Eric, Maggie, Me and Ray (Photo taken by Eric Schranz on the Flume Trail) Back in May I ran the Flume Trail up in Tahoe. Actually, it was my mother's day present. While most moms were getting a spa day I got a run day, which for me is almost as rare as a spa day.  Ok. That's a bit of an exaggeration since the word "rare" is a drastic understatement in terms of spa days. I've never had a spa day. So I met up with other running crazies - my friend Maggie, Eric Schranz (from Ultrarunner Podcast ) and fellow artist/runner Ray Rios to carpool up to Incline Village, Tahoe. We parked near the Tunnel Creek Cafe and ran about 3 miles up - in this case "up" really means UP -  Tunnel Creek road to the Flume trail. The flume is a portion of the trail that I never got to see last year while crewing for Jesse Scott at the Tahoe Rim 100 cuz we were too busy running up and down Tunnel Creek to crew Jesse. Little did I know I was so close to some fun trail that...

The new Zaps Threads Transcend Tee When I was about five years old my parents wouldn't let me draw on the walls in the house. The only place where I could draw on the walls was my own bedroom (which was actually a pretty cool rule). I tried to follow my parent's rules but confining my art to my bedroom must have been a little stifling. I branched out... to the living room, laundry room, hallways, kitchen, garage, and left my mark on the walls anyway. These weren't elaborate pieces of art by any means. There were no puppies, suns, or rainbows. In fact there was not even one happy face. The only mark I left was an itty, bitty, letter "k" written in pencil. It was a sorta quiet rebellion, but one that I took full ownership for. Even today, if I'm gonna fuck up, rebel, or do the wrong thing, I'm gonna own it. Its what makes me, me. I might not be loud about it, but you'll know because I'll tell you. I'm not perfect, but I have integrity.   ...

Pretty much the theme of the weekend. At first I thought the two words BEER and MILE sounded fun when put together, but trust me, those two words are best kept separate. And if they are ever to be used in one sentence then the sentence should look something like this: Run a mile and then relax with a few beers. Which is the way it should be. Or in my case replace the beer with a few shots of whiskey (and we're talking the quality stuff folks not the nasty JD or Fireball crap) because I'm learning that beer compromises all my efforts to achieve a tight tummy (and to run without... well... the "runs" the next day).  On your mark... I have been officially schooled by the Born To Run Ultra Marathon Beer Mile. Honestly, I seriously doubted my ability to down 4 beers within any kind of respectable (or un-respectable for that matter) mile time in the first place let alone try to chug one then run a quarter mile, then chug and repeat for the full mile. A mile...