April 30 and 8 inches of snow

On April30,2011 Arthur and I went to hang out at the beach and snowboard at A-basin (Arapahoe Basin). It is suppose to be one of those days were you hang out in the sun, grill and have a few beer. Then, while you there try to snowboard if you are skier and ski if you are a snowboarder. Arthur had been looking forward to it for about a month. Then the Colorado weather hit and they got 8 inches of snow. Now as most people know 8 inches of snow is a great powder day! Could Arthur and I pass up skiing in the beautiful powder? NO! So we brought both Skis and snowboards. In the morning we took several runs in the powder and then attempted our fate at snowboarding in the afternoon (after all the powder had been tracked out).

Unfortunately we forgot our camera so there is no pictures of me crashing or connecting turns on the snowboard. The next day we were both very sore, but it was a great day and look forward to attempting to snowboard again.

P.S. Thanks to the Lindsay and Dave for waking up at 4AM to get the beach spot!

Skiing in Durham

Arthur and I spent New Years Eve with the Ravens. As we are now 'old and boring' we spend the night in having a wonderful dinner, a fun drink challenge, great conversation and a few Wii games. That night it snowed about 4 inches. It was just enough to put a nice layer of snow on top of the old snow. Being the adventurous bunch we took James's skies out for a spin. Please enjoy the picuters below and I will try to post the vidoes this week.

Emma testing out the skis on the way to our hill

Skiing through a farm.. this was a first for me.

James after his first run down the hill.

View from our ski hill.

Arthur and I in our new hats.

Muddy

On Sunday, Arthur went out for a bike ride and I went out for a run as I noticed it was muddy I decided to stay off the canal and stick to the sidewalk. It is a good thing I did! Arthur rode for about two hours on the canal, he even stopped off at a friends house to say hi before coming home looking like this (see picture below). He even had mud in his eyes and nose.

Helvellyn

This past weekend Arthur and I spend the weekend in the Lake District with 3 other couples celebrating James’ 30th Birthday. It was a brilliant weekend filled with drinking, playing on the Wii, fake moustaches, hiking, running in the rain, good food and best of all good friends. Friday night we arrived at the cabin had pizza and hung out with a few drinks. Since it is the end of Movember and Paul had been growing a moustache, he brought fake moustaches for everyone to wear. I have to say I am not a fan as it made my nose itch!

Emma and Arthur showing off their stylish moustaches.

Saturday morning we relaxed before setting off for a small hike, the weather was perfect, cool but not raining. We were going to do a short loop, but when we reached the point where the hike up Red Tarn / Helvellyn starts a few of us felt the mountain calling for us to at least go up to Red Tarn. I am so glad we did as we got to play around in about 4 -5 inches of snow! Unfortunately we did start our hike earlier or we probably would have hiked up to the top of Helvellyn. I am sure the view from the top would have been beautiful! Below are several pictures from the hike.

Stream at the start of the trail.

The Crew (James, Emma, Dave, Sam, Arthur, Danielle, Katrina, Paul)

Started seeing frost on the tops of the hills


The mountain calling to us to keep climbing!


We have reached the snow!
Maybe I should have had boots.
We reached Red Tarn.

The snowman at Red Tarn.
Arthur at Red Tarn
Arthur and I
Emma leading the way back down as the sun had already started to set.

Saturday night we had a curry, a few drinks and played on the Wii. I am a better skier in real life than on the Wii.

Sunday morning we woke up and several of us went running (Emma, Arthur and James for a long run and I for a short run). It was absolutely chucking it down and the wind was very strong! After coming back looking like a drowned rat, a warm shower and big breakfast warmed us up. Then it we had to drive back home.

DC

Married...

I promise to blog again soon! Here are a few pics though...

Arthur before the wedding

Danielle before the wedding

Just a fun after wedding shot!

Burn after reading

Tonight Arthur and I watched Burn After Reading. The best part is when Brad Pitt gets hit in the face. It is the only part worth watching. Enough said. I don't recommend watching this movie.

As Arthur has been working on his training plan for Pikes Peak, he has been creating a training schedule for me to get back into running. My last 10k was 8:40 minute miles and my last 5k was not much faster. I would really enjoy running races at a faster pace. I am not expecting to PB, as I used to be able to run 6 something miles. For my next goal I would like to run around 8 minute miles for a 10K which would be a 49:36 and around 7:40 mile for a 5k (23:48). Also, to help this endeavor we have converted our basement to a workout room, put a bid on a weight bench on Ebay. This means I will be getting in shape. Wish me luck!

IOM

For those of you who don’t know what IOM is it is the Isle of Man. It is an island between Britain and Ireland. This is part of the United Kingdom and is a tax haven. We went to the IOM for Easter for a running festival. There are three races, a pub crawl and a few beer races. The first race is a 10K on Friday, after that is the first beer trials, there are two rounds. Saturday there is hill race, and a 10 mile pub crawl. Sunday is a 5k and then a party where teams compete in beer races. This is the IOM running festival web site.

Friday, Arthur ran the 10k this was the only race I didn’t run. Then we went back to the Bed and Breakfast and had the beer races. There are two rounds each round you drink one pint as quickly as possible. The first round is randomly assigned and Arthur and I were up against each other. It was a close race but Arthur won. The second round they have you race the person with the closest time to yours… I had a race against two others and beat both my competitors. ☺ After the beer race I was off to bed.




Saturday we hung out then headed for the hill race. The guys raced first, so I hiked up the hill to cheer them on. Then I ran the race, this was very challenging as it is a very very steep hill. As I think the picture accurately displays. Then we dressed as bees for Emma’s hen do (Bachelorette party). Another fun picture of all the girls dress like bees. Then we started on the pub crawl. This is a 10 mile pub crawl, between bars there can be up to a 2.5 mile run. This ended up being a very late night.

Sunday we woke up early for the 5k race, which I was convinced would be a wonderful present for my mothers birthday, which happened on Friday. I ran the 5K, very slowly as I was sore from the hill race and 10mile pub crawl. That afternoon we watched a football game, then went to the final party of the festival, and enjoyed some team beer racing… again here are a few pictures.