july quick recap...

July was an eventful month for me...
the month started off with a return trip to Tulsa for the 2nd Annual TATUR Midnight Madness 50 miler. there were to things that I wanted to come out of this race...the first being an evening of the score with Billy Gebhart's brother Brian who had beat me by 8 lousy minutes in the previous year's race, and second I hoped to see Billy to be succesful in completing the race this year as, not for a lack of effort, he was unable to finish last year. as it turned out it would be a bittersweet day as i was able to totally spank billy's brother by over two hours (YEEHAW!!!!!!) but once again Billy feel short of finishing the race. it was truely amazing however to see the efort that he was putting into the race. I come se that he wanted it so bad. Hell I wanted it so bad for him too. but it wasnt meant to be on this day but i earned a whole new level of respect for Billy as he left nothing out there and had nothing to regret in the end. thank you for continuing to inspire me Billy! and as far as brian and I...well it was decided that we would have our tie bre aker at the first Anual Pumpkin Holler 100 to be held later in the year by TATUR.
July 4th - ARR Summer Series Race #3 - 4 on the 4th - after a flight back to Arizona on the 3rd a slow four miler was run on Inpendence Day.
July 9th - a trip to Holbrook for the Buckets of Blood 1/2 marathon... i entered this race just because of the name and because i thought that it would be neatto have a shirt that said it too. I was right...it was awesome and the race was fun too as it was trail run and it had rained the night before so the course was a bit muddy and more fun!

July 10th - the next day brought with it a trip down to Tucson for a favorite of mine...the Ev1 runs with the rosters race at the Old Tucson Studios Park. the rolling hills of this race adds a tough challenge to the fun aspect of the race as it starts at 5am and you get to run as the sunrises in the desert.

7/16 - flight to Vancouver
7/17 through 7/24 - 20th Anniversary cruise with Tammy to Alaska
7/24 through 7/27 - stay in Anchorage
7/27 through 7/30 - stay in Cordova, Alaska

7/30  - Alaska King Salmon Marathon - amazing flat and fast run (except the last 6 miles were uphill) past glaciers and the wilderness of the frozen frontier land. it was amazing but it also marked the end of the trip and my marriage as Tammy and I were set to seperate upon our return to the states. Thank you for 20 years Tammy.