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Imaginatively Running

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My life is a movie, or rather, I pretend I am in a movie during my life. Sometimes it’s a spy movie, sometimes it’s a comedy and frequently when I run it’s an action adventure.

Why am I telling you these personal things that could and most likely will be used to tease me at the bar after a run? To help you of course. Let’s use my mile repeats from tonight as an example. Friend’s ask, “How come your last repeat is fastest?”

Lets get scientific for a hot second. Below are the repeats.
5:53 – 6:18 – 5:54 – 6:03 – 5:49 – 5:41

To you, these may look like mile repeats, but they are actually scenes in a movie. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Scene 1 = 5:53
Opening credits are over (my warm up) and things start to heat up. I’m headed to the office, I work for special ops and am needed there fast. What could be the trouble? Is it the Russians again?

Scene 2 = 6:18
Turns out my office is at the top of Harlem Hill, go figure. At the office I learn that it’s the Albanians. They have a bomb and are gong to blow up a landmark.

Scene 3 = 5:54
I take off, in search of the Albanians. Our sources say that they are fast, and we aren’t sure if our mark is a man or a woman. I keep moving, scanning everything in front of me, looking for something fast.

Scene 4 = 6:03
It’s getting busy down on the Southwest side of Central Park, but up ahead I see a woman moving at break neck speed. Could it be our mark? I slowly reel her in and then I notice a man trailing her. I don’t want to make my move now, too many people, but this is the guy. We pass the female and play leap frog.

Scene 5 = 5:49
Who is this guy?! Who does he work for?! He looks more Irish than Albanian and I’m puzzled. Was my intel misled? As I try and box him out he realizes what’s happening. “We’re on the same team man!,” he yells. I let him come up along side and he explains the dastardly plot. The Albanians are planning to blow up the Fred Lebow statue at Engineers Gate! “Fuck that!,” I yelled. “We can’t let that happen!” Our speed picks up and he doesn’t look good. “Go on without me, I’ll be fine, just stop the Albanians from destroying Fred’s statue!”

Scene 6 = 5:41
I have 1 Mile and no time to get to Fred to stop the bombers. As I start swinging my arms I ‘rev’ up (think… the sound that the Delorean makes when Marty breaks 88 MPH) and blast ahead.

Every movie I have ever seen from ‘Top Gun’ to ‘Bullitt’ is racing through my veins. I summoned every ounce of energy I have left to rocket forward, stopping those foolish Albanians.

I pass people looking like a crazy sweaty Irishman, panting and hanging on for dear life. I see the Fred Lebow statue in the distance and as I pass him I have beaten the Albanian to the punch and saved the day. Also, that was my best mile split, U.S.A. wins and I win. ‘Win win’ I believe they say?

So… I encourage everyone to live your run in a movie, and in the last scene kill it!

The Albanians used in this story were fictional. Christopher Baker holds no bias towards Albania, Albanians or Captain Lou Albano.

 

The Galway Bay Gallop

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What do runners do on St. Patrick’s Day? We integrate beer into our running.

Maura (who is from Galway) designed a very fun and difficult race for the Rogue Runners called the Galway Bay Gallop. The race was an out and back, 4 miles total. The catch? At each turn around point you had to either take a shot of whiskey or chug a beer, 3 drinks in total. The prize purse was as follows: a bottle of Irish Whiskey, a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream, or a delightful package of Irish smoked salmon sponsored by Galway Bay Seafoods.

The next day was the NYC Half Marathon so a lot of our friends weren’t running in the Galway Bay Gallop. Also, since I was to be cheering all day during the Half I decided to get in my 18 Miler before the race. This was a poor decision.

Abbe and I showed up at the 102 Transverse to find a group of 15 people preparing!

In order to make Rogue Runner races fun, handicaps are put in place to equalize the playing field. Maura took everyone’s 4 mile race time and set up wave starts. I got to start last with a 14 minute deficit on the leaders. This is why maybe doing an 18 miler before hand was stupid. My poor legs did not feel like running at all.

At Maura’s command the first group, led my Tracy, started chugging their beers and were off. SIDENOTE: We were all really concerned with getting pinched by the cops. I later learned that it’s only a $25 ticket and not jail time. Game on.

I think there were 9 runners total. Matt6 and I were the last to go. As he set off chasing the pack I still had to wait a couple minutes to start, a difficult task considering Matt6 is no slow poke.

With 1 minute to start I prepared my Porkslap Ale. As Maura counted down to zero I attempted to chug my Ale. I’m not much of a ‘chugger’ really, never have been, so I just drank quickly. After my tasty beverage I set of with a running fury. I immediately felt like my chest was going to explode from all the carbonation! I was run-burping along the West Side Rollers, not really enjoying myself. It was quite painful in fact, not just the beer in ma belly, but trying to trick my trashed legs to run again. Clearly, my body was like “Hey Baker, we already ran today and were super excited when it was over. What’s the deal?”

As I was running I kept looking way ahead, wondering when I would see the first group on their return trip and the impossible task of trying to catch them.

It wasn’t long. Tracy appeared about 1.5 miles into my first leg of the race. She was cooking too. We laughed and high fived.

Soon after I saw a small group trailed by Matt6. Ironically, just as I was feeling good I was arriving at the second ‘Aid’ station to drink my next drink. Abbe, Claire and Erica were awaiting and cheering me on. They had a beer prepared, but in the interest of time I yelled to them that I would do a whiskey shot instead. Abbe prepared the concoction and I downed it, chasing after the group.

In case you have never run in Central Park, the West Side Rollers are no joke. Having to do them twice was brutal. Using my blurred eyesight I was constantly scanning runners ahead of me looking for my targets. Son enough I saw 2 of the gals from the original lead group. I passed them and shouted hello, continuing my search for the leaders.

By now the booze had numbed the pain in my legs enough so that I was actually trucking along at a decent pace. I rounded the bend into the transverse and saw the group chugging their final drinks! I had come in 7th Place. Tracy had held a great pace (she even had a 2 minute PR) and won the overall race!

After all the runners were in Maura had a fantastic awards ceremony. So many fun prizes! In the interest of St. Paddy’s Day we all went out for a couple more beers to celebrate. Thanks for organizing this one Maura, it was great!

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Congrats to all my peeps who ran in the NYC Half Mary the following day! Especially to Abbe, who rocked a 30 minute PR!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring-a-ling

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Being a February baby, I tend to really dig winter. Snow, ice skating, and not sweating on the way to work. However, I am also an endurance athlete so I have really enjoyed the non-winter aspects of this particular winter.

Saturday I had a 3 hour trainer ride queued up, because my coach thinks it’s winter here. But guess what? The gods have been smiling down on us as of late and it was 55 degrees! You better believe I rode outside!

I blasted around Central Park and on down into the Financial District. On my way back up, zig-zagging across town and back again, making sure all my favorite places were in tact, I decided to eat some pizza. Not just any pizza, I wanted some of the best pizza NYC has to offer. I have been here 12 years and have a very specific opinion on everything, especially food related topics.

SIDENOTE: Back in the day… we used to go to Doc Holiday’s Bar every Tuesday night for ‘all u can drink beer’ for $5! Cheapest night in ol Manhattan hands down. For dinner we would go to Nino’s Pizza beforehand on Avenue A and 8th Street. Its some of the best pizza in New York and you can argue all you want with me, this is truth.

The cool thing about Nino’s Pizza and bikes is that they have a take out window! I rode right up – Drive Thru Style – to order my pizza. This older guy greets me with a smile and a “My friend! Where have you been!” It was the same guy that used to serve me my pizza years ago. I explained that drinking my face off on Tuesday’s nights doesn’t fly these days for me.We chatted while I ate my slice then I went on my merry way.

I decided to digest before continuing my ride, so I walked up to 14th. Another cool thing happened as I was walking. I had my track bike with me instead of my Tri bike as the workout didnt call for shifting of gears or brakes. Crossing the street this messenger kid with his track bike looked at me, then down at my bike. He then said, “Hey, that is a beautiful bike!” I smiled and thanked him.

The end of my day was spent walking around my new neighborhood (I’m moving in a month or two, but it’s still the same general area) with a bowl of ice cream. I strategically stayed on the sun lit sides of the street, basking in my sunny ice cream glory.

Go Saturday!

Sunday was spent doing a progression (long) run. “Oh what’s that? It sounds fun!” It’s not. It’s pain in long increasing doses.

I warmed up then started my run maintaining 7:30s. It was a beautiful day in Central Park once again. Next, 45 minutes later, I picked it up to 6:45s. Oh, now we’re having fun. Then, another 45 minutes later I picked it up again to 6:15s for 15 minutes. Get it? Progression. Yes, pain progression.

All kidding aside, I loved this workout. Boston is coming up fast and I need to be ready.

Ah New York, such a great city. I also found out today that my screen printing teacher from art college (who was awesome) is a runner and is friends with some of the Runner Army! Small world right?!

 

 

 

 

 

Did somebody say Chobani Yogurt?

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So I’m on Twitter the other day and a few of my running friends (who am I kidding, all of my friends on Twitter are Runners or Triathletes) were talking about how good Chobani is. Being that most of these people are female athletes I tend to ignore strange references because otherwise I accidentally enter a give-away to win a Lululemon yoga outfit or something. Today, I decided to ask, “What is this Chobani all of you are talking so highly of?” Shortly after Chobani’s twitter handle mentioned me, explaining that they make exceptional greek yogurt. I love greek yogurt. It’s like man-yogurt. A few moments after that my friend Lindsay, who works for Chobani, saw my tweet that I had never tried Chobani before. She said she had to change that.

2 weeks later a huge box of Chobani Yogurt arrived at the office! I’m a photographer so I figured I’d do a lil product shoot before I ate them…

Chobani is amazing. It has the bite of greek yogurt mixed perfectly with whatever flavor you have chosen. The 2 I have tried so far are Honey and Vanilla, both exceptional.

Aside from taste, Chobani is very healthy. It uses no artificial ingredients, gluten free, and no synthetic growth hormones. If you like greek yogurt I would highly recommend trying Chobani. (Its sold in most major markets and is everywhere in NYC!)

The New York Hot Dog Challenge

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2.5 miles, 1 hour and 10 hot dogs are quite deserving of the word ‘challenge.’ 10 competitors set out to take the challenge and come home with the grand prize of $225.

The last few weeks before the race there was a lot of buzz going around. “Who has the best odds?” “Who is the craziest?” “Does it even matter if you are a fast runner?” We had a generous outpouring of donations to create the grand prize of $225! (Thanks to all who donated to make the race exciting and bit more rewarding for the challengers!) We also had a total of 10, that’s right 10 racers signed up to compete! This was a New York Rogue Runners race so all you need to do to race is show up on game day.

I really enjoyed all the playful trash talking between everyone as well.

Wayne’s World flashback… (waving hands)

The concept for this race was born 7-10 years ago. As I was walking with friends Mirko and Benny (I wasn’t even a runner at the time) we laughed at a crazy idea. “What if you had to run through midtown and every time you passed  hot dog cart you had to eat one!” Such a sick and twisted idea. I loved it. Little did I know, years later I would be friends with a group of athletes crazy enough to pull it off!

The rules (seemed) simple enough. Follow the course map that I was to release the night before the race (to deter cheating) and eat a hot dog at every designated cart. Finish first without puking, win the prize.

RACE DAY

We met at the Mall in Central Park, a very scenic place (and iconic for any runners) to start a race. Everyone started arriving with huge smiles on their faces, excited to see what lay in store for all of us. I too, was giddy. The race itself had never been done, so the outcome was unknown. Would anyone finish? Would there be survivors?

Once all the competitors arrived I made a few race announcements and answered any questions. I was happy to not be racing, especially since eating competitions are really not my forte. The quick decision was made for all competitors to eat their first dog together at the cart stationed close by. As soon as they were done eating, they could start running the course.

(Thanks for the pics Elyssa!)

Tao, not a runner but a proclaimed eating machine, finished his dog in record time and immediately set off with 2 refs (Laura and Laura) following close behind.

We had 7 referees (including me) to follow the runners and make sure they stayed on course, ate each dog and didn’t puke.

One by one the rest of the gang finished their dogs and set off. I ran along with the middle group at first, chatting with Jim from ‘Dad Posse’ and TJ who were both setting a speedy pace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carts 1 and 2 were right outside the Park on adjacent corners. The leaders lined up and ordered their dogs, chowing down as soon as the exchange took place. (Lines were one of the unforeseen variables in the race) In the lead after Cart 2 was Matt 6, Neal and Tao. I was running along with the trailing group, TJ, Jim and Bojana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was notified by Abbe that Cart 3 wasn’t there (another unforeseen factor). I told her to wave runners on to Cart 4, luck was on their side… for now.

As we arrived at Cart 4 or ‘Baker’s Pass’ as I deemed it on the map because I work across the street, Matt had already taken off, Tao and Neal following shortly after. I sprinted ahead to catch up with Matt and Maria (who was reffing him) to make sure we were on course.

Arriving at Carts 5 and 6, or ‘Dead Man’s Corner’, one of the carts was missing so to Matt’s dismay we picked the next closest cart. We had to keep with the theme of ‘Dead Man’s Corner’ after all. While here, Tao and Neal caught up to Matt. Things were really getting exciting!

Tao finished first and took the lead.

The last 4 Carts were picked strategically. They were in a row on every block, cutting through Times Square, Hot Dog Cart Capital of the Free World. I dubbed this stretch ‘The Gauntlet’ and it would live up to it’s name.

I caught up to Tao at Cart 7. He proclaimed to not be a runner, but he was putting down a great pace for having 6 hot dogs floating around his belly. Just as he was finishing Matt arrived. It was going to be close. Tao took off to Cart 8 while Matt plowed through his 7th hot dog of the day. (You can’t run with the dogs, you must finish them before moving forward)

With the 3rd and 4th place runners nowhere in sight I stuck with the leaders to see how it was to play out.

Barreling into Times Square, Matt was at Cart 8 and Tao was at Cart 9 directly across the street! The 2 competitors were literally eating and watching each other.

I bolted ahead to the last Cart. I was really hoping it would be there as it was a crucial element in the race. You couldn’t see it as you approached which is why I chose it. A lot of the racers were hopeful that maybe the last Cart didn’t show up for work and they could keep running to the Finish. Incorrect.

As Tao arrived he looked less than excited to eat his 10th hot dog. Tourists nearby were watching us (as they had all day) in wonder. He wolfed the last dog down and took off, 1/2 mile separating him and victory.

Matt arrived seconds later, knowing he had a decent shot of overtaking Tao if he could just eat the hot dog fast. I took off down an alternate route to see the finish.

The Finish line was right in front of Rudy’s Bar, one of the last true dive bars left in NYC. 12 years ago it was my hangout, but why end it here on a hot dog run? Because you get served free hot dogs in the bar as long as you are ordering drinks!!!

As I arrived Tao had just finished taking the number 1 slot! He had been cooking that last stretch. Matt came in about a minute after him to take number 2! Both men were in rough shape and needed ‘a minute’.

It was at least 5 minutes before our number 3 position came into view. It was Bojana, our first female finisher!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then came Neal and TJ, neck and neck followed by Jim, Dennis and finally Bethaney!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claire and Gillian both took DNF’s for the day but gave it a worthy shot!

Everyone finished in under an hour and Tao came in at roughly 40 minutes! Impressive.

All of us moved inside to Rudy’s to celebrate. We had a small awards ceremony where I presented Tao with his Medal and $225! He saluted us by chugging a beer. True story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all stayed for awhile laughing at the whole fiasco. It was really interesting hearing everyone’s different take on the race and where it went astray.

 

It was the first race of this kind and I think it went fantastic! I had a blast following the lead racers. Congrats to everyone who participated in this difficult race and thanks to everyone for volunteering and coming out to play!

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Beer to City Bakery to Breakage

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I happen to win a few bottles of the Cardiac Crusher Brewery’s Citron Hefeweizen a few weeks ago and told Joe I would give it a proper critique.

After one of my longer runs last week I sat down to enjoy one of them. To me, one of the most enjoyable things after a hard sweaty run is an ice cold beer. Such a reward. The Citron poured with a sweet aroma, similar to that of a root beer, with a reddish brown hue. It looked delicious. It certainly tasted delicious too! I was expecting a lighter hefeweizen, similar to a Hoegaarden, but it was richer in flavor. It reminded me of my favorite beer, Schneider Weisse! I would definitely drink this again and even purchase it in large quantities! Hats off to the Cardiac Crusher Brewery.

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I’m happy to say the New York Rogue Runners ‘E’s Run to City Bakery’ was a success. We had 15-20 runners assemble in Central Park and make our way down to City Bakery by way of the West Side path. It was great company and a lot of fun! (Banana Hot Chocolate? Insane delicious!) This weekend is the New York Hot Dog Challenge which I am thrilled about. If you don’t want to take the challenge, come out and spectate.

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Training has been back in full swing the ;art month and Sonja has me amping up my workouts. Little did I know that the day after Superbowl Sunday she would throw a crazy speed workout at me! (She never gives me speed workouts, what gives?)

I had to do 5×1200’s on the track at a 5:50 – 6:10 pace with a short 1/4 mile break between. I knew I was in for a hurting.

As I started the first interval I felt fast, but internally my body was like “Whaaaaaaaaat?” I thought I might just do one interval and call it quits, blaming poor eating the night before.

Then, as I finished I did my lil 1/4 Mile jog and thought, “Okay, one more.” After the second I said the same thing and it kind of went like that until I just finished up the intervals. I felt like I was dramatically slowing down each time, but I actually held the pace I was scheduled for. Sweet.
Here are my splits. You can see me starting to fade.

Lap 1 = Time 4:16 Pace 5:45
Lap 2 = Time 4:22 Pace 5:44
Lap 3 = Time 4:24 Pace 5:57
Lap 4 = Time 4:26 Pace 6:00
Lap 5 = Time 4:30 Pace 6:06

When I was done I was really happy I didn’t give up on myself. I was also not attacked my werewolves. It was a full moon and quite desolate out there by NYC standards and I kept thinking I would be attacked by were wolves right as I was getting tired and couldn’t escape.

Cardiac Crusher Brewery 4 Miler

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What’s so cool about being a part of the New York Rogue Runners? You get to design races!

The Cardiac Crusher Brewery 4 Mile Prediction Race (conceptualized by Joe) is a race in which you guess when you will finish. Runners cannot have any timing devices on them and the winner is whom ever comes in closest to their predicted time. It’s brilliant in design because it really doesn’t matter if you are a fast runner, what matters is understanding and listening to your own body.

We all arrived at the 72nd Street Transverse and put on our bibs. There were 6 racers (New York Rogue Runners is a relatively new group so I expect it to pick up as the season progresses.) Joe showed us the prize of Cardiac Crusher Brewery Citron Hefeweizen and then did his best Peter Chacha (CHA CHA!) impression, going over the course. Then, each of us gave our predicted times, mine being 24:30 which meant I was really going to set it off if I wanted to win. Since Sonja rarely lets me train anaerobically, I was looking forward to letting loose.

Joe set us off and I immediately just started running at I guess what I would call my 5K pace. Not having any timing device is strange and yest at the same time, very freeing.

I took it easy going up Cat Hill and then opened up a bit, feeling a little heavy. Perhaps it was the 20 degree weather holding me back?! I hate running in the cold. The 102 Transverse was a blessing. In my head I knew I was at the halfway point.

The ‘West Side Rollers’ proved a bit difficult because that’s when the wind picked up. I did, however start to feel really good at this point. What’s funny about these Rogue Races is that the other 90% of the runners out there have no idea there is a ‘race in progress.’ You get very puzzling looks from people when they see the homemade bibs. I also find it slightly upsetting as I am passing other runners and then realize, “Oh wait, these folks are just out for their run, they aren’t racing you dummy.”

Cruising up to the Finish, they called my time out at 25:14, 44 seconds off my prediction! Not terrible I suppose.

Shortly after the rest of the gang came through… Claire, Robin, Elyssa, Amy and Maura. The big winner was Robin, who was only 13 seconds off her predicted time! I came in 2nd Place (Amy in 3rd), earning me 2 of Joe’s coveted Citron Hefeweizen! Sweet, a Beer prize! (review of his brew to come later)

Thanks to Joe for his excellent design of the Prediction Race!

Don’t forget runners, on February 4th is E’s Run to City Bakery followed by the New York Hot Dog Challenge on February 11th.

 

Swim Karma

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Most of you know, it’s real hard getting me in the pool. It’s been a life-long struggle.

As I was walking to the pool today I thought about how crowded it always is, being in the most populated city on the east. Smiling, I thought about how much money I would be willing to pay to have my own private pool, even just my own personal lane.

Arriving at the pool it was indeed jumping. From Masters Classes, to Kids Classes to the regular solo swimmers (me) it was a frenzy. I choose the lane along the wall, the ‘slow lane’. There were 2 women doing some drills and seeing as how that was part of my workout we quickly meshed into a rhythm. SIDENOTE: Why is there no ‘E’ in rhythm? Seriously, say it aloud and be mystified.

A few minutes into my session the gals left, leaving me to my buoys and paddles. I could see people really flooding in from the entrance across the way and knew it was a matter of time before my lane would be overrun.

Then, as I was wrapping up a set, the lifeguard flagged me. Next to him was a blind man waiting to swim. “Excuse me, he normally swims along the walk. Do you mind splitting the lane with him? I will close the lane to just you two.”

For the next hour I had my own personal lane in Manhattan’s only Olympic Pool! I couldn’t help but think of how weird it was that I was wishing it on the way to the pool. Was this blind swimmer some sort of guardian angel? Maybe he is the ‘swim genie?’ One thing was for sure, the guy was a fantastic swimmer and was lapping me left and right. I even slowed up to study his form as he cruised by. I thought about making friends with him so we could takeover entire lanes for the rest of our lives…

Exhausted, I departed for home very satisfied and extremely inspired.

 

 

Steamboat Springs snowboarding adventures

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I was quite excited (and honored) this year when I was invited to the annual ‘Dave Lewis Ski and Snowboarding Conference.’ It’s not really called that… yet.

Abbe’s father Dave has been organizing family ski trips (minus Mama Lew as she isn’t much of a skier, but was missed) since they were teenagers. The three of them, Dave, Abbe and her older brother Rob are quite a force to be reckoned with on the slopes.

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Abbe and I left NYC at 4AM (correct 4AM and it wasn’t even an Ironman) to catch our first of two flights. You know it’s early in New York City when you’re leaving to travel and the bars are just letting out.

We arrived in Atlanta and rendezvoused with Dave and Rob. After another flight, we arrived in Steamboat Springs just after lunchtime. I was blown away by the majestic beauty of Colorado! Oh, that’s right, I have never been to Colorado so was super excited to see what it’s all about!

We checked into our hotel and headed over to Rex’s (attached to our hotel) for lunch. We spent a lot of time at Rex’s as the food is amazing and well, they serve booze a mere 100 yards from our rooms. We then went over to Steamboat and dropped off our boards for some waxing and sharpening followed by a Buffalo Wing Fest Dinner had by Dave, Rob and I. Abbe opted for a less spicy option. I also bought a helmet. This was a most intelligent decision based on future events.

DAY 1

We were up early and my body was treating it (as it would treat all 3 days) like a race day. Meaning, after breakfast I was drinking water and peeing A LOT! I guess it’s some psychological tic I have now developed.

We were at the slopes by 9AM and the gang let us start on some smaller runs first so I could get warmed up. I hadnt boarded in 2 years, let alone on the west coast!

I immediately started wiping out left and right. Most of you that know me understand that I am extremely competitive, especially with myself.At the bottom of run 1 we then hit the gondola to get to some of the more serious runs. It’s funny writing about runs.

For any of you who have yet to experience west coast skiing, aside from being beautiful, it’s scary. A 10,000 ft. peak isn’t something to underestimate. Standing on the summit, wind ripping across you as you stare at the endless horizon of Rocky Mountains you wonder how you are going to get down from this high place. Then, you look down and see your fate.

Before following the crew down this time (Abbe sensing my frustration) I got some pointers from Abbe. These helped out a lot.

Abbe also told me not to wear my race sunglasses, but I did. I took two serious diggers that day, the first of which shattered the sunglasses and had Abbe, arms folded, saying, “I guess you should have listened to me…”

We boarded that day until 2PM when Abbe and I dipped down to the outdoor bar at the base of the mountain. Dave and Rob have a lot more stamina for skiing/snowboarding so they kept at it for a few more hours.

Chillin’ out at the base, Longhammer IPA in hand, I realized just how much better west coast skiing is compared to east coast. The mountain of course is  6-10 times the size. The people are so cool. It’s not crowded. The design of everything is so much better, meaning all the bars and hang out areas were set up properly with fire pits and plenty of space. The east coast is just crowded, dirty and obnoxious. Rant over…

That night we had an awesome dinner at, yes you guessed it, Rex’s!

DAY 2

As I was walking down my hotel hallway I was jumped by a gang. They beat me up pretty bad. My legs were trashed, my arms hurt and my neck was even jacked up. Then, I woke up and realized, “No Baker, you were just snowboarding yesterday.”

Now, what I learned from DAY 1 was that I need to chill out and focus on my own personal fun. I was trying to keep up with the Lewis Crew all day (even though they had no problem waiting for me) and therefore I stressed myself out. Today, I was going to bust some moves on the slopes my own way and have fun doing so!

That’s exactly what happened. From run 1 my boarding skills had dramatically improved since the day before. I was more confident and carving down the slopes with a smile on my face. I even yelled a few times.

Another thing about the west is that the runs are so freaking wide! You don’t have to worry about running into anyone! (okay, a little bit you do.) I was having a blast and I only fell maybe one time. After that fall, Rob gave me a piece of advice on my posture that was a game changer for me. No more bad falls. Pure carving.

Once again Abbe and I dipped out after lunch to chill slope side. It was absolutely beautiful out.

We headed back early as the Giants were playing 2:30PM our time and Abbe is a very serious fan. When her and Claire join forces and it’s very serious. We chilled at Rex’s watching the game before heading to sleep. Snowboarding makes you crazy tired!

DAY 3

Snow day! As we arrived at the base of the mountain and began our assent to the peak we could see the storm moving across the valley towards us. Jumping down the slope onto the first run the storm had reached us. It was pretty incredible. My snowboarding skills were at their peak, seeing as how this was the 3rd day, and I was having a blast carving down the mountain. Visibility was limited, but it made it kind of exciting.

Towards lunch, as I cruised down, I saw Abbe in front of me ‘man down.’ Dave and I scooted up to her to survey the damage and luckily she just banged up her knee. After her and I took one last run I escorted her off the slopes for some lunch.

Those of you who know me from years past know that I’m a big time ‘hot tubber’. I love ’em! Back at the hotel it was really snowing and I said to Abbe, “Lets hit the outdoor hot tub!” With no time to lose, we ran outside in our bathing suits and jumped in. It was amazing sitting out there as snow dumped on us while we relaxed in the comfort of the hot tub.

For dinner that night we hit a spot downtown called The Laundry. Excellent food. Bad service.

DAY 4

With our snowboarding adventures over we now had a full day of traveling to get back to Mighty Manhattan. I was not looking forward to it at all. Reality checks can be such buzz kills.

Big thanks to Dave for being our guide all weekend! Shout outs also go to Rob and Abbe for helping me out with tips and form advice!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bruce’s Memorial donations exceed $150,000

Posted on by Posted in All, Fitness 1 Comment

As many of you know, last May my father died after a 5 day battle with an infection caused by his Lymphoma. During his 2 year treatment, he always talked of how he never wanted another family to go through what we were going through. His dying wish was to raise money to find a cure for Lymphoma.

I am happy to announce that we have raised over $152,000.00 in his name to fight Lymphoma! I would just like to personally thank everyone who has donated to the cause and shown support over the last 6 months. It not only means a lot to me and my family, but to all the other families dealing with Lymphoma. Thank you.

This is the link to my father’s donation page. Our goal is to raise $1 Million Dollars over the next couple of years, so pass it along!

http://www.lymphoma.org/teammates/beyonddefeat