Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 Year in Review

As far as what I spent my time doing in 2012, I think my Holiday Note post pretty much covered it. I wouldn't say I really accomplished anything big since I wrote that. The only thing of note, really, was my attempt to climb Mt. Hood last week.

Regarding goals set out at the start of 2012, the only definitive goal was to finish Ironman Louisville, which I did. I did finish the Austin Marathon, albeit at a walking pace due to injury. I did two more half-Iron distance races (Buffalo Springs and Kerrville), bringing my PR below 6 hours. While I did come close to my goal of a sub-20-minute 5k with a 20:35 at the Donkey Dash, I still have not crossed that mark. I set a new 10k PR this year. Of the non-race things on my 2012 wish list, the only one I did manage to do was go skiing, but that was just one day.

Portland/Timberline Lodge/Mt. Hood

This past week, I took a quick trip up to Portland. The main reason was to visit real winter, but more specifically I was hoping to climb Mt. Hood, Oregon's highest peak. While I didn't make it to the summit, I'm not particularly disappointed, as I had a pretty good time making it as far up as I did. In short, I gained 2500 vertical feet in the first two hours, up a groomed trail, and only 1000 feet in the next two hours, slogging through knee-deep snow.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Holiday Note

December 2012


Happy Holidays! In previous years, I sent out a Holiday card along with a note. This year I'm just sending an email, which is also reproduced here.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Natural Bridge Caverns Duathlon, etc.

For the third straight year, I raced in a duathlon at Natural Bridge Caverns, with the unique feature of starting within the cave. The bike course was shorter than last year due to light rain (making it more like 2010). So the times aren't comparable, but I did improve my overall position to third, and retained my age group title with my time of 1:54.