Following an 18.5 mile effort at the 2011 Ragnar Relay Las Vegas event, which was fraught with disorganization and just an overall lack of pure enjoyment, things turned from hectic to extremely crazy.

With an extremely successful 2011 Scoobies For Boobies fundraiser, I was kept very (or too) busy for close to three months. Working from 7am to 4pm at my day job, then heading to the shop to work until almost 1am on a regular basis took its toll. Add to that the demanding nature of the work, mind and body, I was, and still am, exhausted.

Now that the holiday season is over, a new year has arrived, on schedule I might add, it is time to get back into the swing of things. Unfortunately, last week, I was the proud recipient of a moderately serious case of food poisoning. Since last Thursday, I have lost close to 20 pounds, or approximately 12% of my body weight. I didn’t have 2o pounds to lose!

With my stomach not throwing a fit when I eat, it won’t be long before I can try to regain my strength and the weight I lost.

On the list for the comeback caloric assault:

• Steak n Shake
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries
• Sura All You Can Eat Korean BBQ
• Firehouse Subs
• Capriotti’s Subs
• Ciao Pizza
• Badger Cafe
• Carlito’s Burritos
• Filipito’s
• Pop’s Steaks
• More as my stomach craves them.

That being said, if any restaurants would like to sponsor my insatiable stomach, we are open to discuss what food is available!

Once my strength is back, training has to start in earnest. I now have 10 months to prepare for my first full marathon, that’s right 26.2 miles! To make this a little more challenging, I have not ran since the RRLV event last October.

Have I bitten off too much? Guess we will see just how strong my will is come race day!

It has arrived, more quickly than I would have liked, and not quickly enough at the same time, FRITURDAY! In under 48 hours, our team will have started our journey to finish this year’s Ragnar Relay Las Vegas. Starting at 9:00am, our first runner shall be one of many leaving in that wave.

Taking on 7.3, 3.1 and 6.8 mile stretches of the challenging 188 mile course, I will be going up against many miles of hills, dust, critters and the elements. Running straight out of my comfort zone and into a place where the mental aspect is at least as important as the physical, Ragnar Relay makes one look deep inside themselves for the fortitude and strength to allow all legs to be completed.

If all goes well, we will finish in under our 32 hour time from 2010.

Tired, sweaty and sleep deprived, we will cross the finish line 12 strong, celebrate our accomplishments and relax for a few.

Only a couple short weeks away until I join a few thousand other crazy people to run from Friday morning, into the evening, straight on till morning and afternoon until we finish the 188 mile Ragnar Relay Las Vegas at Desert Breeze park. This will be my third Ragnar Relay, second time running the Las Vegas event.

This year’s course looks like a total blast, and I am more anxious to get out and run my legs than I have been the past 2 events. Perhaps, because I have been running more and want to see how I have improved, as I run against myself. With most acts, we are our own worst critic, in this case, I am my own worst opponent. I train some, but not in the “proper” way. I run quickly, but not quickly enough.

A challenge I am nervous about tackling may be taken out of my hands. As it sits right now, our team is short one runner, in our van. This means, there are three extra legs that need to be picked up. Am I up for, essentially, doubling my miles to 30 miles (more than a full marathon) in 6 legs over approximately 33 hours?

That is the 11 team member question. My first two legs look like cake, the first two legs of the open position look doable enough. As the saying goes, “the third leg is the hardest.” Which is most definitely true, times two, in this case! If I am needed to run the extra miles, it will be my most challenging task to date. It will also be a good jump start into training for the full 26.2 mile marathon we are signed up for in 2013.

Since May, when I received my new position everything has been running full tilt. It seems like the moment my days were spoken for that all of the other efforts that had been put in for 12 months came to fruition. Customers for design and print services have been steadily increasing each month since May.

Add to that the extremely busy couple months that October and November bring each year with Ragnar Relay Las Vegas as well as the Scoobies For Boobies fundraiser that we help with each year, and the notion of free time is gone. Luckily, it is a labor of love, and being busy and productive is much better than wondering where the next project will come from.

Another venture was brought to my attention a couple weeks ago, an acquaintance messaged me looking for someone with Search Engine Marketing (ie pay per click) experience to handle PPC campaigns in his new project’s overall SEO/SEM efforts.

Each new project is another opportunity to challenge myself, expand my skills and knowledge.

Somehow, I have also worked in time to start a semi-regular running routine as well. A nice 4.5 mile route on Mondays through Green Valley, a traffic filled 3-6 mile route Wednesdays in Western Las Vegas, and hoping to fit in another day or two worth of regular “training” runs, in addition to weekend 5k/10k/Ragnar race runs.

Pushing my mind and body has helped to fuel the fire burning inside me to succeed.

These past few weeks have been very busy with the day job, photo shoots and training for the October Ragnar Relay in Las Vegas.

Over the weekend, a second weekend full of photo shoots in a row, I had the pleasure of talking with a photographer from a local lifestyle magazine. He told me his story on how he started shooting for the magazine, it was an interesting turn of events with some luck sprinkled in that landed him the position.

Finding more of his shots online following our conversation, I have once again been asking myself why I have not been hired for these gigs. The only good explanation is I have not self-promoted as much as I should have. This site will evolve from a job seeker’s blog into a portfolio of my favorite / best photographs, new and old. Along with that is a hope of continuing to stay busy and have more and more photos to post, which should lead to meeting the right people too!

Three months in and things are going well. The job is keeping me busy, adding new tasks on a regular basis, while improving workflow and methodology too. It does not seem like 90 days ago my tenure of unemployment ended. Time flies when you have a purpose and structure flowing in a daily routine.

July also marked the second Ragnar Relay I started, and finished (with extra miles). Starting the event, I was set to run 3 times for 8.5 miles, two 2.9 mile legs. 14.3 miles without training, who would do that? After running 17.5 miles during the Ragnar Relay, Las Vegas in 2010, I figured, why not try for less?

As with the Vegas event, extra miles were aplenty for our team. Starting out with a team of 11 (instead of 12) we were already tempting fate. Fortunately for us, one of our team members was training for the Burning River 100 and offered to pick up the extra legs as her training. Fantastic!

After our group of 6 runners finished up their first legs, one of the runners suffered from heat exhaustion with a possible side of dehydration. She had to end up in the ER to get two bags of IV fluids put into her system. Our team captain picked up some pain and numbness during her run, so she kept the other runner company in the hospital.

That left our van two runners short, being the idiot that I am, after running the single longest distance at one time earlier in the morning, I attempted the second longest run of my life: 7.5 miles. This was a combination of a 4.1 and 3.4 mile legs back to back. My legs were feeling pretty good as I finished those legs as the sun descended below the horizon. Trouble almost popped up as I was cooling down and felt tendons popping with each step in my left ankle.

The next morning came around, time for run #3, a 5.5 mile leg of steadily increasing hills. Starting slow and steady as to not aggravate the tight muscles, I kept (what I thought was) a moderate, steady pace up the course. That 5.5 miles seemed to go on endlessly! Each time a Ragnar course sign would appear, I would look for the chute and my team’s next runner, such a torturous run. Finally, the chute was in sight, a large number of teams were there watching for their runners to run into view. Utilizing the last bit of reserved energy I had, my legs churned faster as I sprinted to the exchange.

Photos later showed me nearly collapsing as soon as the exchange was made. A dip in a frigid lake and a hot tub helped keep me from being sore or tight the next morning. Northwest Passage was another incredible event, and I can not wait for the October Las Vegas run to arrive!

It was said after last year’s Vegas event, this time, I am serious! I will actually train! Shocking, for sure. After running a respectable 12 minute mile average for the first 8.5 miles, slowing to a 16 minute mile pace for the 7.5 mile section and an embarrassing 20 minute mile pace for the last 5.5 mile section, I need to step up my game!

That being said, this morning was the first where I woke up and started on my conditioning. One day down, 80 more to go until Ragnar Relay Las Vegas 2011!

Keeping myself in close proximity to a standard 8-5 schedule during my unemployment has been a big help now that I am employed once more. It was very nice to not have a battle with internal clocks to re-learn how to wake up in the mornings.

Another benefit to employment, at least with my current position, is the lack of monotony. So far, projects have ranged from daily photo taking to heading to Colorado Springs, Colorado to shoot the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for Zenkai Motorsports.

It was a tough year, and getting caught up and closer to being ahead, with savings accounts growing each month is one of the best feelings. 2011 has been good so far, and is looking to continue improving my outlook.

Good luck to those still seeking employment. The jobs are starting to appear, competition will be fierce, each job gained will be helpful to the economy as a whole.

That is the number of days I was unemployed in Las Vegas. Starting on Monday, I go back to being an employed member of this city and society.

It has been a long time coming, and a rough year. Figures that as soon as this position comes through, I get word on another position I had applied to months ago. We shall see what happens as time moves forward. Having “too many” job offers is a much more positive “problem” to have than too few, that is for certain.

Had a very promising interview/meeting two Fridays ago. The position would be a good fit for all parties involved.

Was offered the position, accepted it, the only caveat, the boss was told by the higher ups that a hiring freeze is in place. If there is room for an exception, I will have a job any day now.

Otherwise? The search will continue. With the increased interest in people with skills such as mine, I am hoping to soon help reduce the percentage of Las Vegas unemployed residents by a small, small percentage point. Every little bit helps in an improving economy.

I will be volunteering with some of the Ragnar Relay staff this weekend to assist at the 6th Annual Laughlin Half Marathon / 5K run. With a wide variety of runners and sponsors involved, networking with more people in the community is always a good idea.

If this overcast, windy weather sticks around, it should make for an interesting event. Hopefully the runners are ready for non-optimal running conditions.

In other areas of the job search, there may be more opportunities appearing in the city. All it will take is one good company in need of a well-rounded employee to have their interest piqued by my cover letter and resume. Once I get an in-person interview, I am positive that I can get an offer.