Michael Dunn

Back in August, 2011 I cheered my Dad on as he ran Pikes Peak Ascent (the 1/2 marathon) and when he finished I promised him and myself that I would do the Pikes Peak Marathon with him in 2012. Having had no running base prior to that I sure had a long road ahead of me. Since then I did the Day of the Tread 5K in Albuquerque, Duke City 10K in Albuquerque and now completed this 1/2 Marathon. With my time (2:26:03) I qualified for Pikes Peak Ascent. This will be my back up plan just in case I don’t qualify for the marathon. BUT, I won’t need a back up plan! I need to run a full marathon in less than 5.5 hours to qualify for Pikes Peak Marathon before March 1, 2011. I am set to run the IMS marathon in Phoenix February 19, 2012 and am hoping for a time of 5 hours or less.

I must say I had a BLAST at the Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon. The feeling is truly 1 of a kind. It was amazing how many people came out to support this race and cheer us all on! It seemed like there were spectators, cheerleaders, bells, bull horns, whistles, signs (you name it) on every inch of that course. In some places the crowd was 2 or 3 people deep! It was well supported with plenty of hydration stations. Mile 5-7 I was still feeling fresh and ready to conquer the world! Mile 8 for some reason I had second thoughts of why I was running but that only lasted about a minute or so. I think anyone that has run any sort of distance at some point has these thoughts go thru their head. I just blew it off and kept running. Mile 12 I saw my buddy Charlie and he gave me huge high five and kept me pumped up prior to crossing the bridge. He said I crossed a bridge but I don’t remember it. Obviously I had to cross the bridge because I didn’t swim in the lake to get to the other side! Who knows, all that excitement was a blur! Somehow right at Mile 13 I spotted Stephen in a crowd of thousands of people (probably because he was cheering frantically) then momentarily after that I saw my Dad, Christine and Paul. It was such a great feeling having them there cheer me on!! I ran as fast as I could to cross the finish line with a BIG smile. What a day!!

@twittelators's salsa

Sorry this post is so late but we had another successful Chile Cook off this year with only one little snag that I can think of. The snag? Well, most of you know that I NEVER go to ANY event without taking a single picture. Thats right, I hosted this entire event and did not take 1 picture! Zip, zero….zilch! I am not too sure how that slipped by me but it did. The image  you see here was the salsa that @twittelator entered for the cook off and I took this picture when I got home. It was HOT!! Tasty but hot! For those of you that missed the event click here to see what it was all about. http://charitychilecookoff.eventbrite.com/

On to the good stuff….. we raised 178 cans,
14 miscelaneous boxes of food items,
8 rolls of toilet paper, 2 starkest tuna kits and 2 uncle ben ready rice kits for the  Road Runner Food Bank in Albuquerque!!!

Congratulations to the door prize winners: Marcos & Linda (@lrockwellatty) who won items from Hippy Chix Store (@505jc), @twittelator won a gift certificate to Albertsons grocery store, an anonymous winner (I did not catch the persons name) won a gift certificate to Vernon,s Prime Gourmet Sandwich shop and last but not least to @Clausw and the Hancock family who Sandia Peak Tram Passes.

Who won the Chile Cookoff??

Best over all Chile winner was Wendy Forbes (@wendy92) who won a gift certificate to Vernon’s Hidden Valley Steakhouse!!

Hottest Chile winner went to @twittelator who also won a gift certificate to Vernon’s Hidden Valley Steakhouse!!

We had a ton of good chile and raised a lot of items to donate to the Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque!! Thanks again to all who attended and all who donated door prizes! Also many thanks to Vernon’s Prime and their staff for allowing this event to take place at their restaurant. They were awesome hosts!! Until next year……..

Salmon snagging season started last Thursday at midnight. As usual, we go to the lake about mid day on Thursday to set up our camp and save a few spots for some other people in our group. The weather was absolutely beautiful during the day but got really cold at night. Fishing was pretty slow compared to the last few years. In years past we have fished at the boat ramp along with a bunch of other people and been fairly successful. This year the fishing was slow and by Saturday there were just a few people on the boat ramp and a few times there was nobody at all. Friday and Saturday we decided to go to “Salmon Run” down the way a bit where there were a lot more people! We did end up catching many more fish there than we did at the boat ramp but still was not nearly as many as we have in years past. I ended up catching my first and what turned out to be my only fish on the 3rd day of our trip!  All in all we had a great time and the weather was good. Luckily it didn’t start snowing until the last day when we were driving out.

YouTube Video of Salmon Run

Panoramic Photo if Boat Doc of Heron Lake while Salmon Snagging

I have to give my Dad a shout out today! HE is the best Dad ever. He raised me as a single parent, was full time active duty in the Air Force, graduated from UNM with a double major in Political Science and Russian studies and to re-emphasize had to deal with me full time growing up. No matter what he always set a great example! Thanks Dad