manhattan beach

we went to manhattan beach last week with our good friends to visit some other good friends. we had such a great time.

here is a storyboard of "one of our days at manhattan beach". 

click on it to get it full size :)

our girlfriend runs the STORMY 100 mile ultra marathon in 22 hours 51!!

our girlfriend came up from cali this weekend to run the STORMY ultra marathon. she's competed in the STORMY 50 mile race the last two years but decided she wanted to do the 100 mile race. (heh, if you can run 50, why not do the loop twice).  and not only is it a fifty mile loop that she did twice, but its in very hilly trail territory in Squamish.  I thought trail racing was tough - until I ran with Sharon as a pacer for part of her run in the middle of the night with only the Petzel as light......

The race is based on a mountain bike race called the Test of Metal... You get the picture... The ride is hard on a bike.  Imagine running it.  

She is my inspiration.  Now, when i do my one-two hour runs and I feel like wimping out on a hill, I will think of my special friend Sharon and remind myself...."if she can run for 22 HOURS straight, you can run for an hour or two .. so get your ass up this hill"

here we are waiting for sharon to finish the first 50 mile loop so that we could give her some lovin and cheer her on!

here she is finishing the first fifty... 9 hours 27 minutes...

and mason decided he wanted some applause and wanted to do the race too... ok so he ran a few feet rather than fifty miles, but he's still a star in my eyes!

doesn't she look amazing - she's just ran 50 miles. FIFTY MILES. she's been running for nine hours straight.  you are amazing my bud.

here's fed.. getting ready.. he's the first pacer... she had 7 us of slotted to pace her for the last fifty. considering she was running in the middle of the hilly wilderness throughout the night, the race organizers were kind enough to allow her pacers for the second fifty!

and here's mason checking out the petzel mom will wear for her leg.....

and here she is coming in after running for 22 hours 51 minutes.  just seeing these photos make me get all weepy.  she's been running for TWENTY TWO HOURS.  ONE HUNDRED MILES.

finished.  22.51.01.  

and sharon with her group of pacers, along with coach carson.

6 years today

6 years ago today we celebrated our marriage on gabriola island at our friend's cottage. 

6 years.

4 moves. 

1 dog.

1 babe.

lots of laughs, some fights.

lots of good times and some trying times.

1 committed, loving relationship.

at the beach to keep cool

the heat made us evacuate our house until it was time for sleeping - it was kind of like being on vacation, spending the afternooons and evenings at the beach!

also, as i said in previous posts... pele is always around us. always.  note here when we are swimming... well she's swimming around us!

mason chats with everybody...anybody

mason is not shy.  supposedly i was the same when i was his age... chatting to everybody.

"what's your name?" 

"where do you live?"

"what's your mom's name?" - for some reason, he usually asks this question to grown men!

here he is below becoming fast friends with the fishermen.  

"are you fishing?"

"why?"

"my papa catches BIG fish."

"my papa has a fishing rod for me."

my faithful running partner

she is always there to run with me. 

i used to hate to run by myself 

and relied on my running partners to run with me.

now i have pele to run with. 

any time.  any where.

mason swims with the dogs!

with the heat wave, our house was hot hot hot..... 93-95 degrees!

simon was away in europe so mason, pele and i stayed cool by hanging out at the beach. 

normally it gets cool so we don't stay to watch the sunset... but with this weather...

we were still swimming when the sun was going down!... and it looks like there were just dogs swimming with mason, but there were other human folk swimming as well (me included)!!

mason's nana

loving

kind

gentle

patient

non-judgemental

reserved

unselfish

warm

friendly

my mom

WE ARE SO LUCKY.

all tuckered out

after waking up at the crack of dawn all excited because his nana and his "sisters" were coming over, combined with an adventure up grouse to visit with the grizzlies grinder and coola... made for crash out time on the couch while dinner was being prepared.....

sisterly love

what more to say.