JGowans

I ran the NY marathon in 2002 on no training (my first and only one to date). I paid for it bigtime. I used to be a decent middle-distance college athlete and thought I could easily handle a marathon. I just kept on doing my usual 5 mile runs 3-4 times a week. Anyway, I went through the half in exactly 1.30 and then blew up completely. My calf cramped up, my knees kept locking, and my nipples were bleeding. I limped the last half and finished in 3.57. The worst part was that I got strep throat after it, my IT band was screwed up for a couple of months, and I was basically not able to do any physical activity for about a month afterwards. I've humbly learned my lesson and am now coming around to also wanting to qualify for Boston. I intend to run the Capital City marathon in Olympia next May. It's a flat course that's certified for Boston, it has only a couple of hundred finishers, and it's run in May so hopefully the weather will be decent. All of these factors are super important and of course training properly. Best of luck. /jason

Equifax (one of the reporting bureaus) has a free service so can have your name put on fraud alert. They send you for free a copy of all three big agencies credit reports on you. They also contact you personally if anyone tries to open up a line of credit for you. I did that. I also recommend going to one of the reporting bureaus (I used Equifax) and there, you can opt out of them sharing your info with other companies. I'm hoping now that the junk mail will subside. For those that live in a house with a vulnerable mailbox, that seems like a good way to cut down on the amount of personal information flowing around about you. ---> Like JayB says, you definitely don't want any degenerate Scottish immigrants stealing your identity to finance a chronic sheep shagging habit now do you?

Just found out that someone went into a Lowe's in Vancouver, WA and spent $1250 courtesy of my checking account. They weren't finished though because the next day, they went to a Larry's Market in Bellevue and spent $350. Fortunately, my bank has a zero liability fraud protection thing but knowing that someone has access to my account sucks. Btw, the culprit somehow has one of my bank cards even though me and the missus haven't lost any. The guy at the bank tells me that they now have devices that they can attach to ATMs and read your account info. Then, they also have the technology to create fake credit / debit cards. As much as I love the benefits of new technology, it really sucks to fall victim to it. I guess the moral is to be super vigilant with your personal information.

I rafted the Nahatlatch River earlier this year in B.C. It's a 5 hour drive there, but man, what an awesome spot. The company is called Reo Rafting http://www.reorafting.com/

We need to retain a sense of humor...our footie team is complete and utter shite these days.

That gets my vote. Head down to Zakopane and then take your pick of skiing or climbing either on the Polish side or the Slovakian side.

It on! Seriously.. lets do it. When did you run a sub 15? preeeety cookin'. 15:37 was my best. But seriously, lets see just how fast someone can do it. I am game. anyone else? Definitely up for it. Let's pick a night or weekend morning. Btw, I ran sub 15 in college (1996)...That's how this Scotsman was allowed into the U.S. I had a track scholarship at a small college in Louisiana of all places. 800m was my event but I had to train at the longer stuff (5k & 10k) too. Nowadays I plod through 5k in a shade under 18 mins. Oh well, like my Murphy's, I'm not bitter

I totally agree that it's easy to get up with a 60lb pack in less than 2 hrs. I agree that hiking quickly can get you up in 1hr 15 or so. Getting up in less than an hour is a different proposition and I'd be willing to put money on there being maybe a handful of people on this site being capable of that...I doubt I am one of those just now

I'm willing to back up my words here. Why don't we race up Mt. Si and see if anyone can manage it in less than an hour?

Elevation gain is 3,700 ft.

Josh, I ran up it last year (wthout a pack) and only managed 56 mins. The record is 39 mins I believe. I'm no slouch either. I've run sub 15 mins for 5K. I disagree that you can hike up easily in less than an hour.

Dealing with immigration authorities in this country is a complete nightmare. It's true that us legal residents have less rights than illegal immigrants. The laws are so arcane and counter-intuitive. Trying to make sense of them is like trying to understand the tax code.

I took my wife up muir during easter and she snowboarded down...she'd never been above 6000ft and it was only her 3rd time snowboarding. she managed it fine.

Marlet = Wal-Martlet Denotes child of Wal-Mart. See trailer trash, redneck, hick, uninformed gun-toting, flag-waving republican. Found mainly in southern states and rural populations in the U.S. but is proliferating globally with the expansion of the thrifty bohemoth that is Wal-Mart. Typical Martlets sport tank-tops with WWF or Beer logos emblazoned across them and think that the Internet is a great way to organize a confederation of budding Marlets primed to take over your local "guv'mint" in anticipation of the mis-guided perception of impending doom caused by the bleeding heart liberals of this world. Most likely heard to mimic their commander in chief with odd vernacular such as moonbat, let's roll, let's lock n'load, john kerry is a flipfloppingflipflopper that flipflops so much it makes my brain hurt duuuuude. I am submitting this proposed definition to the OED as we speak.

syncophant I think you actually mean sycophant .

Are you kidding me? I wouldn't ever miss a chance to prove you wrong, moonbat. Aside from all the opinions flying around here regarding culpability, the fact that you have one derogatory put down that you incessantly inject into every post with gusto tells me that you’re a total dickhead. You’re probably snickering in your cube as you type the letters “m-o-o-n-b-a-t” on your keyboard. You’re sending the links to your equally conservative buddies who are also snickering and forwarding on to their inbred brethren with the subject line, “Moonbat Ahoi hee hee hee.” Meanwhile, you’ll all get together at your doublewide on the weekend and hang out around your fire pit that is nothing more than smoldering Busch Light beer cans surrounded by abandoned cheap plastic furniture that you reclaimed from the side of the highway and as you and your buddies gaze at the stars and wonder what would happen if you stuck a box of fireworks into the naked flames, you’ll heave a huge sigh of glee and remind everyone of the past week’s merriment where you called a bunch of hippy climbers “m-o-o-n-b-a-t-s”. Here’s to you Mister One Word Put Down That Nobody Thinks Is Smart. The next Busch is on me!

Are there some directions on how to get there? cheers, jg

Thanks Matt.. I knew it had been done many times, but i just wasn't too sure at roughly what elevation people have done it at and what a typical trip might look like. Obviously I need to research it quite a bit more...I'll check out the mounties library

I had a lot of Bush donors. Surprisingly, someone actually gave $25 to Al Sharpton!!!

Hey, has anyone here circumnavigated Rainier from around the 10,000 ft level? I was just curious if it was possible and what the terrain would be like. I haven't done any real research into it yet...

The Muir snowfield was fairly chewed up by the Saturday crew but yesterday was still fricking excellent. Quite windy on Muir. I saw a few guys lying around half-knackered having come back down from the summit. The wife snowboarded from Muir - her 3rd time snowboarding ever I saw a guy lost in the early eighties with skin tight tights with fluorescent paint splatters all over them. If that was you dude, you rock!!! For all the Indian women wearing saris at the bottom and Japanese tourists taking pictures 5 feet from the car at Paradise, you also rock!

Muir corn baby.

Well, when I went down there, I got my pass comped but I think the pass was something like $250 for a week. Apart from that, I was staying with a buddy in his condo for $10 a night, I spent about $7 a day on food at home - $2 for a bottle of Malbec wine and it's cheap to make pizza at home. Going out, I'd spend about $15-$20 a night. I think a pretty cushy budget would be around $40 a day. It may even be cheaper since the currency has been devalued.

Btw, that's a friend of mine we call Squeaky...good guy.

I was in Las Lenas in August / September 2001. I flew to Santiago and took a minibus over the Andes to Mendoza. I passed Portillo along the way, but didn't do any skiing there. I spent a night in Mendoza before taking another bus to San Rafael and finally to Las Lenas. When I was there, there was probably about 20 or so North Americans. Now you'd be looking at quite a few more foreigners. The nice thing (for you) is that the Argentine currency has since been devalued and things are much cheaper now than they were then. I'm not sure where you plan to stay, but there are a few hotels that are decent. Having said that, they were built in the 80s and seem to be falling into a bit of disrepair now. A cheaper option is trying to find a room in a condo. The Canadians / Americans there usually have people coming and going all the time. Looking back, if I were to go again, I'd head to Las Lenas in early August. When I was there, it hadn't snowed for a few weeks and although it was decent corn, powder would have been preferred. There's one chair lift that gives you access to the entire mountain - the Marte chair lift. From there, you can traverse across the fossil fields at 12,000 ft (this mountain was underwater at one time) to the back side where there's tons of gullies to launch into that lead into huge bowls. Near the bottom of most of these bowls, there's a fairly well established flat traverse that'll take you back to the lifts. The nice thing about Las Lenas is that for the most part, it's used by rich folks from Buenos Aries on their yearly ski trips. They tend to stick to the groomers leaving the off-piste stuff well alone. Other things to do include checking out the caves nearby with a bottle of wine and a nice lady in tow. There's also a natural hot spring nearby and if you can handle the mud and nasty sulphur smell, it's fun going there. Nightlife includes UFO nightclub, a little wine & sushi bar, and the casino in I think the Scorpio hotel. Lunch outside the little restuarant at the foot of the ski lifts drinking a Qulilmes and munching on a Lomo Completo in the sun is hard to beat. All in all, it's a small resort at the bottom of a BIG mountain. I had a blast down there.