Snowy December Photo Set

December 2022 has been one of the snowiest Decembers in the Catskills, in recent memory. As luck would have it, B and I were able to spend the entire second half of the month enjoying said snow. Here is a mega-gallery from some of our adventures in the snowy outdoors the last couple of weeks in 2022.Continue reading

No. 14

I won’t bore everyone with the backstory for this one. Long and short is that Britt got me a bib for this race as a b-day gift when I was complaining about not having run any fast (flat) courses and as a result having never qualified for Boston. As it turns out, I may just not have it in me, oof.

The race was the Palm Beaches Marathon, in FL. It is conveniently located very proximate to the casa of my MIL. So we crashed at her place and had a nice time palling around with her and her partner all weekend in south FL. The race had a 6 AM gun time. But the logistics were so easy that I was able to avoid a lot of the typical pre-race anxiety that I usually experience.

It was already 70 degrees when we started, and it was about an hour before sunrise. There was a breeze coming off the water, so it actually felt pretty pleasant. But when the sun came up… oh man. I’ll use that as an excuse. But in reality, I put on about 2 lbs in beer weight after the NYC race. Yeahhhhhh, between Thanksgiving and holiday parties, I managed to sloppy up a fair bit. I was also quite casual about my program (i.e. had no program) for running between the NYC race and Palm Beach. At any rate, the flat course was a huge factor. Even though I wasn’t able to get a 3:20 (which is what I would have needed to qualify for Boston), it still ended up being my 3rd or 4th fastest Marathon (even counting the ones I ran when in my 20s), despite the above mention setbacks.

Positive takeaways- #1- First time I have ever worn a 3″ inseam short (notice the massive tan lines). Bought them on a whim when I was picking up some salt tablets. I don’t think that I’ll ever go back to the 5″ in warm weather. #2- Small races are cool. Energy is much different, but the tradeoff is having a low stress environment. It was so rad to see Britt right at the finish line. They also didn’t charge anything to download the race photos!! #4- I guess I don’t really care if I ever get into Boston or not. I just like running, haha.

Random Set of Film Scans

Moon Lake, Utah– June 2016

I recently received a huge batch of scans of 35mm film shot over the past 5-6 years. I tried out a new (to me) lab for processing called Dark Slide. It is a one-lady owned and operated lab out of CT. I read about them on Field Mag and decided to give them a shot. I mailed in two rolls of Velvia 100 and one roll of Porto slide film in Sept. It took a while to get the results (and I’m still waiting on the prints/slides). But hey, these exposed rolls were sitting on my desk for about year. So what is another six weeks? Haha. Anyway, the scans came back in high resolution .tif format. I have exported a few to JPEG and posted them here. Mega gallery below-Continue reading

Porto, Autumn 2022

Facing South on the Luis I Bridge

To celebrate our birthdays this year, Britt and I decided to take a quick trip to Portugal. Neither of us had been prior. It rained most of the time, but we still had a blast. Read on for some spots I would recommend, as well as a lengthy photo dump.Continue reading

No. 13

Rounding the Corner onto 59th Street [Photos: Anwar Ragep]

Number thirteen is done and dusted. It was a very difficult race for me and I’m relieved to have it in the books. I don’t consider myself to be an overly superstitious kind of guy, but for some reason the idea of marathon number 13 was a mental monkey on my back from the day that I registered. I think this was partially because last year went so well and I knew that it would be unlikely to have such a good experience twice in a row.

Training went as well as it ever has. No major injuries or illness. When I started the taper portion of my program, I was feeling like I may actually beat my course PR this year. About a week before the race, when I saw the forecast, my mind changed. I feel like I’m fastest in high 40s/low 50s. It was looking like this race was going to be about 20 degrees hotter than that, plus super humid. Heat is one thing, but humidity is another thing entirely. When sweat can’t evaporate, it doesn’t cool you down.

The morning of the race went very smoothly. I made it to the start village without a hitch and met up with some friends who were starting in my same corral. We were all cautiously optimistic that perhaps the overcast conditions would make the temperature less of a factor. But by the time we lined up on the Verrazzano, the sun was blazing down and it was almost 70 degrees already. From that moment, I knew it was going to be a tough one. I paced the first half of the race with one of my friends from high school, who in amazing marathoner. We were clipping along at about a 7:30 until around mile 15 (right before the Pulaski Bridge), when I had to pull off to fix my shoe (which was tied too tight and causing increasingly sharp pain on the top of my foot). I told my friend not to wait for me.

By the time that I was coming off of the Queensboro, I knew I was going to have to slow down if I was going to finish. The temperature had hit mid 70’s and the air was like soup. I was drenched in sweat, but still overheating. So I just parked it in second gear and slugged it out for the last 10 miles.

It was awesome to see so many friends cheering along the course. I saw Britt and her mom (who flew in from Florida to watch the race, so cool!) cheering in two different spots along the way. My friend Anwar was with them both times. Thanks for the great photos, Anwar! I can truly say that the support of the crowd is really what kept me going for the second half of the race. I have never seen so many people who were walking, collapsing and/or being attended to by paramedics in any race that I have run in the past.

Aaaanyway, I’ve got #14 coming up in a few weeks. Its a flat course in Palm Beach. Gonna try to get a BQ now that I’m old and my qualie time just got 10 minutes easier. Wish me luck!

Fall Camp-Hike-Fish Photo Dump

Britt Enjoying Some Autumnal Blue Hour Views at Little Pond

A couple of years back, we scored some very decent camping gear through a Burton promo. Britt decided that it was time to finally actually put it to use. She booked a campsite a the Little Pond Campground, a short drive from our house in the Catskills. We opted for one of the “primitive” sites (means that you can’t just pull up and camp next to the car) mainly because it was the only option available on the last weekend of its operating season. The campground was a good way to ease back into “real” camping. It was only a half-mile walk to the camp site from the parking lot. So it was very easy to bring a wheeled cooler, bundle of fire wood, etc.. The campground also had hot showers and flushing toilets. We didn’t take advantage of the showers, since we only stayed one night. But the plumbed bathrooms were a nice amenity.

In the morning, we broke camp, sat in the truck for 30 minutes to let a rain squall blow through, then hiked the Little Pond trail with Lola. The leaves were intense. The rest of this post is a mix of photos from camping, hiking and fishing over the course of that weekend. The handheld shots were this (for camping) or this (for fishing). The aerial shots were with a DJI Mini drone. Enjoy!Continue reading

Fall Foliage Mornings With Droney

My commute upstate from NYC took about an hour longer that usual last night. I couldn’t figure out why until Britt reminded me that there was a three day weekend for a lot of people. Separately, it is getting darn close to peak leaf peeping season in our part of the Catskills. I woke up to this on Friday morning. Wild how much it has changed even from last weekend. I feel spoiled to be right in the middle of it all!Continue reading

Autumn Running Thoughts

Action Shot of the Author Training in Upstate NY, Courtesy of B. Maschal Private Collection.

Fall marathon season is right around the corner. I planned on kind of taking it easy this year– as in, no big races after having such a great experience at last year’s NYC Marathon. Then in June or so, I was offered a bib for this year’s marathon and could not say no. Luckily, I had maintained a pretty decent baseline during the spring, so that I wasn’t starting from square one in August.

My training program started the second week of August, a thirteen week program that I made for myself. I thought it would be cool to do a thirteen weeker, since this will (knock on wood) by my 13th marathon. Similar to years prior, I’m feeling burnt out on training even though I’m only a little over half way there.Continue reading