Congratulations Raquel!

This past weekend, Raquel and I went to Ojai, CA (7 hours south) for a climbing competition. It involved driving on dangerous mountain roads at night (pitch black), camping in the middle of nowhere (no campsite amenities), and riding on a rickety old school bus going 9 miles up the mountain without a guardrail on the road. To say the least, it was mildly traumatic and scary for me. But, I must say that it's also exhilirating watching these talented athletes climb a 15-foot, sometimes 30-foot, boulder without any ropes.

I'm very glad that I only went as a spectator, even though Raquel was trying to get me to compete. I was clearly out of my league, plus there were no ambulances close by. If you fall, the only thing you have to catch you is the twin-size crash pad mattress that you bring. Also, your spotter is in charge of guiding you to the crash pad. Although, it's not uncommon to entirely miss the pad and break something. So you can imagine my apprehension about trying it.

Even though, it wasn't a very productive climbing weekend for me, it was for Raquel. She ended up placing third in her division! To say that I'm proud is an understatement. I estimated about 15 competitors in her division, and many of them were seasoned climbers. I've always been fascinated with watching her climb, because to me it's like watching Michael Phelps swim. She's so comfortable, graceful, and confident on the rock. Plus, the happy dance she does post-climb is cuter than a football player doing his touchdown victory dance.

Anyway, it makes me wonder if she's ever seen me evoke that kind of emotion and superhuman ability when I run or surf. Probably not. But, she's always inspiring me to strive for it. Congratulations Raquel!

Will you be my friend?

It has occurred to me that I tend to play more solo sports, primarily because it's my alone time but also because I would prefer that my friends didn't see me sweat and grunt in pain. However, I've had to change that tendency after getting attached to a girlfriend who primarily plays team and social sports, such as volleyball and climbing. Being a social person myself, I've found it refreshing to have my two worlds collide; participating in good conversation seems to be wonderful distraction from physical pain. So now I'm on a mission to expand our sports circle, particularly our climbing one. Unfortunately, this has proven to be a more difficult task than I originally thought.

Raquel and I have decided we'd like to befriend a group of women who frequent our climbing gym at least twice a week. Occasionally, they bring their husbands along, but for the most part they seem to climb with just each other. After several attempts to engage them in conversation, and instead receiving a cold brush-off, I've given up. Even our "divide and conquer" method didn't work. Undeterred, we set our sights on two new girls, who were admiring Raquel's climbing form last night. Using that as an opening, I tried to start small talk with them, but they ended up wandering off. What is wrong with us? Do we smell? Is there spinach between our teeth? Have we forgotten how to make friends?

I've begun to think about how making friends has evolved a lot over the years for me. When I was in kindergarten, I met my best friend when she introduced herself by the swings. I vaguely remember that my return gesture was to offer her some of my recess snack, which I think was pudding or popcorn (I'm sure she doesn't remember any of this). Those were simpler times, when making friends invoked the barter system, whether it would be a trade in food or protection from the bully. As I grew older, I found that finding a friend became more complicated and involved making a deeper connection through ideas, life experience, or personality.

The best way for me to discover that deeper connection is through small talk, which leads to joking, which leads to an invitation to continue the conversation over another activity (probably coffee). To me, it's pretty much like dating. And in the case of my recent encounters with climbers at our gym, we keep striking out. Well, I'm nothing if not persistent and Raquel and I plan to woo other bay area climbers at the Pine Mountain Bouldering Competition this weekend. Since we'll be camping there all weekend, we do run the risk of smelling, so I did pack soap. Anyway, if that event doesn't work out, we're going back to trying to make friends at the gym again. Perhaps next time I should bring pudding.

Following Up

Now this is the kind of story you want to see after last thursday's article. I just wanted to follow up on the post I did about the crazy Bay Area speed climbing duo trying to break a record: Are They Crazy? Apparently, they did not break the record on Sunday as planned. However, they managed to break it today after the THIRD time climbing the rock face since last week. Read all about it here folks:

Third Time's a Charm

How inspiring is that? They wanted to complete their goal so badly that they stubbornly climbed El Capitan multiple times in a week. Congratulations to Hans and Yuji. There is no doubt that they worked hard to get there. And with that energy being my fuel, I've decided to make today Double Workout Wednesday.

Are they crazy???

(Picture courtesy of Wikipedia Article)

This morning I was browsing through the SF Gate website, as is my morning ritual, when a climbing picture caught my eye. Here is the posted article:

Speed climbers to try for a record in Yosemite

Apparently, this enormous granite edifice in Yosemite Park, El Capitan, is a mecca of sorts for the climbing community. The first team that climbed it did it in 47 days. And somehow, this generation of climbers has been able to whittle that time down to just under 5 hours. Does anybody else find it odd that the more we evolve away from being monkeys, the more we want to go back to being like them? Go figure.

P.S. I joke about these climbers doing these crazy stunts, yet I'm sure Raquel and her best friend probably are planning to do it, or already have and I just don't know about it. And if they ARE doing it in the future, you bet I'll be that nail-biting, terrified girlfriend watching from the bottom of the rock.

My Little Adventure

Alright folks, I admit that I've been ridiculously lazy with keeping up my blog as well as updating my runs. But, that doesn't mean that I haven't been keeping up with the training. This past weekend happened to be Raquel's birthday weekend. So, being the adventurous girlfriend that I am, I planned a surprise camping/climbing trip in the wilderness with her friends. Now when most people think of camping they think of campfires, smores, and beer. I'm not going to say we didn't have that, but we didn't exactly sit there and sing Kumbaya the whole weekend. This is Raquel and me we're talking about. It's not an outdoor trip unless it involves some element of danger and a degree of physical torture.

Thanks to the ingenuity of Picasa, I've included the pictures from our trip. It chronicles all of the ridiculous physical achievements from the weekend, which include: a 3 hour roundtrip hike up and down the mountain with backpacks in tow, and a 5-pitch climb up the mountain with 5 people. For those who are unfamiliar with climbing, a multi-pitch climb means that once you complete a climb, you don't rapel back down. Instead, you climb to another spot after the end of your first climb. In this case, we'd have to repeat this process 5 times, and each "rest stop" between climbs turned out to be a piece of rock to hang from in the middle of the air (not a ledge).

Now contrary to what my activities indicate, I do not have a deathwish. In fact, this past weekend made me more aware of my fragile mortality and how precious it is. But, I am going to say that I'm darn proud of where my physical fitness level is now. It may have not been the best performance, but at least I made it out of there alive AND I completed every physical test. That being said though, perhaps the next vacation should basically involve the couch, the tv, and some fruity alcoholic beverages.

Memorial Day Weekend Special, Day 1: Climb Every Mountain

I decided that I was going to take a little running break over the three day weekend. But, I replaced it with other forms of body torture, I mean, cross training. So today, you lucky folks get three posts for the price of one as I recount each day.

My weekend began in the cute little town of San Luis Obispo, where Raquel went to college. We were determined to have an action packed weekend, where we kept up my training while she showed me her old college haunts. First stop on the tour: Bishop Peak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_Peak). This climbing/hiking area is literally in the back yard of her college campus. No wonder those kids are so fit. Even the beach was only 15 minutes away. It still makes me wonder how often those students attended class, lucky bums..

Anyway, the area was beautiful and filled with buff/tan students swinging on the cliff face. Now for those of you haven't gone climbing, this is a sport that challenges your flexbitiy, core, strength, balance, and general monkey swinging abilities. To me, it's like yoga on a wall and fantastic cross training. Fortunately, I have the luxury of learning from my expert climber gf. However, it doesn't mean she can give me her hard earned strength and agility. She can make scaling a cliff wall look as natural as walking down the street, while I struggle to even make it to the first ledge. But not to be deterred, I gave it everything I got.

At some point, I realized that a lot of this sport is mind over matter. My body is capable of a lot more than I think it is, if I could just overcome the fear factor. I needed to trust in the rope, the gear, and in Raquel to not let me fall to my death. Alright folks, this is why climbing is not for every couple and could potentially be a fight waiting to happen. In any case, as soon as I believed in those three things I found myself reaching for farther holds and trusting my own limbs more. All of a sudden, I felt like the climber from the Marines commerical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjya6LnF0mU , except I had a rope and didn't climb as swiftly. By the end of the day, I managed to complete the longest climb I've ever done outside. And I'm completely proud of that accomplishment, even if it was rated one of the easiest climb on that mountain.

So what did I learn? I need to let go of the things that I can't control (the environment, my gear, etc.) and focus on the things that I can. If you actually trust the support that you have to catch you, you'll always accomplish more than you set out to do.

Stay tuned for Day 2...