Team Billy Goat kicks some ass!

Team Billy Goat - for short

The esteemed Dr. Lewis somehow engaged his psychobabble powers and lured me into teaming up with him to run the '24 Hours...the Run' as the second half of Team Billy Goat. As we had trained a measly few weeks (mostly by scoring faceshots in the in the backcountry) we elected to enter the 12 hour version of the race, and further wussify it by dividing the work between two - entering as a duo.

Early morning view of parking area and event flag.

Coffee takes the chill off the morning

The next thing I know I'm camped out on the frozen desert still trying to fall asleep when the loudspeakers come on blaring "Are you ready for this!" techno theme song. Opening my eyes I realize it is 4:30AM! Not much restful REM sleep was had, but there must have been a bit, as I woke in the night all sweaty with belly pain dreaming that I had appendicitis and the surgeon didn't even get a history from me.

The start

Finishing up a lap. I swear I am actually running even though it looks as if I am walking. Look closely - Lucy is hovering. She got her wings from drinking Red Bull.

LEWIS! making up for my slow laps. As you can see, he is actually running (and monitoring his splits and heart rate - nerd alert!).

LEWIS! and I alternated laps on the 5.37 mile course around Monitor and Merrimac buttes north of Moab. It was a beautiful day, made even more so by the company of my teammate and Lucy, who ran a couple of laps with me. Between laps, we'd graze from the back of the van on chocolate milk, gummy bears, smoothies, pretzels, beef jerky, Gu, Snickers, Gatorade, etc. Magically we finished our 14th lap with 5 minutes to spare before the 12 hour cutoff and come to find out we placed 2nd! We got 24 ounces of PBR, a medal, a water bottle, sand in all orifices, and a case of tendinitis out of the day.

The La Sals really made for a beautiful backdrop against the red desert.

A view of Monitor and Merrimac Buttes from the Gemini Bridges trail. The course made a loop around the two buttes.

Base Camp

LEWIS! enjoys the spoils of the day while we debrief.

Lucy hits the pow!

The family spent a few days up at the Millcreek yurt this week where we enjoyed some great snow. Lucy got her share as well.

Ski movie experiment

In the spirit of The Blair Witch Project, I mounted my little point and shoot digital camera to the end of my ski pole. I think this has some potential for a new perspective, especially in deep days if I got a waterproof housing.

Ethan walks the dog

On the last evening of the Hayek's visit, we took Lucy on a walk on one of her favorite trails around Red Butte Gardens. With Ethan, I was expecting the walk to take twice as long as usual, but he was driven to keep up the pace by not wanting to let Lucy be in the lead. He'd get pretty upset when the dog nosed ahead.

After declaring that this was the perfect place for a picture, Ethan posed with all of us. Here he is with Uncle Rob and Aunt Rina and his number one competitor, Lucy

A father, son portrait in the SLC foothills.

Ethan blazes the trail back toward SLC.

It was really great to see the Hayek clan make the trip out to Utah, and I hope we can do it again soon. I know it took quite an effort traveling with Ethan, taking time from work, and especially for Michele, who hates cold and snow. Thanks guys.

Leaving the yurt

Ethan and two members of his snowman family. He spent the better part of the day creating an entire snowman family - 6 members in all. I guess when you live in Atlanta, you get your fill of snow play when you can.

A group shot of the yurters before heading for home down the canyon. Ethan was begging to go sledding before he left the yurt, so we acquiesced and he got a 4.5 mile sled ride down the Millcreek road. He got a cold numb butt out of the deal and his excitement morphed into fear of rolling off the edge into the creek pretty shortly after we began. He was pretty gung-ho at the outset, letting everyone know that we were the fastest and comparing our sled speed to the fastest known land mammal - the cheetah!

Ethan, posing by the yurt.

All smiles as we cruised down the first steep section from the yurt.

Backcountry ski day from the Millcreek yurt

After a hearty breakfast at the yurt, we got geared up for a day of ski touring.

It was so warm on the way up, that I must have lost 15 pounds of sweat. Brent kept reassuring me that he was comfortable in his packlight breathable shell. Just looking at him wearing that thing made me sweat even more.

During a brief break on the trail to Little Water Peak, he finally he relented and stripped of his outer layer.

The trail continues up through a beautiful quaking aspen grove. I love this part of the trail, especially on bluebird days.

Despite a dry weather pattern and warm temps, the north facing slopes held some skiable snow. Here's Brent trying to get better reception using his mobile backpack antenna.

Iowa Medical school reunion in Utah!

Rina and I hosted a few of my medical school friends last week. Brent, Michele, and their 5 year old boy Ethan, were the first to arrive, just in time for a 4.5 mile slog up to the Millcreek yurt. It took most of the day to get everybody's gear sorted out and I had to work until early afternoon, which meant that we got off to a late, late start. Big surprise, eh? Unfortunately for the group who arrived at the yurt earlier that day, we were the ones responsible for preparing dinner that night.Everybody started out all smiles and carrying full packs. Odds on Ethan making it beyond 1/4 the distance to the yurt were running high, so I towed an empty sled for him to sack out in when he tuckered out.

Michele, Ethan, & Rina starting out (note the fading daylight already). It wasn't long before Michele's sea-level home routine had her panting. Don't forget it was only her second time on X-C skis! Ethan, however, was defying the odds and running around, asking us to make him snowballs, chatting up a storm. It seemed he had endless energy (between brief collapses to his knees, claiming he was tired).

After ditching his oversized backpack in the sled, the little dude kept on going. I think the novelty of snow had something to do with it. Despite the fact we were hours & hours behind schedule, we had to stop so Ethan could build his first snowman. He wouldn't allow us to continue until the snowman was complete with arms, face, buttons - all to scale.

At about 1/2 way, Ethan turned to Rina and declared that he was just "too tired to talk anymore". As the punters collected their winnings, he climbed into the sled and promptly fell fast asleep. And when I say he was asleep, I mean he was sleeping so hard through the noisy sled on the cold hard snow that I could hear him snoring all the way to the top of the canyon.

Brent, 'the mule', carries a double load the final distance to our destination. In this pic, he's obviously really glad for packing the titanium sporks. Really saves weight, you know.
After unloading packs, we got dinner going and finally sat down to eat sometime shortly before 10PM! Our Mexican surprise seemed to fill up all the hungry yurters.