*UPDATES*

July 10, 2007 - It really is hard to find time to write when I work 40 hours (now at Expedia.com) and have been training 12 to 24 hours per week for most of the past year for Ironman.  I recently competed at Ironman Couer d'Alene in Idaho and finished in 10 hours and 18 minutes for 15th in my age group and 68th overall of about 2200 people.  The last person in my age group to get a qualifying spot for Kona (Ironman Hawaii, the Ironman World Championships) was 44 seconds ahead of me so I didn't get a spot and that was my only goal.  My training this year has been great - I'm not much faster swimming but I can swim longer without getting tired; I'm faster and stronger on the bike than ever before; I ran as much as 54 miles in a week and have steadily improved in that discipline as well.  I spent July 4 with some friends riding from our homes to the top of Cayuse Pass, which turned out to be 170 miles round-trip with about 6000 feet of climbing - what a day!   Since I didn't qualify for Kona, I'm now focusing on getting back into training so I can nail it at Ironman Canada in the end of August.  On top of all of this, I got engaged last November and Sarah is also training for Ironman Canada - her first. 

September 21, 2006 - This is harder than I thought. How hard could it be to sit down and write a summary of a few months of life?  Or even a year and a half?  The triathlon page will probably sum up my past year the best, because I haven't done anything but train and race for the past year.  Highlights - first Iron distance triathlon in Sept 2005, a great summer of racing every distance including 2 sprint's, 1 Olympic (so far), 2 Half's and 1 Ironman in 2006 with many 2nd place Age Group placings and some top 10 overall placings.  Sarah did her first Half a week ago on as little training as one would dare to ever try one - and rocked it!  She's amazing.  We're both signed up for Ironman Canada in August 2007 and I'm also doing Ironman Coeur d'Alene again in June 2007.  Sarah and Avry moved in about a month ago and it's been great seeing them all the time.  Avry is a ton of fun.

July 20, 2006 - OK, I'll write some stuff about the past year soon.  It's been busy (relatively) with a number of triathlons including half-ironmans and Ironmans.  Soon...   If you want to read something, go to the triathlon page and read the race reports - or get a good book.  I'll write some stuff soon, I swear. 

April 2, 2005 - After four+ months of training for the Yakima Marathon (which was today), I came down with a fever on Tuesday of this past week.  I attempted a quick recovery (however that's done) and awoke on race day with a minor headache, congested head and slight body-aches and gave it an attempt, starting with 5 other friends.  Within the first 2 miles, I knew that it wasn't going to happen as my knees were aching, breathing was difficult, feet and hips hurt - basically, everything that could hurt, did.  I kept moving until I reached the last stand of spectators before the road enters the Yakima River Canyon, where I decided that I would call it off, with the plan to get healthy and continue my training for another marathon in about a month.  It was a little disappointing to have worked for this for the past 4-6 months and then to come down with the flu with 4 days to go, but there will be other races to run soon and, sometimes, shit happens.

January 24, 2005 - Mostly, I'm doing some contract work at Microsoft and training for my first Marathon, on April 2.  I'm looking forward to it - especially since I never thought I would want to or be able to run a Marathon (or a mile), and now I'm working towards it - and enjoying it. 

Fall of 2004 - I've had an incredible summer.  I kayaked for 6 days on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, hiked numerous peaks (Snoqualmie Mtn, Guye Peak, Granite Mtn, McClellan Butte, Mt Baring, Mt Persis, Merchant Peak, Mt Si, Mt Defiance, Tiger Mtn), hiked to Camp Muir - the base camp for climbing Mount Rainier - and then skied down, kayaked for 2 days on the Clendenning River in British Columbia after flying in by float plane, did 2 triathlons (a sprint - .5 mile swim, 11 mile bike, 2.5 mile run - and a half-ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run), kayaked a few flooding rivers (like the S. Fork of the Clearwater River, ID @ 7000cfs, N. Fork of the Payette River, ID @ 4000cfs) road-biked over 1,000 miles around Seattle, mountain-biked all around Whistler, downhill mountain-biked at Whistler, swam numerous miles, kayaked numerous other rivers, and all around enjoyed myself.

In the spring of 2003, I finally bought a new mountain bike - a Specialized Enduro - and it reignited my love of cycling.  Next, I decided to tag along with my good friend, Brock Gavery on a few scrambles/workouts and got the bug.  Hiking never really appealed to me, but scrambling (like hiking but often with no trail and as close to climbing as you can get without needing ropes) got me going. We scrambled up Mt. Persis a few times, returned for a Mt. Persis to Mt. Index and back day, Merchant Peak, and Mt. Baring. In August, I decided to see Mt. Adams alone, so I went.  It was cold.  Later that month, I went back with a group for 70 degree summit weather - incredible.  I bought a road bike - a Specialized Allez - and use it as often as possible to get around. 

I used to spend more time on the road that at home, but I've settled down close to my family in Bellevue, Washington. 

In January of 2002, I returned to New Zealand and bought a van to travel around and do the things that I never found the time to do when I was there before - kayaking numerous rivers, heli-kayaking, skydiving, glacier hiking and visiting with a few friends that I had made on earlier trips.