Race the Base Half Marathon

Well, we had our 2nd ever Race the Base half-marathon on Sunday. They had a 5K, a 10K, a half-marathon, and a kid's 3K. Angelica and Helen ran the 3K and I ran the half-marathon.
Angelica ran well and finished strong...

Helen lost interest about half-way through the race and I had to go back and help her finish. Once we got her going again, she finished strong as well....

I ran a 1:45:02. I felt pretty good about the time considering I haven't really trained much since the Tokyo marathon in March. I figured I could live with getting beat by Buz, but it was a kick in the shin seeing the photo finish of myself getting beat by this guy...

I hope I can run like that when I'm 80. I've decided to hit the running hard again with plans to run the Hokkaido marathon next August.

Nuidoishi Yama

Ryan and I made a 2-day exploratory trip to Shimokita peninsula to verify rumors of big, climbable walls. We had a late start and made most of the trip after dark. I almost ran over 5 serows and an odd anteater-looking animal. At the trailhead, we slept in the car and woke up at 0500 to see a huge, granite rock overlooking us...Nuidoishi Yama. After a 5-hour approach from hell, we found the base of the rock with nice new climbing anchors in place. There was beta in a tupperward container at the base which showed 8 pitches ranging from 5.10a-5.11b. The first pitch was 5.10a and Ryan led it pretty easy. Being beat from the approach in and pretty new to leading, we didn't attempt the next pitch. But, we did discover an easy 30-minute approach for next time. I'll bring my aid gear as well next time to ensure we can get further up the climb.

Nuidoishi Yama

President's School Address

Well, Obama delivered his long awaited speech to school children and all the hoopla was apparently just hype. I was a bit disappointed, having two young daughters ripe for indoctrination into Obama's socialist army. I sat outside the schoolhouse this afternoon, eagerly waiting for the flood of newly brainwashed 9-year olders to emerge from the school doors burning their bras and brandishing picket signs. But, I didn't see so much as a black armband or a single fist of power thrust into the air. Apparently, they were just told to do their best and to stay in school.

Seriously...I don't normally voice my political views here, but the hype generated around our President wanting to address school children is rediculous. Some guy on Fox News went as far as to say that the president shouldn't have a relationship with school children. He basically said that such practices lead to personality cults such as those which supported Hitler or Stalin. There's a huge gap between hearing a back to school speech and singing praise to our Dear Leader. I'm also not so sure there's anything wrong with our children admiring our elected leader. One of the clearest memories I have of my early school days is making a jelly bean birthday card and sending it off to Ronald Reagan. I thought Ronald Reagan was just about the coolest guy on earth. Anyone who knows me now can see just how much correlation there is between my youthful admiration of Ronald Reagan and my adult political views.