SK8

Going to checkout the California Heritage Museum later today with Nicole. They are have been running an exhibit SKATEBOARD: Evolution and Art in California. We've been wanting to get there for a while, and today is the day!

I'm leaving Saturday for the Pacific Crest Trail hike, so won't be blogging here much for a bit but if you are interested please follow me as I walk through deserts and over mountains from Mexico to Canada over at www.iamthechan.com

Scott Jurek...on the record

happy man after a long day

Scott Jurek is the man. Read this article about the American record he set a couple days ago in the World Championship 24 hour race. 165.705 miles on a 1.25-kilometer loop in Brive, France. Incredible achievement by a great guy. It's hard to mention the accomplishment without including that he has been vegan for years and winning huge ultramarathons in the process. Congrats Scott.

What we've been up to...

A quick update of the recent happenings in the life of the Chans. As suggested from the picture above, we saw Iron Man 2. It was entertaining, and as a bonus we went before noon so saw it at half price. Good special effects and good enough story.

We also met up with friends at the Huntington Botanical Garden. Neither of us had been before and we had a great time. If you are in the LA area and haven't been...go. There is a ton to take in between the gardens, library, and art collection.

baby ducks at the Botanical Gardens

stray plant life at the gardens

In between all of the excitement, we also made it out with friends for great conversation and unreal all you can eat sushi. The head sushi chef kept sending out special rolls he had created that weren't on the menu yet. No one needs to see pictures of me stuffing my face...so I'll spare you from that.

Last night we happened upon an event at a local sporting goods store. Well known ultrarunner Dean Karnazes was signing books and did a Q&A before having to catch a flight back home to the Bay area. Dean has been instrumental in bringing distance running to the public at large. His recent book talks about his experiences running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days.

On a side note we scored a case of Greek yogurt and a bunch of GU chomps from the sponsors at the event. Nice!

2650

I have news. Read this post, then visit iamthechan.com

In 2007 I married the most fantastic woman on the planet. I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to thru-hike the 2175 mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Upon completing the AT a desire to continue pushing my physical and mental limits was ignited, so I decided to train for a marathon. The idea of running 26.2 miles sounded absolutely crazy to me at the time. After completing the marathon I looked for what was next and discovered trail running. I could not get enough of roaming through forests and up and down mountains for hours at a time. In the past year I have run five ultramarathons in the mountains of Southern California. So now what?

Beginning in a couple weeks I will attempt a thru-hike of the 2650 mile long Pacific Crest Trail. The PCT stretches north from the Mexico border through California, Oregon, and Washington state and ends just across the Canadian border in Manning Provincial Park. Along the way the trail passes through six out of seven North America ecozones, 25 national forests, and 7 national parks.

Blog updates and photos will be posted regularly at iamthechan.com to follow the planning and progress of the hike. Please leave comments when you visit. As I have told people, it's about the only company I'll have!

Food.

Tonight Nicole and I went to a free event at UCLA. Food 2.0 Sustainable Agriculture, Social Entrepreneurship, and the Future of Food. One of the panel speakers in the last discussion was Ann Gentry of Real Food Daily. RFD is a delicious restaurant in Santa Monica that we have been to a couple of times recently (including for Nicole's birthday a couple days ago). Speaking of birthday meals, we also checked out a great Ethiopian restaurant, Merkato.

Amazing food at Merkato

Other than that we've been keeping busy spending time running and hiking in the local mountains. It's a good life.

One Year Wiser.

The blog has been quiet lately, but we have been BUSY! All good stuff though...

More info to come and pictures of Nicole's thesis project. Graduation was great and today we are celebrating her birthday! It starts now with a hike and also involves delicious food later in the day.