The climbfish blog: Resurrection and a cliffhanger

Ready for a plunge!

No I’m not dead nor is this blog… I just had a busy life and work spring and ran out of time and ambition. To make it up to any readers still out there I am starting off with a cliffhanger

But why!?! 3 months ago

I have done quite a few ill advised things in my life, posting this letter might be one of them. In about two days from now I will know the answer. A couple of months ago, just after I came back from the Caribbean cruise, I got this great idea that it would be fun with a challenge to kick me in shape again. I consulted google and found this cool trail running race out in West Virginia a safe 3 months away. Then I pitched this idea to my “friend” Jay who immediately had me sign an entry form together with him to participate and two hours later it was safely in the local mailbox. Jay have since then dropped out (ok, he got a new born baby and claims he had a cold for the last 2 months but I think I know who the baby is) and left me alone to run Highline Sky, a 40 mile, 5000 feet elevation wilderness trail Ultra Marathon on Saturday.

Baltimore vultures feasting on another poor rat

My training, though sporadic, went ok until about 5 weeks ago when I first got a 2 week knock out cold, then conveniently almost broke my left big toe in a little bike mishap just when I was able to run again. Some x-rays later and a bit of rehab and my body seems to be working again. Longest I have ever run before (and during training) is 13 miles, how hard can it be to run 3-4 times longer. And yes, I am stupid enough to give it a shot in my five-finger barefoot shoes. At least the weather is looking nice! Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you all about it in a few days.

Viewpoint in the Appalachian Mountains along the Potomac River

Me and Anna have spend some of our weekends lately exploring different bike trail around the region. A month back we went biking along the C&O Canal in Western Maryland and with the resent flooding the road was filled with snakes and other wildlife like beavers and a full grown black bear. I was stoked! Must say that Anna impressed me by biking next to a swimming snake (the road was flooded) without to much fuss.

Resent flooding brought all the critters out from hiding...
I was able to save this poor guy from a certain bike death by carrying him off the path

Maybe take another road...

B&B with stuffed animals

Other things that have happened this spring is a lot of work and some more work (am I turning American..?) As a counterpart to that the garden is looking great and I have been quite fanatic this year. What better way to calm down after a long day then to water your plants, rainy days or not. I even designed a passive irrigation system and planted a bunch of heirloom tomatoes from seed, I'll get around to show my ingenious design some later time.