Colorado Rocky Mountain High

I'm catching my breath today because after being home only one week since returning from our 12-day family trip to Colorado, Hannah and I are preparing to head to the east coast tonight for an extended trip to visit family in New Jersey and tour Washington, D.C. The trip will be wonderful but leaving Alaska in the summer is insane, especially when we've been having bluebird days and the salmon fishing is hot! Trading dry, 60 degree days for hot and very humid days on the east coast will be somewhat mitigated because my Mom lives only 15 minutes from the Jersey shore; my sister is only 5 minutes away! Lots of beach time in store for us. Hannah is super excited about the trip to DC, as she really got into the Presidential election last year. She has put together a list of must-sees...the Air and Space Museum is top priority, especially after seeing the latest Night at the Museum - Battle of the Smithsonian movie...in it was an epic battle. The movie also featured other classic DC places/monuments. While in DC I'll also be visiting dear friends I worked with when I was employed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the first time). Trips to New York City, sailing, a July 4th celebration, a round of golf, and high school buddies visiting over a serving of my Mom's famous lasagna dinner are in store for us.

Back to Colorado. Fantastic trip, fantastic weather, fantastic family of in-laws! The 12-day trip was loaded with adventure. My brother-in-law Charles organized the entire Lilley Family reunion, which was held in Breckenridge. Before going there, however, Marian, Hannah and I traveled to Ft. Collins to visit with my daughter Laura who is a Senior at Colorado State University. We toured the Ft. Collins area with her before going further north to visit with Marian's Uncle Roy, who was going to have open heart surgery. After that was a visit with Marian's friend Lanore, who lived in Anchorage at one time. I spent another day visiting with my friend Larry Gamble who I worked with at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...after a lunch in Golden we toured the area including the famous Red Rocks Concert Arena.

So much happened at the Lilley Family Reunion that I thought it best to put together a slide show illustrating the highlights of our many adventures...the slide show is located in the blog's right margin. The short story is that a great time was had by all. Lots of great meals, scenery, weather, laughs, conversation, outdoor adventures, and camaraderie. I can't wait until our next family reunion in 2011...the planning has already begun.

Holy crap! I have yet to pack! Off the to the Jersey shore!

P.S. Running/fitness update: The running is going well. I had a great week of 5 mile runs and yesterday I posted my first 8-miler. I did not have any fatigue feelings in my legs this week and the only time I slowed down during my 8-mile was to drink water and take my Gu packet. I'm hoping that I can keep up my running in Jersey, but I fear the heat and humidity will take its toll on me. My strength training continues to be very rewarding and my tennis game is slowly improving thanks to lots of matches with my friend Jon Spring. Upon retuning to Alaska, I'm scheduled to run the Mens 5-Miler for Mens Cancer Research...I'm running in honor of my friends Bob Bowker, Bob Lipsy and Jimmy Fuhrer, all are survivors of prostate cancer. Update on my friend Mark Schroeder's effort to Boston-qualify (BQ). Mark had hoped to BQ running the Mayor's Marathon on June 20 but had to cancel out because during his last long training run he was run over from behind by a bicyclist. Badly bruised, he hated to bow out because he had trained real hard over the long Alaska winter to BQ at the Mayor's. However, he now hopes to BQ running the Humpy's Marathon in August.

Twilight Twelve K in the Greatland!

Well, it wasn't a stellar performance but it did a great deal for strengthening my resolve to get back into marathon shape. Running the Skinny Raven Sports Twilight 12K last Friday was lots of fun, primarily because my buddy Mark ran (I mean jogged/walked) it with me...thank God he did because I may have taken short cuts along the way! The race was sponsored by the city's premier running store, Skinny Raven. Jerry Ross, the state's top distance runner and Olympic hopeful, was the organizer. Prior to the start of the 12K, a 1-mile running event was held pitting against each other the top high school and college 1600 and 3200 meter runners. Predictably, Trevor Dunbar won in 4:10ish...I featured a blog entry about him a few months ago.

Back to the 12K. Joining Mark and I in the race were my friends Judy Blake and Jim Gamble. Jim has run marathons here and abroad. Judy is an amazing runner who occasionally places in her 55-age group. Judy regularly trains with a group and likes to run trails and half marathons.

The very sunny 12K route began downtown and worked its way to the Government Hill area where there were nice views of downtown and old neighborhoods. I didn't have any trouble running up to this point. From Government Hill the route went back through downtown and on to the Coastal Trail. It was at this point that I felt like I needed to walk more often...boo. It was also now becoming cloudy, cool, and breezy. Mark kept my spirits up with great conversation. The Coastal Trail is Anchorage's running route jewel...beautiful views of Cook Inlet and the mountains beyond. I think the thought of eating

all the furnished pizza I wanted at the finish line keep me motivated from this point on. Approaching the 6 mile route marker, I reminded Mark that I hadn't run more than 6 miles up to this point...I ceremonially stepped past the sign and kept going. By now it was easy to see that Mark and I were probably some of the very last runners left on the route...the other 500+ runners were by now eating all my pizza! As we ran along Westchester Lagoon, up Bootleggers Cove, and approached the finish line on the Delaney Park Strip I couldn't help but wonder why the hell I entered the race. I was not running well, I was tired, cold and hungry as hell. Luckily I had Mark with me to remind me that running with friends is always fun and given my situation, I should be proud that I was out there doing it. How strange it was to enter the finishers shoot and hear Jerry Ross call out Mark and my bib numbers and names while hundreds of runners gathered around the finish line cheered us on...I was embarrassed for my time.

I wanted to go somewhere and hide, but instead I shot over to the pizza boxes only to see that there weren't any pizzas left!!!! However, my wife Marian saved the day. For God knows how long, she saved one slice of pizza for me. Despite it being as cold as my hands and being as stiff as a board, I devoured it...along with one other piece that someone found while picking up the pizza boxes to throw away.

Mark is a special friend and I really appreciate him running the race with me when he could have run it probably at a 8 minute per mile pace, or faster. Mark is training very hard to run the Mayor's Marathon on June 20 and hopefully qualify for Boston. He has come to within a minute of doing so on a number of occasions. I wish him luck on his upcoming marathon and I hope there is enough pizza at the end of the race for him...run fast Mark!