My First Marathon

On October 4th, I ran the Portland Marthon in the beautiful state of Oregon. After a day of jaunting around the city the day before, Jen dropped me off in the dark downtown and I embarked on a 4 hour and 14 minute journey that I never dreamed I could finish. Thankfully, I did. And shamefully, I am just now getting around to blogging about it.

It was painful, but not until the end. I shed a few tears on the course, but made myself stop when I realized it was preventing me from breathing. The crowd was great, and I am thinking about doing another one. Just stay away from me when I am training. Apparently, I am kind of grouchy.

Below are some highlights from the pictures so lovingly taken by Jen, without whom I could not have done this.

Here I am around Mile 10, feeling pretty good and generally excited to see Jen along the course.

A self-portrait at the reunion area. I didn't really start to hurt until I stopped running, about 5 minutes before this picture was taken. I hobbled around the rest of the day like an 80-year-old, but I was pretty much recovered within 3 days. My advisor says that 27 is the year your body starts to deteriorate, so maybe I ran this race at exactly the right time!

I'm NOT a photographer, so a big thanks to CameraBag Desktop

Some lovely friends of mine at Nevercenter just released CameraBag Desktop for Mac. I do not profess to be any kind of photographer/artist of the camera, but I think this program helped me make some of my highly mediocre point-and-shoot photos look pretty darned good.

Judge for yourself.

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Hiking Post #5: Half Dome!

Yosemite Part II

On my second full day on vacation, five of us headed out to tackle Yosemite's most challenging day hike: Half Dome. You can read more about the hike here. It is long, hard, and we started at 5 in the morning to beat the heat and get down at a reasonable hour.

Here we can see the sun coming up on the lovely mountains surrounding us.

The beginning of the hike boasts some beautiful waterfalls and some intense stairs. Then it flattens out for a while as you hike on part of the John Muir Trail. As you continue to climb through the forest, the trees thin and eventually you end up above the tree line. To get to the top of the dome, you have to pull yourself almost straight up over bear rock on a series of cables bolted into the granite. Here they are from far away:

You can see a few people making their way up in between two thin lines. And here Ronika is, celebrating the danger we are about to undertake:

After a brutal climb, we all made it to the top. Here I am excited about my triumph. You can see the rest of the valley, far below me in the background.

The day ended up lasting about 20 hours, but we all made it back in one piece. Eventually. Half Dome the second time was just as beautiful. And, for me, significantly easier than the first time a year ago. I will credit the marathon training for that.

Hiking #4: 4-Mile Trail

Yosemite Part I:

Our family, together for the first time since Rachel and Will's nuptuals, spent five days in one of my favorite places: Yosemite. On my first full day there, all seven of us did the Four Mile Trail, including my wonderful parents. You can click on the link for more extensive information about the trail, but briefly, it goes from the Valley Floor to the top of Glacier Point. Suffice it to say, it was not an easy hike. We all made it to the top, and got to partake in the amazing view.

Part of the hiking crew takes a break on the trail.

A view of Half Dome from the trail on the way up.

The view from Glacier Point. Spectacular.

Our dirty feet at the end of the hike. Yosemite is seriously dusty!

Hiking Post #3: Mount Rainier

Last week, two hiking companions and I left Seattle, not quite sure where we were going. We ended up climbing to Camp Muir, more than any of us really anticipated for the day. We had the chance to see Mount Rainier--a mountain I see very often during my normal routine in the city--from a completely different point of view, as you can see above.

Christy and I pose with the Mail Bear (also functioning as a mail box) in the lobby of the lodge before we began the hike.

We begin our hike, surrounded by wildflowers.

We met up with a couple of hikers who were getting up at midnight to summit the mountain at midnight. Together, we hiked up the snow field leading to Camp Muir.

Finally, at the top. You can see Mount Adams to the left of us and Mount St. Helens to the right. Typically, I am doing something ridiculous in the photo.

Some of the shelters at Camp Muir, surrounded by those waiting to climb to the top. It kind of felt like being in Nepal--or what I think being in Nepal must be like.

We slid down most of the snow field, much of the way through tracks that had already been cut through the snow.

Coming down through the afternoon sunlight.

Hiking Post #2: Crater Lake

After dropping off the youngest McClain sister in Eugene in late June, me and my wonderful hiking companion headed for a brief tour of the Oregon Cascades. We drove first to Crater Lake (see photos below). Crater Lake was formed under some pretty extraordinary geological circumstances, and now is the deepest lake in North America. The pictures do not do it justice.

After hiking down to the lake, I ponder its existence.

Since there is no inlet or outlet to the lake, the water is very clear. And cold. We dipped our toes in!

We pose with the lake.

After leaving the National Park, we traveled north on Highway 97, driving through Bend and up the Eastern side of the Three Sisters, and headed straight at Mt. Hood. After rounding Mt. Hood, we had a lovely view of Mt. Adams in our sights before turning to the west and camping along the Columbia River. Unfortunately, I am not a great picture taker, and don't have any photos of this part of the trip. You'll just have to take my word for it...

Hiking Post #1

For one of my first hikes of the season, two of my favorite Seattle-ites and I headed out to the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. The hike was, in the strangely clinical way of the forest service, named Lake 22, and the lake was pretty phenomenal. However, there was a good deal more snow than any of us anticipated. It was just early June...

One of the many waterfalls we encountered along the way.

These two wonderful people pose in the snow near the lake.

I lean jauntily against the railing, posing with the snowy lake. You can see only a part of how the surrounding mountains reflected in the lake. Pretty phenomenal.

Wedding in New York

Over the last weekend of May, I had the distinct privilege to attend a former roommate's wedding in New York City. It was the first time all seven of us had been together since before I moved to Oregon, and it was lovely to see these wonderful ladies. Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of all of us together. The above was the best I could do.

Jess looked amazing. I don't love the wedding dress in general, but this one was phenomenal.

The flowers and everything else were beautiful as well.

And we got to keep some!

The craziest thing about this weekend was one of the officiators of the wedding: the next supreme court justice (most likely). Proof below:

A's vs. Mariners

On May 1st, I went to watch my beloved Oakland A's take on the local Seattle Mariners. I was joined by these two characters below:

Take note of the Star Trek foam fingers. Our section one some sort of giveaway, and we received these lovely "live long and prosper" hands. In all of the many, many baseball games I have attended in my life, this is the first time I have won something like this. Too bad it wasn't something more interesting.

That is me on the left, in case you didn't recognize my face from this angle...

Safeco Field is awesome. And we had some particularly cool seats, directly over the A's bullpen. I could literally spit on the A's bullpen catcher, had I chosen to do so. I did not choose to do so.

Unfortunately the A's lost, but the game was close and fun. The Mariners won on a walk off line drive to center field. The crowd roared.

In order to avoid the traffic, me and my baseball companions went to the Krispy Kreme next door to the stadium to decompress. It was worth the loss to get a maple bar.

Laney Victorious

At the beginning of May, I successfully completed my second half marathon. I had been training since January and had a goal to finish in under two hours. I was pretty pumped when I finished in 1:58:47. Below are some of the highlights.

I didn't get the customary plastic ties to help secure my timing chip, so I improvised with a delightful shoelace purchase.
Here's me before the race. I had forgotten that they asked us for our names to print on our bibs when we registered. All along the course, people were shouting "Go Laney!" For a while, I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then I realized the genius of the idea.
Here I am kicking it into gear to get across the finish line.
The best part about running 13.1 miles: you get to eat whatever you want. In fact, thanks to the lovely lady below, I was forced to eat and drink at several points during the weekend. She was my surrogate Mommy!

Lola: Outdated

Lola and Bear wait for a treat.

These pictures are from when I was home over spring break enjoying my parent's new puppy, Lola.** She is ridiculously cute and significantly larger than this now, but I figured it was still worth reveling in her puppy-ness. For some more recent pictures of Lola, click here and scroll down.

Lola plays.

Lola rests.

**= I know, this post is shamefully outdated. I have just completed the quarter from hell, and I am catching up. Consider this my mea culpa. I'm sorry I have kept you, my faithful readers, waiting for so long...