Ahhhhh, at last no ticks...

So the first frost in Missouri is a big deal for me. This is because the first time the temp drops below freezing all the ticks, spiders and chiggers die. All summer I am hesitant to get out in the woods because of the obscene amounts of small bugs that crawl and embed themselves in you skin. I don't really enjoy the feeling of picking a small insect out of my skin in the midst of it's blood meal. Plus you add on the fact that I've just finished studying in school the MANY diseases that ticks carry (Rocky mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, Tularemia, Erlichiosis, Anaplasmosis, and Relapsing fever to name a few). Needless to say, I love it when we get the first frost, I finally get back out in the woods without hesitations and the post hike tick checks in the shower. A couple weeks ago (after the frost) I went mountain biking around Thousand Hills Lake. I have to admit I have been a complete idiot for neglecting this trail for a whole year. It is an excellent 13 miles of pure singletrack. I can't believe it took me this long to get out there. So now I have the mountain biking bug again. It comes at a good time because I need a break from the road bike before I start hitting the trainer next month. So, I've been out on the trail as much as I can in an effort to use this short window of time between the death of the bugs but before the trail gets too wet and muddy to ride. I have been riding the trail from my house which makes the ride around 25 miles round trip (the 13 miles around the lake is a point to point). I got excited again tonight when I found some maps to another conservation area south of town which looks like it houses around 20 miles of trail. Plus we bought Eugena a good mountain bike (2002 Gary Fisher Sugar 3+). She is excited to give mountain biking another shot after 3 or 4 tainted and injurious attempts with my father, my brothers and I (my dad picks hard trails for the family mtb trips). This is turning out to be a good way to keep my fitness up as I move into the winter training season. It's great to get out on the trail and not see a single person the whole 13 miles. It's a nice release from the stress of school. Something to look forward to, Thomas asked if I was interested in doing an on 8 hour adventure race Dec 2nd in Castlewood park outside of St. Louis. I though I might as well, stay posted....

waiting, patiently waiting

So a few days ago I challenged my little brother kellen (1/2 inch shorter) to a marathon dual. The thing is that eugie is running a marathon next april with a couple of our friends. They want me to run also, (I am not sure what the Moots thinks about all this blasphemy yet) so I need some good motivation. I decided that a good brotherly duel would do it (all in good spirits of course). So I challenged him. He posted the challenge on his blog and opened it up for discussion from his readers. He wasn't ready for what was to follow. He got a record number of comments, mostly from some arrogant jerk name "anonymous". So now he is waiting for Mr/Mrs. Anonymous to reveal his/her identity before he answers the challenge. I think you should visit his blog (kellengunderson.blogspot.com) and encourage him to respond to the challenge regardless of who this sissy "anonymous" is. I need an answer so I can begin procrastinating training.

I don't know what I was thinking

So on Saturday a student organization here on campus called PSR (Physicians for Social Responsibility) put on a 5k run. For some reason I decided I was going to run. Maybe it was because I have a bunch of friends that organized the event, maybe it was because it was being held on the nature trail behind the school that I helped develop. For what ever reason I am still not sure if I enjoyed it. The run was about 2 miles on road/paved bike path and the rest on the trail. There were probably 40-50 people doing the 5k and the 1 mile walk. I guess I kind of just wanted to see how I would do. People keep telling me that I have the perfect build for a long distance runner, and while 5k certainly isn't considered long distance I thought I would give it a shot. When I told Eugena that I was running she first laughed then mocked....and that was probably logical response. I think this year I may have ran maybe 5 times, with the longest run being about a 7 miler. So I'm not a runner, big deal. It hasn't caught my attention yet. So to get to the point I ran the race and did the 5k in 20:45. So not too bad, I took 5th overall and 2nd in my age division. Now eugena is trying to convince me to train and run a marathon at the end of April 07 in Kentucky. We'll see, I'm still not conviced I like this, or I'm that good at it. Plus what would the Moots think if he/she (haven't decided yet on the gender) saw me running...