dreaming over the ocean

so, this weekend, i responsibly blew off work, hooked up with some friends, strapped some tennis rackets onto my feet, and headed off into the back country. Location was up to Elfin Lake Hut. here are some photos.

so, apparently, this is the "100th post" on this blog. Happy 100th. moving on. this weekend, I ran a 1/2 marathon . I was a little concerned, because of being stricken ill last week, and I am still a little on the wary side of random muscle cramping. (I have recently been experiencing random muscle cramping. not too often while running, but more frequently biking, and even more frequently swimming. and, then there is the random nighttime muscle cramping in legs, combined with my intermittent restless leg syndrome. anyhow...) but, none the less, after a yummy fueling dinner on friday night, a relaxing day on saturday (which included making valentine's day truffles for my friends!!!) I was up to run on sunday morning. I woke up at about 6:30 (race was at 8:30), and mosey-ed on downtown on my bike. Weather was absolutely phenomenal, with not a cloud in the sky, and brisk air. I stopped by my favourite coffee shop for a quick little espresso, and down to the roundh...

So, when I was 16, and 18, I went to Africa with an organization based out of Florida for the summers. What ended up happening was that those summers changed my life. in 1999, I went to Nampula, Mozambique, and amongst other things, these are a few of the things that happened: I met my best friend christina. I was "woo-ed" by my first african woo-er. I lived in a tent, and washed in a bucked for 2 months straight. I questioned what faith meant, and learned a little bit more about it, and about God. I realized that Africa is an incredibly special place. I dug and poored the foundation for the front wall of a hospital. I toured a hospital in Nampula, and saw the horrendous health situations there. I had team leaders, Sam Kim, in particular, who ended up being mentors for a long time. In 2001, I went to Belo, Cameroon (in the North West Province), and here are some of the things that happened there: I fell in love, in more ways than one. I fell off a roof, and broke my arm....

so. 8 weeks to go until I race in new orleans. 6 days before i race a 1/2 marathon, here in vancouver. ask me how training is going. go on. do it. oh? how is training going? you mean, i was supposed to be swimming, biking, and running this past week? well, let me tell you that i would have loved to. in fact, it would have been ideal. but, instead, my "oh i bonked on friday" feeling was instead the beginning of being the most sick that I have been since January 2006, when I was in Liberia, and I had strep throat. im talking about fever. achey body. sometimes energy so low that i couldn't stand up in the shower, or I had to sit on the kitchen floor to put my home delivered groceries away. everytime I would take a breath, i would have searing pain across my ribcage. the whole nine yards. how many days without doing much more than the essentials? 5. count 'em. 5 days of not training. ughghghgh. and, i don't know how many more days of "easy goes it...

My dear friends, sam and gretchen, have this amazing dog, Jack. I have never met him, every time i think of him, i think of this video. I cannot stop laughing when i see it :)

this photo was recently taken from Cypress Bowl road. There has been some media around two very similar, but not quite the same, photographs. At any rate, whomever the photo belongs too, it is amazing. and beautiful. here are some more photos from the fog that engulfed Vancouver recently. Enjoy. Vancouver is beautiful, even when clouds are at ground level.