Countdown

Only two weeks to go until the Western States 100-mile Endurance Run! Robert's legs are tired, but he thinks the training has gone pretty well. Forrest and Francie will meet us in Olympic Valley, CA for the start and will be support crew with Tanya. The race starts at 5 a.m. on June 28th and Robert hopes to finish by 5 a.m. June 29th, although since this is his first 100-miler, he would be willing to finish before the cutoff time of 30 hours. If anyone is interested in following the race, there are chip times on the website (http://www.ws100.com/) so you can check and see how he's doing at different points in the race. His race number is 386. On the way home, we'll stop at Crater Lake, visit Melinda and her gang in Sherwood, and swing by to see Silas, Sara and Eli in Richland.

Catching Up

We are so behind on the race report. Since we last blogged about races, Robert has run 5 ultras and 1 marathon. The marathon was the Flying Pig on May 4th in Cincinnati (12 of 50 states). The big excitement was a fire along the course. The race had to be diverted and was a little longer than the usual 26.2. No pictures - but the runner was 3rd in his age group and received a Flying Pig Plaque.

He also did well at the Washington State University 100K. There were only 4 solo runners (3 finished) and a lot of relay teams. Robert was the 1st solo finisher. Probably due to the great support along the course (see above right).

The picture above left is from the McDonald Forest Trail Run (50K) near Corvallis, OR. It was kind of nice to be back in the western Oregon coast range for awhile. And we got to visit Silas and Sara on our way down (pre-Eli) and Melinda, Jeff, Bryce and Joel on the way back home.

New Beginnings

It's been awhile since our last blog. The biggest and best news since then?

We have a new grandson! Elijah was born May 18th. Another boy to join the grandchild ranks, along with Bryce and Joel. By the time we got to the hospital, he was nine hours old, but his mom was as cheerful as ever. His dad looked kind of tired... so T-Papa was happy to hold him.