A new pair of shoes has been tested out for a few miles, they seem to be comfortable – believe they may be my race day shoe of choice. Nothing like a new, special edition pair of shoes to commemorate my first half marathon.

Saturday morning, Havasu Half Marathon, you and I will meet and see just how well we get along.

My monthly mileage is going up, February was a 40 mile month, almost exactly. March may end up being a little low, that is OK though. Come April, the mileage will really get going again, especially once I finish up my half marathon in Lake Havasu City.

Now that the temperatures are warming up, it seems like some of the hesitation to move forward with various projects is dissipating. I am anxious to get some of these ventures up and running!

One such venture that I need to get going on again is photography. It has been too long since I have regularly shot events, cars, or anything for that matter. Soon though, I hope to start finding and working with subjects that will let me practice on them, provide both of our portfolios a boost and go from there. If anybody wants to set up a shoot for a family, pet, person, car, truck, flower, I don’t care (as long as it is legal) – contact me and let’s make some images!

A friend died after falling from a rather high rock face in Calico Basin. If you are in the Las Vegas area, I am sure you became familiar with the name Ron Kirk after he went missing. Despite not having an abundance of time spent in his presence, his life was an inspiration for how everybody should strive to live. Forgetting about the bad, seizing the moment, embracing the good and living. Just full-throttle living.

During the search for Ron, the Red Rock Search & Rescue (Red Rock SAR) was formed. This volunteer organization exists to help those in need of being found and or rescued in the Red Rock area. If they can get enough volunteers and funding, they hope to help people in all of Southern Nevada and beyond. Check out the Red Rock SAR site to see what you can do to donate or volunteer your time, vehicle, etc. You never know, your time or donations may be used to save you or someone you know and love.

When trying to find additional runners for a Ragnar Relay, Red Rock Relay, Muddy Buddy, Tough Mudder or any other team based running event, it can be tough! That can be a stressful problem. Help reduce the stress for runners and team captains everywhere, join RunnerForums.com and spread the word!

I now have just about 9 months to build my legs and lungs up for a 26.2 full marathon. Reviewing the course map today, I noticed that there is over a 1,070 foot elevation gain from the start line to about the halfway mark. From there it’s mostly downhill.

Thus far in my running “career” my longest single run was an 8.5 mile uphill run in Washington during the Summer of 2011. My total single day distance record stands at 21.5 miles during three and a half legs of a Ragnar Relay event. That was done without training, which definitely showed.

Being that this will be my first long distance race, I am not setting goals for the event, aside from finishing.This year may include a couple half marathons to gauge my training progress as the year runs by.

If a child can grow from two cells into a real, miniature human being in 9 months, then there is no reason that I can not focus on running regularly and become… a marathoner.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!