DaCrizzow

    Seven days (two travel, one recovery and four "adventure"). 686 miles (636 in the van traveling, 50+ on foot). This was my vacation...part of my vacation. This, along with exploring some caves, a lot of food, reading, and staring at the sky. The "numbers" come out more like, 52+ miles, 13,000(ish) accumulated elevation in about 23 hours total. Covering two summits, another "just below" summit and a run around and through a volcano crater. This was a week of living the new "American dream." Living in a van, down by the river. Even if after three nights of van living and hiking three mountains, the dream got interrupted with a night in a motel. A shower, pizza and some mindless TV can really rejuvenate a guy. That third morning getting out of my sleeping bag, a wave of stink made it's way up from what I assume was my crotch area that I can only describe as cheap, stale peanut butter gone bad. You "choosy" mothers know what...

    I wasn't always a runner. I ran around as a kid and always played sports but I never really just ran for runnings sake. But I thought about it.     I was 14 years old and I was playing my last year of football. I didn't know it was my last year, it just ended up that way. This would be my fifth year playing football but my first year for my school. The other years were in the "jr. pro" league. Until now, I had been one of the bigger guys. not the biggest but i was a lineman. Now I was one of the smaller guys. Not the smallest but after I found out that I had made the team, it didn't take long to realize I was just one of the "tackling dummies" for the bigger guys. When I say "bigger," I could just as easily say older. They were way older. Ineligible, actually. We were in 7th and 8th grade, 12-14 years old. These guys were driving their own cars to school.     This coach would do some ridiculous stuff. like, he would have the starting guys...

    It's Father's Day weekend again and while my dad has been dead over 25 years now, there's still quite a bit of residue left over from some of his "lessons." One of my earliest memories of even life in general was of my dad.     When I was about five years old, just before starting kindergarten, my dad and uncle (his brother) were hanging around the house on a Saturday afternoon drinking some beers and just bullshitting in general. My dad didn't really drink much except socially with his friends from time to time. My uncle, on the other hand, did drink much.      At some point during the day my dad grabbed a piece of charcoal out of the grill outside and decided to throw up some artwork on the walls in my bedroom. While there were very few times I actually saw him do any sort of drawing or art, apparently he had a little talent. This was one of the few times I witnessed this.      He took the charcoal and on the wall behind ...

    Do you hear that grinding noise? Do you feel shit being shaken up? That's the procession of the equinox as we're entering into the Age of Aquarius. The dismantling and confusion that you feel is just the results of a transition taking place. Any cyclist understands this, if you've ever tried to change gears while going uphill it very rarely goes without a little grinding between the chain and teeth and maybe even a bit of back pedal. Yeah, it rarely goes smooth at all.     There's a slight "wobble" in the earth's axis rotation that about every 2,100 years results in the sunrise and sunset happening on two different zodiac constellations. It takes about 26,000 years to complete the rotation back to the original constellation. The Mayans, Egyptians and many other ancient cultures knew this and it it meant something. The last 2,000 or so years we've been waking up to the pisces constellation. You know, two fish, jesus, all that shit. You didn't r...

not awesome     Another Smith Rock Ascent in the books! I came out for the inaugural race three years ago for the 25k. I brought a friend who was new to running and while I did the race, my friend ran/ hiked some of the trails. The next year I ran the 50k and said friend ran the 25k. Same deal this year but we brought another friend who's new to running to run/ hike while we ran. Maybe next year we'll have another convert.     Coming in from Portland, the trip didn't start off so smooth. A freeway blowout in the van shook us up a bit but soon we were back on the road headed to Bend to pick up our race bags and dinner. Then to the campground.    The campground was full but we ran into some "bro's" who led us to a cool spot just a rock's throw away. And by "bro's," I don't mean douchy frat guys, I mean dirtbag climber guys. I don't follow frat bro's down dirt roads.     We found a nice space for the van, set up the camp chair...