms of transportation and the “auto-mobile”. The old man says “doesn’t anyone ever walk or run?”. To which Doc replies “oh, yes but for recreation”. And then the line that I always say, but no one ever catches on (because as I get older so do the movies) “RUN FOR FUN!”.
All that to say, that man had no idea what the future would hold for running. I have run over 250 miles in the past 12 weeks and so needless to say my running shoes were shot (actually the right heel started to cave in). So I was in the market for some new shoes. Well, me being the geek that I am planned it just right. Nike just released a new line of Nike+ shoes that work with your iPod Nano. There is a chip that you put in your shoe and that sends your speed and milage to the Nano which keeps track of your run and displays the info on screen or via voice through your headphones.
Now if you didn’t know from this website or haven’t figured it out from talking with me I am a Mac Geek. I used to hate them with a passion, but after they went to OS X and have a unix base... blah blah blah, intel, blah blah blah. (the boring stuff was edited because that is what most of my readers would have seen anyway). These shoes “could” have just been a gimmick or something for those that only buy things with apples on them to buy. But, although I find him fascinating I won’t just buy anything that Steve Jobs allows the apple logo to be associated with.
So last night I went and tried on the shoes. I loved the feeling of them and the fact that they are extremely light and breathable. So I bought them and promptly drove home to try them out. Long story short, I LOVE THEM! The fact that I had someone telling me my pace and the distance that I had gone while running in the open air was awesome. You can select a “power song” as they call it that you can activate when you are trying to push extra hard, and at anytime you can press the center button on your ipod and your stats are given to you via voice and then your music fades back in.
Then to top it all off when you sync your iPod with iTunes it sends your data to nikeplus.com and you can track your progress in speed, distance, time and calories. Here is a snipit of what you can do.















As you can see I have only used the setup once, but this gives you an idea of what the thing looks like. All in all, the shoes are super comfortable and I love having the stats to push me and keep me interested.

RUN FOR FUN!
heck yes I do!

Seacrest out

100 Challenge is Over!

Well our weight loss competition (aka “100 challenge” is over! I’m very thankful that my wife pushed everyone to do this contest, but I’m also very glad that it is over. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about let me fill you in.
Haley came up with an idea to start a contest to see who could loose the most percentage of their body weight (not fat percentage). After getting creative ideas and input from others (yes you too Josh) she decided to call it the 100 challenge. Those that wished to participate (I will not list the names here, if the want to they can add their own names in the comments) would put up 100 dollars, and the contest would last for 100 days. In our case we started on April 1st and went to July 9th.
Now 100 days doesn’t seem like it would be that long to lose weight, but that didn’t stop some of us from taking it very seriously (you know who you are guys). I will say that by about day 90 I was ready for the contest to be over, but I had some personal goals to reach as well so I pressed on and made it to the end.
So an overview of the rules.
1. you must use the same scale the entire time
2. you must weigh-in the same as when you finish (aka no drinking a gallon of water before the contest started)
3. you can choose whatever diet and exercise plan that you want
4. you have to have a witness at the final weigh-in to verify your final weight

I won’t go into all the details of what I did to lose weight except to say that I ate a balanced healthy diet of mostly fresh vegetables and fruit. I cut out most all meat and animal products and my only exercise was running. And run I did. The last month I ran twice a day 6 days a week and ran between 4 and 7 miles on those days. My math tells me that I ran between 24 and 42 miles per week. So what did I accomplish in 100 days? I think that you will be as surprised as me in what you can accomplish in such a short time.

Here were my starting stats (some are a few weeks into the contest but close enough)
Weight - 236.2 lbs
Blood Pressure - ?/95
Resting Pulse - 85
Belly Button - 39”
Hips - 41”
Chest - 41.4”
Arm - 13.5”
Leg - 24.5”

Now to see what just 100 days can do if you eat healthy and exercise. These are my stats taken after the contest had finished.
Weight - 166.4 (69.8 lbs less)
Blood Pressure - 109/60
Resting Pulse - 48
Belly Button - 32.5”
Hips - 35.5”
Chest - 37”
Arm - 11.5”
Leg - 21.5”
This amounts to a 29.55% loss of my original weight. This number won me the contest but I was trying my hardest to get over 30% and hit 165 lbs. Oh well, I will settle for a win and I only missed my goal by .45%. All in all that isn’t that bad.
It may sound like I’m bragging a bit, but I’m proud of what I have done. I lost 70 pounds and am lighter now than when I was 15 years old. Granted I’m not unhealthy light I’m more fit than I think that I have ever been. I love to run now and last week ran my first 5k (that is metric for 3.1 miles) and yes I did it without walking. I remember the day that I started this contest like it was yesterday. I couldn’t run for more than 2 minutes without almost hyperventilating and I got shin splints within the first 2 weeks. I pushed on through the pain and just kept running.
36 days into the contest I reached my goal of being able to run for 50 minutes without stopping. Admittedly it was at an extremely slow pace, but I had to start somewhere. My fastest mile is 7.5 minutes now and I am continually working on my speed and distance.
I love my new healthy lifestyle, but am glad that now I can occasionally indulge in something not so healthy. I’m working on my running and strength training now and I am seriously considering running the Seattle Marathon this winter.
I also want to mention that I’m so proud of those that took this contest seriously. Without your dedication I would not have been able to do as well as I did. I wish that we all could have won, and I know that in a way we did. I hope that you keep it up and keep off the weight. It wasn’t time wasted, we all added years to our lives if we can just keep up the healthy eating and active lifestyles.
I also want to mention how proud of my Dad that I am. He was the biggest stinker going into this contest and waited until the starting day of the contest to commit to it, but I know that he is glad that he did it now even though he got 3rd place. He has lost 80 pounds and is now lighter than I was when we started this contest. He has some of my old jackets now and they fit! I know that this is a life long change for him and I know now that we will be able to enjoy having him around much longer than the old Dad. I’m proud of you Dad and if you even try to go back to the old you believe me I will let you know. Plus now that you have all those foreign cars you have to stay smaller so that you can fit in them.
Lastly (I know this has gone on for a long time) I’m very proud of my wife. She has lost so much weight especially since she just had a baby a year ago and looks thinner every day. I’m also thankful that she has put up with my insane workout schedule (which has tamed down some now). She also started this contest and got us all off of our butts. I think that she secretly did it because she wanted a thinner husband though. (it worked)

Here are some before and after pictures of Haley and I

before and after Pictures

Again ... Shameless plug (use the comment system)

My Xbox 360 Can Blog!!!

Check this out. My Xbox keeps a record of my addiction in a blog of it’s own. Kinda dumb and pointless but Xbox fans might find it funny for a few seconds.

click here for my 360 blog

Just a Quick Update

I still think that everyone should get an Xbox 360. (Josh are you listening to this?)

I have now lost over 44 lbs! for those reading this that think they are going to read the competition ... Can you beat 30% weight loss? Too extreme for you? I would tell you my current percentage lost but you may give up early and I want all that are participating, and those that aren’t to achieve their goals in weight and fitness.

Sorry for the Long Delay in Updates

So a few update points since the last time

- My weight loss is now 31 lbs and counting!
- I met my goal for running in just 36 days
5 minute warm up walk, run for 50 minutes straight and then 5
minute cool down walk
- I’ve gone from a L//XL shirt size to a S/M
- I’m now starting a collection of 32 size pants again
- I got an Xbox 360!
- Got rid of my Xbox and games that won’t work on my new 360
- Got Burnout Revenge and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006
Both games are amazing. A lot of this is due to the 720p graphics
that are on the 360. But, I highly recommend both.

Things that I have learned that I didn’t know before the 360 was introduced to my entertainment center.
- Wireless is a much better idea than wired
- HD video game consoles are very under-rated
- The media center extender feature is amazing
- But most of all ... Halo 3 needs to come out soon!

More Sage Rat Pictures

Here they are. Hopefully I can get more from other people.

Sage Rats 2006

Forget Urban Ninjas

I’m sure that most have heard of the urban Ninja. But it’s all about Rural Ninjas now. And we just so happened to spot one in eastern Oregon

Death To Sage Rats!!!

This weekend was a blast! My brother Josh and 2 friends of ours Bryan and Jon went sage rat hunting in eastern Oregon. Unity Oregon to be exact. Population 50 something. Sage rat population you ask? about 300-400 less now that we were there. 5 rock chucks met their maker as well.
It was a fun relaxing trip that started Thursday night for Josh and I in Seattle. We left here in the afternoon for the giant town of Aumsville Oregon. Washed the truck about 4 times when we got their. Then we went to town to get supplies. Food, Bullets etc.
We left on Friday for Unity Oregon at about 4 am. Which it must be mentioned that we didn’t get to bed until about 1:30am. We had a fun 6 hour drive that was filled with laughter, sleep and a quick stop to take a crack-shot at a coyote right before we got to sage rat country.
After getting permission to hunt on some land Josh dropped us off at a field and he headed back to the only gas station in town to meet up with my dad that was heading back from some meetings in Boise Idaho. He took some pictures and hiked around with us for awhile and actually got to kill some rats before heading on to Bend for more meetings.
The strange places that we have met up with him. The list goes on and on.
After a long day of killing rats... and some other stuff that won’t be listed here. We headed back to eat and take a final walk through some fields by camp for just a few more rats before dark. We then “attempted” to make a fire. (man I wish we had a video of Josh trying to split a log with a “sharp” rock as he put it. We thought it would be a good idea to cook some dinner in the tent.

- Trip Lesson #1
Don’t barbecue in an enclosed environment ... aka, a tent

After our eyes watered we ate some dinner and shared some laughs. Then we laid down our tarp (Jon had a cot and the tent had no floor) so that we could get some sleep.

- Trip Lesson #2
If you sleep on frozen ground, you will freeze

The three of us that slept on the floor all have agreed that by next year we will all have cots. We woke up early the next morning partially due to the fact that we went to bed at 9:30 and partially due to the fact that those of us on the ground almost froze to death. We tried to call in some coyotes in one of the fields with no luck and then returned back to camp to eat breakfast. After hunting all the next day we made the trek back to The Aumsville/Stayton area.

- Trip Lesson #3
We most definitely have to go back next year

All in all. We killed a lot of sage rats, and we all had a blast. I’m making a list of things that I need to get before next time we go.

- New Trigger Job
- Cot (this is a must)
- A better meal plan
- Hopefully a new barrel for my gun that is more accurate

- Trip Lesson #4
Never assume. It can get you into some trouble.

- Trip Lesson #5
If someone yells for you and then fires 2 shots from a 357 you should stop and listen to them and not keep shooting rats.

- Trip Lesson #6
Silencers are cool

- Trip Lesson #7
Jon is the Chuck Norris of guns!

My iBook is Back!

For those that have been wondering why Seven’s blog has not had an update recently my iBook broke. It wouldn’t start up most of the time. Luckily all was backed up. After some investigation I found the issue was on the logic board which controls the power of the laptop. I took it in to get repaired. After a week and a half the part was still back-ordered. They decided to replace my laptop for free! So now I have a brand new iBook with a gig of ram! All I have to say is this... get apple care