I did about a year of public sharing in 2006, which was interesting because I moved across the country and was doing a bunch of remote work, when telecommuting was more novel.  It also was from a time when personal updates from a mobile phone was not just novel, it was downright rocket science.  (Sentence removed so as not to offend readers)

But its time to quit here and now.  I feel it.

This blog is more sophisticated than my last one, and has some usage statistics.  I can tell that about 10 – 15 people come here.  I have no idea who you are or how you found me.  But if you want updates and you know me, shoot me an email, I will make a forum for it if we don’t already regularly catch up the correct way, which I hope we do.

Meanwhile, I did promise some more Africa pictures,  over the course of several presentations (Denver friends, ex-co-workers, etc) these have been the crowd-favorites, which cheats you out of some promised photos.  Regrets.

I have the other highlights and would be happy to share them if you ask.  I have them printed out (old school) and available digitally.

Seriously, this happened every day, it was barely worth the picture (the giraffes, not my b-team, laundry-day get-up)

This on the other hand, was rarer, a good shot if I do say so myself

Everybody likes this picture.<br> Even though it could have been taken in Nebraska

This is the set up for the most popular picture, hands down.

A Great White Shark in the middle of the Ocean. Terrifying. Fun. A good way to go out.

Swimming with Penguins at Boulders Beach, Simons Town, SA

Capetown at sunrise from base of Table Mountain

Dassie's from top of Table Mountain

These first three pictures were taken during my time in and around Capetown, which is a beautiful and cosmopolitan city.  One of my favorite adventures in Africa was swimming with Penguins, there were hundreds of them marching home from “work” an hour before sunset to their nests.  The water was freezing cold, about 15 degrees celsius (59 f), but the penguins didn’t mind!  That swim was in the Atlantic and pretty close to the Cape of Good Hope.  My swimming here, in Gansbaii, and in Jeffrey’s Bay (Indian Ocean) was way, way South.  You have to go to Antarctica to get much farther south.

I really enjoyed Table Mountain, besides the day-hike I did from the Garden District of Cape Town, up to the very top, three times I did runs up to the base of the mountain from the city, a 3.5 mile climb.

There you have it, a few of my Africa pictures, and more to come.

But the bicycle touring thing (carrying all your camping supplies on your bike) has piqued my interest.  After returning from Africa (and covering 2,800 plus miles just by car), I have a desire to better explore my own country.  I have never been to Mt. Rushmore (I have actually never been to the state of South Dakota), for example.  Shouldn’t I check that out before New Zealand?

So last week I gave myself a challenge.  The Captain Crunch challenge.  Could I camp for a night using only stuff on my bike.  I channeled my inner Captain Crunch and did just that.

I drove about 90 minutes Southwest of my house to Kenosha Pass, parked, and took my Mountain Bike onto the Colorado Trail headed towards Breckenridge, CO.

At about 7PM I set up camp, cooked some Organic Pesto Tofu Pasta (freeze dried–also, FYI, I am trying out being a vegetarian) and some chocolate mousse cake (also freeze dried and more delicious), read my Kindle and went to bed after a warm and roaring camp fire.

A key to my success was a new backpacker style tent (The REI Quarter Dome T1), and waterproof compression sack.  I was able to carry everything I needed including a borrowed Backpacker style therm-a-rest, and a primus camp stove bungee corded to a rear bike rack, and in a backpack.  I carried all the water I needed and didn’t mess with a water purifying system this trip.  In case you are wondering what ” backpacker style” means, it just means small and light.  The tent was amazing, great to set up, and without the rainfly gave me a beautiful view of the stars.  The therm-a-rest was annoying, it only reached my knees, so made sleep kind of uncomfortable.  Three times I was woken by animals walking by my tent, probably deer but maybe elk.

The next morning I packed up camp, finished the bike up to the top of Georgia Pass, cooked and enjoyed breakfast, and then biked back down to my car.

I had proven I can bike and camp.  South Dakota here I come!

I need to upgrade to a water purifying system, and need more storage space for extra food (I borrowed some Panniers this week).  I also need a camping mirror and experience putting my contacts in.  I was unable to get my contacts in and was biking “blind” on day two.

Here are some pictures:

Trailhead where I parked

My backpackers tent about 50 yards off the Colorado Trail, on an animal trail

Where I cooked dinner, found this fire circle 30 yards off Colorado Trail by dumb luck

There should be more pictures above in a gallery display.

This will be my next splurge on camping gear, I tried it out at REI, it really does compress down to the size of a Nalgene bottle, it is remarkable!

Sorry for the radio silence last week, had two out of state visitors, one going and one coming, and then got mired in a “technical problem” you will probably hear about soon.  Some Africa pics are on the way.

Sometimes getting a good photo is dangerous, keep this picture in mind when you see my Lion pictures

I have a this teaser photo as the title pic to a series I will share with you, “My top 10 Africa Photos”.

Here is the teaser text:

I have 4,724 photos from my five week visit to Southern Africa (South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia that my passport shows, and Lesotho/Zimbabwe it doesn’t). I reduced it to 770 photos, and then tried to pick my favorite 10 and came up with these 31. I hope you enjoy them.

The photos show me swimming with Penguins, observing Dassie, swimming with Sharks, surfing the Indian Ocean, hiking the Drakensberg, riding an elephant, seeing Lions, Hippos, Buffalo, Elephants, Rhinos, Giraffes and Leopards, and hiking/running/rafting/relaxing in Zambia by the biggest Waterfall in the world.

And here, as Jon Stewart would say is your moment of Zen …

Lucky Baboon is in Zambia, just over the bridge ... Zimbabwe

I will start the fun next week … stay well friends.

Another beautiful moment in a beautiful nation

When you read this it will be the birthday (and anniversary) of a true legend.   Or it will be pretty close.

I hiked up Table Mountain today for a bird’s eye view of Robben Island where he spent so many years, and my reward for the several hour hike from the city?  Hounding by the international press about Dassie feces.  I couldn’t make this crap (you see what I did there?) up.

Your pal, very far south,

Mark

You work for MSNBC? From the London bureau, you say! Is this candid camera?

Fun Facts about Dassie – They secrete a sticky sweat and have collapsible rib cages that help them climb up and squeeze between impossible rock outcroppings, they are the nearest relative to the elephant (yet they look like a fat guinea pig), and their crap/urine is used for perfume.  They are improbably cute things in my opinion.

I don't need no stinking wetsuit!

I was one of two swimmers in my age category without a wetsuit (there were about 25 of us).  Last year I rented one for about 100 bucks during the race Expo the day before the race.  This year I tried to do the same and found out the hard way that they weren’t renting wetsuits this year.  My choice was to buy a 400 – 1000 dollar suit or suck it up.  I don’t have much body fat, but I have a frugal mind so the decision was fairly easy (I chose to brave the cold).

The water was unusually choppy (its an ocean swim and the Atlantic does have waves), so much so that the course marker buoys moved and had to be re-positioned delaying the start 25 minutes and prompting an announcement that you could just do the bike and run (but not be eligible for prize money).  Having spent over 200 dollars on the race entry fee I was not about to chicken out at this point, although standing in my bike shorts shivering was not the funnest way to spend 25 minutes at 6 in the morning (I was up at 4:30 today, and out the door at 4:45!).

So we had the cold choppy water to contend with.

Spit out that salt water kid, its time to ride!

Next we had the bike leg, 56 miles of it, that went great until about mile 46 when I noticed my rear tire was flatting, I hate changing tires and didn’t want to deal so I powered through thinking I could make it the next 10 miles.  I couldn’t tell from my angle (though the people passing me were an indication) that my tire was completely flat.  As I rounded a sharp turn I fish tailed, almost struck another biker and dismounted.  Now I could see the flat and spent the next 20 minutes and 20 seconds removing the rear assembly, prying the wheel from the tire with tire levers, pulling out the errant tube, partially inflating a tube from my bike bag, lining the tire with the new tube, sealing the wheel around it and inflating all the way with a hand pump.  Oh, but if only that were all.  When leaving my roadside spot I could not find my sunglasses hidden in the grass, and about a block later I pulled off to inflate even more (hand pumps suck!).

From here on out, everything went great.  I finished off the bike (did not like the new course end) and transitioned into the run with no incident, and felt super strong on the run, I averaged 8:46 miles!  I felt really strong and not overheated or beat up, even college hill which you have to run up twice seemed pretty easy.   I finished super strong sprinting past many participants in the last half mile and enjoyed some time with my record-size seven person cheering section.

Here is a bike map and link, the data is from my GPS watch, a Garmin 305:

GarminConnect Map from GPS Watch of IronMan 70.3 Bike

So let’s break down the numbers.  I wanted a sub 6 hour finish.  I finished in 6:16, but if you subtract my 20 minute flat tire delay, you get under 6 hours.  I beat last years swim time by over a minute and with no wet suit! (A wet suit is a form of legal cheating, it provides buoyancy that give s an advantage).  Let’s break down my swim training:

1. 20 minutes in heated outdoor pool, laps

2. 45 minutes in heated outdoor pool, laps

3. 1 mile swim in Chatfield Reservoir (open water)

4. 1/4  mile, about 10 minutes in outdoor pool, laps

That was it!  I only swam four (really 3) times to train for this years race.  This was part dislike of swimming and part reluctance to join a gym.

Back to the numbers – I crushed my T1 time (Transition 1, from swim to bike) by more than five minutes.

I got killed on my bike time, was about 30 minutes behind last years pace, but I had the 20 minute flat delay.

I killed it on the run, beating my time from last year by ten minutes!

6ish hours later, a happy Mark at the finish line

2008 results:

Mark Scheel – Ironman 70.3 Race Results

Race	Ovr Pos	Gdr Pos	Cat Pos	Time	Bib No	Athlete	Links	Cat	Country Rep	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	City	State	Country	Q I	Q I7
70.3 Rhode Island 2008	756	596	107	6:06:47	524	Mark Scheel		M30-34	United States	40:42	11:06	3:05:15	3:56	2:05:49	Denver	CO	United States

2009 Results:

1014 1669 M30-34 Mark Scheel          DENVER               CO        us  34   M  963   39:09  1:52    5:48 1215 3:32:14  15.8    4:17   55:56  511 1:55:04  8:47         6:16:29

Despite the mishaps, I had an amazing time.  Having loved ones cheer you on might be the best runner’s high there is, and finishing a race strong and setting personal best’s feels really good.  I defintely like the pattern of these last two years, doing a post-snowboarding marathon and a mid-summer 70.3 event.

Notes for next year:

Train out at Chatfield Reservoir more, what a cool place for open water training (Master’s club?)

Upgrade hand pump to a CO2 canister system

Forget the wetsuit, who needs it!

Pack a powerbar in your run bag for T2

More than a dozen people showed up from Boulder and Denver but less participated.  After the event at least five non-participants  said they would do it next year.  It was a modest success, and fun to bring people together and share a sport that I enjoy.

By providing a non-competitive environment, and a reasonably priced (free) venue, I hope it has opened up the concept.  Half of this year’s participants had never done a triathlon before.

A super sprint is half of a sprint distance triathlon.  It is a 1/4 mile swim (in my heated pool), a 6.2 mile bike ride (through James A. Bible Park, the Highline Canal Trail, and a few blocks of the Tamarac neighborhood), and a 1.5 mile run (through Hutchinson Park).  The fastest time, by recipient of the coveted Beaver trophy John Stephan, was 43 minutes and 22 seconds.  Everyone finished in under an hour.

Although everything went pretty smoothly, the only race issues happened (predictably, some might say) in the bike portion of the race in Bible park.  There should have been better course markings and the pedestrians were a hazard (and we to them).  Otherwise the  race was perfect, with cloud cover cooling the morning, and a quiet well marked course and tons of transition space.  The only other issue was too much food! Almost every guest left with a tupperware full of something or unopened drinks.

Please consider participating next year, either in the Triathlon, or in the grilling and drinking fun, including what was dubbed the world’s largest hot tub.  There were on-site showers and bathrooms, a full kitchen and a two pool recreation area.  Get in touch if you want in on the fun.  I would love to have you as my guest and fellow race entrant!

I know a lot of people wanted to participate but couldn’t modify their holiday weekend plans.  Lesson learned, next year will not be scheduled over the 4th of July weekend.

I have put up some pictures on Flickr:

Pictures

The 2009 Menu:

Fruits for post-race with Gatorade

Chips and Salsa

Turkey, Steak burgers

Fish and Shrimp Tacos

Root Beer  and Vernor’s Floats

Booze

Final email:

This Sunday its bbq time in Southeast Denver!

I am trying to get a solid headcount so I can get food and drinks for everyone.  Please RSVP as soon as possible, by
email.

If you are vegan, gluten-free, or vegetarian, get in touch so I can make sure I have you covered, please.

The address of the clubhouse at my place is 3280 S. Oneida Way 80224, there is plenty of free parking.  If you get lost
call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Google Maps should guide you in just fine.

You don’t need to bring anything, there will be plenty of food and drink for everyone.  Do bring kids if you have them,
there is a kiddie pool.

If you are doing the Tri, the start time is when you decide, I will chalk the course about 7:30AM, and be at the pool
about 9AM, the best start time would be between 9 and 11AM (to finish before it gets too hot).

I’ll have food ready about noon for the barbeque.

Please bring swimwear and towels if you plan on swimming and keep in mind there are full showers if you want to clean up
at any point.

If you have any questions about what amenities are available please ask,

- Mark

I missed my train station and kept riding all the way out of San Clemente before realizing my mistake.   I have already seen La Jolla, Torrey Pines,  Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlbad,  Oceanside and then a stretch of 25 miles through Camp Pendleton that felt more like a Terminator ride at Universal Studios with combat maneuvers involving helicopters and tanks literally happening beside and above me.  It was pretty cool.

But right now I am dying for some food, and so I go with the choice of champions everywhere.  Dominos.  For some unknown reason I can find a hundred asian restaurants but not one mexican place and so a pizza it is.  I about swallow it whole and piece together a plan.

I take a commuter train 20 miles south, and then the last local bus another 15 miles south, and several hours later, in the pitch black and cold I get in the saddle again.  I arrive close to midnight having gone over 100 miles.  I slept well my friends.

San Diego is a cool place, its expensive, but gorgeous when you can see the water, people are well educated and outdoors-y for the most part.  I had planned to bike out of the airport, a first for me, but my bike got lost (lets be honest, TSA didn’t know what to make of it) and came out a flight later and was delivered to me.  I ended up running a half marathon instead to get supplies at a local wal-mart.  I found the experience of not renting a car to be more frugal, but also more zen-like enjoyable.  I met great people on public  transportation (buses and trolleys), saw the entire city, and had a more laid back attitude about what could be accomplished in a day.

I jogged or biked into La Jolla almost every day.  What a pretty place.  I enjoyed fish tacos at Taco Surf on Mission.  I had a ridiculous Ice Cream Sundae at the Ghirardelli store in the Gaslamp district.  Had more sweets at Extraordinary Desserts.  Sea Kayaked between seals and pelicans.  Swam in the Pacific Ocean (warm enough, too much kelp).

The unusual thing about San Diego is what a party town it is, it feels like  Vegas, with red carpets, bouncers and all kinds of VIP gimmicks.  Oh well, makes for less traffic on early morning runs and bikes.

Checked my luggage on the way back and went back into the city, via two buses to Balboa Park and made it back after a meal in time for the flight, which landed 30 minutes early!  Awesome!

Funniest moment of the trip was probably at Wal-Mart, I am trying to buy headphones (forgot mine because haven’t unpacked from Telluride yet) and these two overweight ladies are in my way and arguing about the merits of bass and their upcoming purchase.  Except they are saying bass like Chilean Sea-Bass, not treble and bass.  What a ridiculous language we have, I am not even sure why I know that treble and bass, is pronounced like bass.  And I feel bad about internally giggling at those ladies.  My apologies ladies.  Its a silly language.

If you have Google check out the Providence Ironman 70.3 and look me up, I’ll be in it July 12.  Likely won’t post anything until about the time I see Green Day in Denver August 15th.  But you never know.  Stay tuned friends.

Pictures:

Top of Soledad Mountain above Pacific Beach, guy in white just proposed to gf

Balboa Park

Looks like La Jolla but actually Point Loma (lighthouse)

San Diego County Fair - 80ish miles into bike ride

This is from an email I sent out previously:

I am back from Telluride, here are some pictures and a brief write-up. The summer of Mark marches on …

Wednesday morning left Denver around 7 to drive to Ridgway, which is South and West of Denver just over 300 miles.  The
landscape is beautiful, especially this year with all the rain Colorado has had.  Camped in Ridgway State Park with a
tent, and visited Ouray, which is a very cute Mountain town in a box canyon (think of a dead-end Mountain style, so
everywhere you look is a mountain face).  Hiked Cascade Falls.  Got up Thursday morning and ran around the park and then
it was off to Telluride.

Telluride is about 90 minutes away from Ridgway.  Again the landscape is beautiful, I have never been to Telluride and
couldn’t believe how pretty it was.  Through the generosity of friends we were able to pitch our tents in the backyard of
a gorgeous in-town house.  We even scored some coveted barricade passes allowing our car into town. The festival is so
well run that despite thousands of “festivarians” the town maintains its quaint feel.  The majority of attendees do not
stay or ever drive in the town of Telluride, most are a short gondola ride away in Mountain Village.  We were able to
walk back and forth from the festival, about six blocks to the house whenever we wanted a nap, a snack, or a break.

I don’t love bluegrass, but David Byrne of the Talking Heads played, a fantastic Irish band (they were in the steerage
scene of Titanic) called Gaelic Storm, and a few other surprises were fun.  I liked Sam Bush, Yonder Mountain String
Band, Railroad Earth, Elvis Costello and Todd Snider.  I got a 4 day pass for $155, which was very reasonable.  The
security was light, lots of families, not Bonnaroo like at all.  You could practically carry a six pack of beer in as
long as it was aluminum.  There was unlimited free water, and the food was mostly organic (not sure about the famous corn
dogs Johnny Cash said were the best he ever had, and I thought were gross) and very reasonable.

But the best thing was everything that could be enjoyed outside the festival (it was sunny everyday but Saturday and
there is 12 hours of music everyday, you can only bake in the sun and listen to music for so long).

Thursday I ran the Idarado Trail up into the Box Canyon that envelops Telluride.  Friday I hiked up to Bridal veill Falls
(if you have seen the movie UP check out the pictures of that insane house at the top of the falls, look familiar?).
Saturday I ran up one of the ski slopes (Telluride Trail, 1400 vertical feet) up to a midway Gondola station and rode the
gondola back down, and Sunday I took bikes up the Gondola to Mountain Village and road them back down into the valley and
town. Picking a different street in this tiny charming town every time you walked anywhere was another nice treat.  The
multimillion dollar houses are ridiculously cute.

Saturday our hosts threw a bbq and we got to play poker in the Billiards room where the Grateful Dead once hung out.  For
those of you familiar with T-ride, we were at 527 W. Galena which is the Carradine’s place.  The showers and bathrooms
sure made it a deluxe camping experience

After four days of music, beers, hula hoops (they make big very fun hula hoops nowadays, I am serious) and lots of sun,
it was time to go back to Denver, and I think everyone was very sad to see the valley of Telluride in our rear view
mirror.

It is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and I was shocked to find it within our borders, in the
good old USA.

Go visit Telluride, you won’t be dissapointed–especially if you go in mid-June when the weather can be perfect.

- Mark

PS I am obsessed with Marmots, I saw my first Marmot on a Frisco to Vail and back bike-ride / fly-fish biathlon early
last week and saw several more in Telluride.  I hear they are as common as house cats, but to me they might as well be unicorns, only lazier.

I biked from Grand Lake, Colorado to Granby, Colorado … a flat 35 miler.  I had lunch in Granby and it was delicious, just a simple turkey sandwich at a coffee shop (Lava something).

I had the best camping spot on this trip with noone around for miles, I took a nightly 5 mile hike into the hills above my spot and enjoyed the views.  I camped at almost 10,000 feet, so it was much higher altitude than last time.  There was a ton of easy to find firewood because of fire prevention activities, and the weather was CRAZY.  Welcome to June in Colorado.  It snowed my last day at slightly higher elevation and hailed daily (you go under a tree for five minutes and it passes).

The mountain biking was amazing in these parts, really fun single track that wasn’t too technical, and a ton of fun in the downhill.

I got a better water container this time, and a solar shower which worked pretty well.  I tried to make popcorn in a pan and that didn’t go very well.  Fresh veggies, brown rice and fish for lunch, five mile hikes before dinner and running/road biking/mountain biking for a week and I finally hit the weight target I wanted for my marathon

And I got to eat all the smores I wanted!

Here are some pictures:

And an email excerpt I sent to some friends:

Last week I explored Arapaho National Forest, specifically Stillwater Pass, which is above Grand Lake, near Gramby on the
“quiet side” of Rocky Mountain National Park.

It was quiet alright, there was no one camped near miles of me.

I had mountain biking and jeeping trails right out my “back door”, and took a beutiful 5 mile hike every night before
dinner into the hills above my camping spot (elevation: 9700 feet).

I brought my road bike, mountain bike and running shoes, it was a perfect place to train for my triathlon!

The last morning it snowed at higher elevation and the highway I was expecting to take home (trail ridge road) was
closed.  I had to take US40 over Berthoud Pass to get back to Denver.

Not much new on this trip, I upgraded to a large rainfly for my rain shelter (it rained or hailed a little bit every day
so this was nice), I got some folding tables to make cooking a little easier, and I got a bigger water container (7
gallons) and a solar shower.

I haven’t quite got the hang of driving the trailer, I backed into a 100 foot tall tree on my way out of camp the last
morning.  Not my finest moment

Next up is some camping by Ouray and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Then no more camping until August as I explore the
world by more conventional (plane/hotel) methods (San Diego, Boston/Providence and South Africa).