Ski to Sea 2008 – Video Interviews

If you didn't get enough Ski to Sea action a couple weeks ago, here's a great little video of competitors being interviewed the day before. It's put together by Stead, a student at the INN and future INN intern. It's pretty great.

And I'm kind of a big dork in it. Enjoy.

Ski to Sea 2008 – Results!

Well, the race has been run hiked.

It was a beautiful day up at Mt. Baker this Sunday for the Ski to Sea race. I arrived at 7:45am with two of my team mates to get ready, find the start line, and slowly move towards a frenzied state of nausea as my leg approached. For the first time in about 3 years, I was going to be skiing. Raised on skis as a kid up a Stevens Pass, it is second nature, but I was still pretty nervous and rusty.

We were joined by a bunch of INN friends and students up at the mountain, comprising at least 4 different teams. It was really fun to keep bumping into people I knew, from at Western, from church, from around Bellingham. Like I said before, the community connections this event creates are amazing.

As for my performance, it was pretty tough. The first time I did the downhill skiing leg, 6 years ago, the weather was pretty nasty, with clouds and a little wind. Sunday, on the other hand, was gorgeous. It was warm climbing up (I got a bit sun burned) and the view from the top of the mountain was beautiful. I pushed myself pretty hard this time, knowing a bit more of what to expect from the steep hill climb. I felt pretty good upon finish, knowing I'd worked hard, but also knowing that physically, I could have been more prepared. The steep snow climb (which makes up most of the "downhill" skiing leg) definitely requires some different muscle use than my normal running routine exercises, so I was pretty worn out by the end. I finished in 0:35:55, about 3.5 minutes slower than my first time. Nothing to get too excited about, but I'm proud that I finished strong nonetheless.

The rest of the day was a bunch of hurry up and wait. Waiting in the car to get down the mountain. Waiting in traffic to pick up our biker. Waiting at the finish line for our team to come through. It was fun to hang out with friends, compare stories from the other legs of the race, and just enjoy the beautiful weather. The rest of my team did awesome. Everyone pushed themselves and had a blast, so for me, that's pretty good.

Here's a picture of the happy skier! I'm already pumped for next year!

 

Ski to Sea 2008

Well folks, tomorrow's the big Ski to Sea race here in Whatcom County. The buzz is building around town. Today, I'm sure we'll see cars all over the place with kayaks and canoes on roof-racks. This is a big weekend for Bellingham.

The Ski to Sea race takes competitors through 7 event legs, starting with cross-country skiing up at Mt. Baker, followed by downhill skiing, road running, road biking, canoing, mountain biking, and ended with sea kayaking on the Bellingham bay. It covers quite a broad scope of outdoor activities, as well as a substantial chunk of county land.

I will be participating this year for the 3rd time since I came up to Bellingham in 2001. In May 2002, my freshman year of school, I did the downhill skiing leg. Junior year of college I did the sea kayaking leg (after only barely learning how to kayak). This year, I'm back to the downhill skiing. It's kind of fun to be "repeating" a leg, because I've done it, know the terrain a bit more, and have a time to shoot for (and hopefully beat). My first time (in '02) was 0:32:02. It's not a long leg, but it's plenty difficult, as it includes a rough climb up to the top of one of Mt. Baker's ridges and then a leisurely ski down a cat track to the base area. The toughest part is the climb. I feel like I'm in about the same (or hopefully better) shape, so I'm really hoping to match or beat that time.

I'll be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow, shuttling up to the mountain. I will hopefully have a wonderful update for everyone, explaining how my team, "LightINNing" (made up of INN staff and students) miraculously won the race. Wish us luck!

***UPDATE***
The skis are waxed. They haven't been treated that nicely in a long time. I think they can tell tomorrow's a big day.

The Broken Heart Alleycat

This Saturday, I participated in my very first "Alleycat" bike scavenger hunt in Bellingham. It was awesome. This is my story.

Goodbye Room2Think

Last year, when I worked for Logos Bible Software, I had the opportunity to be a part of the formation and marketing of a brand new side business for the company — Room2Think. Logos had the great idea to use some extra office space and transform it into a creative meeting space for local businesses, non-profits, and other groups to use for off-site planning days or staff retreats. It was a pretty cool experience, from working with the Chamber of Commerce, to talking with similar businesses around the country (Inspiration Point, Catalyst Ranch), and working to promote the business with our local community.

Unfortunately, Room2Think closed it’s doors just before the New Year. I was kinda bummed out to hear that the time had come for Logos to retake the office space for their technical support department. But, that means good growth for the software company, so that’s optimistic. I really liked working there and it’s good to hear they are doing well and growing.

Check out the Logos blog post about their (re)expansion into the Room2Think space and see the pictures to get a little feel for how the space looks.

Great New Website

This is a must see – it was bound to happen. Pretty cool, huh?

Pan Handling in Bellingham

BTV10 is the local info station around here, running everything from how to use the new roundabout up by Whatcom Community College correctly to city council meetings. Mostly, it’s not very interesting stuff. But tonight they caught my eye with a brief story on the pan-handling issues in the downtown area.

The Sound

I finally finished a little project I’ve been working on for the past couple of months. I’ve been redesigning the website for The Sound Community, a local church here in Bellingham, WA. You can check it out at http://www.thesoundcommunity.com.

I became acquainted with The Sound through a guy in my small group a couple years ago. It’s a really cool community and I’m happy to be able to help them out with this site. While I’m not attending there regularly (we’re at First Presbyterian), I feel like a part of me is in this church because I’ve seen it grow from being 6 people in Ryan’s (the pastor) living room to something like 30 people now gathering at the Episcopal Church on Sunday nights.

God is doing great things with that community and I pray they continue to grow, learn, and seek Him in exciting ways.