Hi Trippers,

Just a quick mishmash of things today:

THE “KEEPIN’ KOOL” CONTEST CONCLUDED

Mashing with the mish.

I hope you enjoyed the weeklong contest featuring Kool ‘n Fit.

If you haven’t already, be sure to visit the Kool ‘n Fit website: Click here

And FYI, the winner of Day 5 of the contest is: ANDY BORDERS

Congrats to all of the winners and I’ll be sending out the prizes in the next day or so (aka as soon as I get to the post office to slap some postage on ’em).

SPENDING THE NIGHT AT SEA… KINDA

Historical… and haunted.

Thursday night Lindy and I spent the night onboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach. For those of you who don’t know, not only is this grand lady of the seas a cool museum, but it’s also a floating hotel.

You can check out the Queen Mary website: Click here

The Queen Mary was a beautiful ship in her heyday, but that day of hey is forever frozen around 1967. So, we did have to temper our expectations a little when it came to accommodations.

Oh, and check out the vintage “workout” equipment on display. LA Fitness, this was not.

Pumping iron 1940s style.

Sweating to the oldies… literally.

Not workout gear. Just the bridge of the ship… still cool.

FYI, Lindy kept smacking me because I hummed the theme to “Titanic” every time we went down the main staircase.

And did I mention that the Queen Mary is haunted? Not only is there a “paranormal” tour you can take, but ghostly things going bump in the night is standard fare for hotel guests.

So we got the “secret list” from the front desk that showed every room where guests supposedly had encounters with the supernatural. And YES, our room was on the list.

It seems A036 had an incident in the past where one of the guests felt a strange poking in the neck during the night (two words: Ghost Boner) AND their iPod started also playing backward.

Call out the friggin’ Ghostbusters and remember, “Don’t cross the streams.”

As it turns out our night was spectre free, which is probably for the best because I have a feeling if we had witnessed something, the hotel would have probably tacked on a “Ghost fee” or something to the bill.

Still a really fun time if you’re looking for something to do in town.

SATURDAY HILLS AND HUFFING

Going up?

Hot damn, it’s August. How the hell did we get through July so dang quickly?

After the craziness of ComicCon last weekend, I was ready to get back to some training and start prepping for my fall race schedule (rather packed y’all).

Today I decided to rack up a few hilly miles.

While I started my run at my homebase of Griffith Park, I quickly made my way out of the park and into Burbank.

I did a mixture of familiar roads with a little bit of “improvisation” (aka “running jazz”) thrown in for good measure as I made plenty of turns in search of hills.

Up, up, up on the way out and down, down, down on the way back.

Since I’ve got the Big Cottonwood Half Marathon in 6 weeks (which features a 3000 foot decline during the race) I’ve been trying to work my quads and incorporating more hill work into my long runs.

I was a little “off” today… maybe it was the summer heat, the hills, a ComicCon hangover… or a combination of the three, but I certainly did not bring my “A-game.”

Still, I logged 9.5 miles and am looking forward to ramping things up in the gym come Monday (need to kick up the intensity of my cross-training).

FREE RACE CONTEST ON MONDAY

Rocky Mountain High!

Let me say it again, just in case you missed it… FREE RACE!

On the house.

Comped.

Gratis.

Don’t cost a dime.

On Monday I’ll be doing my first ever race entry giveaway, to the REVEL Rockies Race (Marathon or Half Marathon).

The info hits at 7am, so be sure to check it out.

Have a great Saturday… and Run on!