Week in review - WR50 and Tahoe Vacation

Since I wasn't able to run White River 50 miler, I got to volunteer. This was way more fun (I think) and recovery time was negligeble. My training partner Chris was running it and heading back to Seattle hours later to hop a plane to Michigan. We were sharing a hotel room and I thought it was silly for him to drive down, since I sort of had the same plan, but my plane was headed to California. So I offered to drive us both and let him relax for the ride back. We got in late Fri night and were up by 4:30 to make the early start. The pics from a volunteer's perspective, mostly at Buck Creek aid station. My favorite moments were two: first were the good ol' boys and gals who ventured over from their campsite to watch the runners come through Buckcreek aid station. Uli was standing next to them and they were asking us how long it takes to run one of these things. Then they asked how fast the fastest person was. Uli told them, without hesitation, 6:32. They were in awe, and then asked him if he was the one who did that. When he said (modestly) yes, they couldn't shake his hand enough! It was really cute!

Second was Lesa Overfield's husband and two dogs - a black and a blonde pug. The blonde pug liked to climb up on his back and hang out there. Never seen a dog do that, though I did have one that climbed trees. We were always having to rescue it. At any rate, enjoy the photos.



Sunday after that, we flew to Reno and drove down the west side of Lake Tahoe to visit Donn's uncle Bill. He lives in El Dorado National forest, and last year the Angora fire came up to 80 yds from his house. The fire damage is pretty dramatic; some of the pics below are on the trails behind his yard, where Donn and I hiked one afternoon. In places it looked like something out of the Princess Bride - really scary! We also hiked on the PCT a couple of times - once at Echo Lake and once to Lake Winnemuca. I took a nice "ice bath" in Winnemucca - felt so good!