May 19th, 2008
Welcome back to Alaska, Pat. After a warm welcome from friends and an extended 5-day birthday celebration, I’m back in Ancheragua, AK. The last part of the drive was pretty sweet, and I only got ONE speeding ticket in Fort Nelson. Awesome.
Kikkan’s wedding was on Friday and what a fantastic weekend that became! I drove up with my friend Aubrey and in order to get pumped up for the wedding and reception we threw down some intense L5 running intervals on the highway in front of the wedding venue while other OIA types were out there getting it done on rollerskis while the wedding guests rolled in. There is no better way to hang with a crowd of beautiful fit people than to continue the process of getting *ripped* right before!
The ceremony was great. Both the Kikkan and Jeff were calm and collected, and there was no extra nervous or stressed B.S. floating around like I’ve seen so many times before so you could tell they were both in their element, and both having a really great day. The night ended with a raging parking lot party and dancing on the cars after the lodge’s dance floor was cleared. Let me tell you, this crowd was pumped. Oh, and I’m pretty sure that the “international liquid consumption” competition between Team Alaska and Team Canada is still tied 1-1. Sorry for dropping the ball on the first round, Team Alaska. We’ll get ‘em next spring…
The next day we realized why the wedding was on Friday….because then you get Saturday to recover and it’s still the weekend on Sunday! Tor, Rhianne, Holly, Aubrey and I knocked out government peak on the way back to Anchorage to check it out for the race that’s coming in a few weeks. It’s a long, steep climb with 4000 feet of elevation gain and a beautiful view of both the Chugach and the Talkeetnas at the top. As if we’d expect anything less.
Here’s a fun math formula. What do you get when you add 6 hours of dancing, 3 hours of core strength after the party, 60lbs or 3000 calories of breakfast, and a 3 hour workout the next day? You get this:
May 19th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Pat-
Hope you are ready for the race!!!
May 19th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Hey that looks like the perfect van to have…what model/make is it? VW?
May 19th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Yeah, it’s a 1995 EuroVan Camper. They are going for well over their blue book and appreciating in value since they stopped importing them into the US. That to me spells empty market, but apparently it spells saturated market to the Germans!
May 19th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
living large … i like it.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
The best part of the picture is the empty sixer of Alaskan Amber…Nice work!
May 20th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
What does OIA stand for? I googled OIA Alaska and got the “Out In Anchorge” gay website. That’s cool n all, but is that you dudes?
May 20th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Haha, yeah, we know about Out In Alaska *AND* Out In Anchorage. We missed the ball on that one a little early. OIA in our context stands for ONLY In Alaska, and we run, ski, get ripped, and drink beer. We’ve talked about how easy it is to mistake us when you’ve got a bunch of ripped dudes running around in spandex all the time, but then that would draw all fasterskier.com readers into the confusion too, wouldn’t it?
Check the site:
http://www.onlyinalaska.org/
May 21st, 2008 at 10:27 am
ok, thanks for coming out on this issue dude! after looking at onlyinalaska i see how you dudes can easily be mistaken for being gay by badass alaskans like those chicks that do the iditarod and your hot govenor babe. chicks that mush a thousand miles and hot governor chicks are only in alaska. hanging, skiing and partying is done here in cali and in colo and wyo and utah and mt and fill in the blank too. not only in ak, duuuuuuude. stay straight. groove on chicks.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:17 am
Pat nice job WINNING the season’s first trail run on Turnagin Arm. A victory after such a “restful” weekend like your last one should be evidence enough to rewrite the coaching manuals. The more they run those Iditarod dogs the faster they seem to go. Could work for OIA skiers too. You Rock!
Gary