Portland's Hood to Coast Relay Race

So one of the other crazy things I tried to make my body do was Hood to Coast. Also known as "The Mother of All Relays". Hood to Coast is a 197 mile relay race of 12 person teams that starts on Friday and finishes on Saturday some time. The picture below is my team. We started at 2:00pm on Friday and finished Saturday at 6:05pm. We were pretty proud of ourselves and had a blast training and preparing for this event.

All of the teams that compete have to use 2 vans to shuttle their runners back and forth to various exchanges. The vans are also decorated with many various themes and random themes. Here are a few pictures of our van and some other vans.

There are certain rules about drinking during the race... I thought this was a creative way around that rule.

This was after my first leg of the race. I ran 3 separate legs in the relay (every team member does), and my mileage totaled around 19 miles. This first one of mine was 6.9 miles long. I felt pretty good until I tried to run the second leg :)

One of the most challenging things to do was find a way to sleep. The longest amount of time we had was about 2 hours to sleep. We crashed at one our team members houses for those 2 hours and this is me trying to sleep on the love seat.

We were able to catch 15 - 20 min naps occasionally as well. There are 4 of us sleeping here, one hidden in the back.

And we even tried the tarp once. This was probably the most comfortable for everyone, but no one slept very long because of the bright light.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I would enjoy doing it again. I'd like to be about 10 pounds lighter next year and maybe stretch better as well :)

I made it through a Sprint Triathalon

So the beginning of this year, my good friend Scott comes up to me and says, "Hey, a bunch of guys from my ward are doing a triathalon. You want to do it with me?" And I had been thinking a lot about how bad a shape I was in, so I said yes before my body could tell me no :)

So Scott, here's a big thank you for helping me commit to something I wouldn't have done with out your support and friendship. As you can see, this is Scott and I right before the race. (And no, we didn't get to choose the swim cap colors. Although, I am a fan of baby blue!) By the smiles on our faces, you can tell that we haven't done anything yet. This was right before we tried to swim 1/2 mile.

I have no idea which swimmer is me, but I would guess for the one in last place... just a hunch.

We have some video I'll try to post later, but the next part of the race was a 12.5 mile bike ride. That was intense, but not nearly as hard as the swim.

The race finished with a 5k (3.1 mile) run. I took my time on that because my legs didn't feel like moving after the bike. About 2 miles into the run, my legs felt better and I was able to finish with a little bit of a kick. It was a blast though, and I was able to meet my time goal and my other goal of not drowing in the lake. All in all, I only cursed at Scott once for talking me into doing this, and it was during the swim so I'm pretty sure he didn't hear me :) I'm just thankful that Scott helped me to start training for something again, and we're way stoked for the next one. Here's a picture of us after the race. We're still smiling, but it's not as easy as before I think :)

My newest toy :)

1983 Honda V45 Magna - 750cc

Skydiving!!

Each year, Dallas and I trade off planning anniversary dates. This year was MY year. We've done some really fun things in the past, but for some reason I got this crazy itch to take Dallas skydiving. It's been on my Life To Do List for years, but I've never done it. So, I called, set it up, and paid the deposit. All without Dallas having a clue. Priceless. I gave Dallas directions and had him drive. Without realizing it, we drove right past the "Skydive Oregon" sign. Trying not to be obvious, I told him that we needed to turn around because I thought we had passed the turn off. Well, it WAS obvious, since there was a gigantic empty field right next to us with airplanes and a huge SKYDIVE OREGON sign. So he looked at me with this look that he only has when he's trying to keep a secret from me OR when he's really nervous, and said, "Are you serious? You're SERIOUS? We're doing THAT?! You're serious?" Hahaha...I'm so evil. It was the BEST EVER!! We are still waiting for the DVDs they took of us, but here are the still shots from the photographers.

Vacation with the Crazy Dixes

Here we are at Phantom of the Opera in Portland. We decided to check it out in Portland the night before we headed out to Victoria. We didn't really get any amazing pictures there, but of the 4 times I've seen it, this was the BEST!!!



Sorry Taylor, I had to put this one up. I love his face in this picture. Lol.



Here we are overlooking East Bay in Victoria. Beautiful view!



This is Plaster Man. I gave him money. He danced. We took a picture.



This was the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. This pic isn't the best, but this kid painted this picture with spray paint bottles. No brushes, just bottles and a couple of pieces of paper here and there.



Steph and me waiting for our Fish 'n' Chips.



This was our hardcore tour guide for the "Ghostly Walk." He had all sorts of great ghost stories to tell us about Victoria.



This is where the ghost of a little boy lives. He fell down the well and died and shows himself in pictures every now and again. Can you see it? I can't either.



Um...weird?



We visited a large castle.



After our Kayaking trip. We got to see several seals up close!

(Ashley tried to leave this sexy photo out!)

This is for the Simmons/Boyer Pro Golfers of Auburn Lake Trails! :)



Dallas and Taylor strategizing at the last hole.



This is Steph and "Noodle." He was a good ball.



Us at the Harbor in Victoria.



I know this picture's lame, but I LOVED this place. Roger's Chocolates. MMmmm Good. We went back here several times.



This little guy was amazing on the accordion. More people should learn to play this instrument.



Love him! This is us in front of some fancy schmancy glass art at the Glass Museum in Tacoma.



Seattle has a fascinating history of how it was rebuilt after a huge fire wiped the city out. Because of this, there were a bunch of underground tunnels created while the city was being rebuilt. We were able to take a cool tour and see it all.





The top of one of Thomas Crapper's Crappers.



The bottom. They sure spent a lot of time decorating these things back in the day.



Investigating...



After the Underground Tour in Seattle.



On the food tour in Seattle!



We just sleep in our underwear, but Dallas forgot to bring his "presentable pajamas" on our vacation. Since we were with company, I let Dallas borrow one of the 3 pairs of pajama pants I brought. Unfortunately, due to the audience of our blog, I could not add the subsequent picture of him mooning all of us as I was making fun of his sexy new sleepwear. He's got a nice bum though!