End Of Summer

Labor Day passed, so I guess that's the unofficial end of summer. Guess the weather gods were paying attention because we had a monsoon on Thursday. Driving into the garage was like being on some Disneyland ride...or the carwash, depending on how imaginative you are.

Our new water feature!

Well, while Mac was on a mini-vacation shooting dove in the sweltering Arizona heat, I paid homage to Labor Day by laboring away in the sweltering heat of my own kitchen.

Tomato sauce, Pear/shipova sauce, basil pesto, canned corn and homemade mayo. 50 bonus points to anyone who knows what a shipova is (see below for the answer).

To balance out all those healthy vegetables, I also made some marshmallows because last Friday was National Toasted Marshmallow Day, and it seemed like it would be a shame to let that one go by without celebration

 Before we said goodbye to summer, we had a few last adventures - a trip to the zoo, a trip to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and for me, a fun weekend hanging out at Cascade Crest.

Meadow Mountain (mile 42) at Cascade Crest

I spent the day crewing for Amy Rusiecki with her death metal rock star tattoo artist cat blogging ultra-running friend. It was awesome! Come nightfall, I was lacing up my C-lites for a 47 mile pacing gig. Cascade Crest is probably the most beautiful course I have been on. Unfortunately, we missed some of the striking scenery because of the darkness, but sunrise on the cardiac needles was amazing.

Instilling my nerdiness in the kids at OMSI

But now it is back to school and back to the packed schedule: music, soccer, karate, 100 mile club, and maybe even Cub Scouts. The funny thing is, I actually train better with all of that going on and I am looking forward to getting back to a very disciplined routine after a fairly laid back summer. 100k Worlds are now cancelled once and for all (actually thrice and for all, but who's counting how many times we got jerked around this year??), so this fall I'll be focusing on getting back to top shape and getting in big miles for Desert Solstice in December. I am going the full 24 hours and if things go as planned that could mean as much as 35 miles farther than I have ever gone before - yikes! That's scary territory!

Back to school. If only they got along like this all the time!

But before getting "serious" about training, I have one more "fun run" in the mountains, as hinted to last post: I am headed off to Run Rabbit Run 100 next weekend. Steamboat is beautiful this time of the year and I want to support Fred and his efforts to put together a competitive, high quality race that still feels like  home-grown event. There's still time to sign up for anyone who is interested!

**BTW- Shipova is a cross between a mountain ash and a pear with firm, ping-pong ball sized fruits. I think they are a little mealy for raw eating (my kids like them, though), but the flavor is richer and deeper than a pear so they make a great sauce.