Driving back to Nevada

Driving back was a bit on an adventure. Coming out of Utah, we took a quieter road, a road less travelled and it seemed pleasant until it turned into a dirt road and we weren't entirely sure where we were. After 20 miles it met up with a main road again and I was quite pleased it did! Apparently such roads are not unusual in Utah.

It was a pretty long journey so I was pleased when Isaac offered to drive for a bit.

Snow Canyon, Dammeron Valley, Near St George, Utah

Erin showed me around Snow Canyon. She's spent years hiking around here. The rock formations are very pretty. This place has had some very interesting geology.



We even went for a bit of a run.

Zion National Park

There's lots to do in Southern Utah. Zion is less than an hour from St George so Erin took me there to show me around.

We picked up a couple of knarly climbers just outside the park. They had set out to climb a peak but had got a bit lost and climbed something else. They had been out there 3 days and didn't look as if they'd had much to drink for a while. Needless to say they were very pleased to get a lift back to their car.

We took the bus through the park (you can't drive it) and eventually got off at the Angel's Landing stop and hiked up there. Erin had told me it's and exposed scramble at the top, assisted with chains. She's done a lot of hard climbing so I wasn't quite sure how bad it would be, though as we climbed up we saw kids coming down so I hoped it wouldn't be too bad.

In the event it wasn't too bad at all and there was an amazing view from up there.

Highway 50 across Nevada to Utah - "America's Lonliest Highway"

Drove across Nevada with Erin and Isaac on Highway 50 "America's Lonliest Highway". In 400 miles across the state you don't see very many towns. By the time Erin got here she'd driven 16 hours from Seattle.

We arrived late at Erin's parents place and crashed. Luckily Grandma was prepared the next day with a Pirate-themed easter eggg 'treasure' hunt, accompanied by a very authentic treasure map.

My last working day for GE

It's official, this is my last working day for GE. Quite sad to be clearing out my cubicle at work in Minden.

Last day working for GE in cambridge

Today was my last day working for GE in Cambridge (I will finish completely from friday but will then have 6 weeks annual leave tacked on to the end of my work period).

I'd been working quite hard to get a presentation done and was very relieved to finally get it out of the way.

As I began to finish up ready to leave everyone crowded around my desk in one of those 'This is your life' type moments and presented me with a leaving card and a huge voucher for REI, an outdoor shop and my favourite store in the USA.

Washing machine repair

My neighbour Simon helped me figure out what was wrong with my washing machine and also knew where I could order parts for it. He ordered a heating element for me and I surprisingly quickly had opened the back of the machine, took out the old one, installed the new one and everything worked fine. Whole cost of job £20 ($40).

I thought I was going to have to buy a new one and was very satisfied to have fixed it.

Impington Swimming Club Chips and Sandwiches

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Originally uploaded by CarlMyhill.

Great to catch up with my friends at Impington Swimming Club, especially since it was the end of term 'Chips and Sandwiches' night. The only problem was that I was still doing the survivor challenge and so couldn't have any chips!

Bungay Black Dog Half Marathon (Suffolk, UK) - personal best 1:39:15

Adam encouraged me to run The Black Dog half marathon. Living over 7,300ft makes the prospect of a run at sea level very attractive.

With a respectably late start to the event we got going. It was pretty crowded for a while and difficult for Adam, Natale and me to stay together but after half a mile or so we were together and had some space. Despite the space I was far from settled. My heartrate was already around 170 (where it would stay for the whole race) and the pace was 7:15 min/mile and faster.

As we passed other runners we got a bit spread out again with Natale a little way behind. Adam did his usual thing of running with me for a bit and then dropping back to run with Natale. After 2 or 3 miles of this he decided to head off into the distance. As ever he encouraged me to keep up and had briefed Natale to pace me I think, when she caught me. Natale is a very solid runner and I fully expected to see her catch me throughout the rest of the race, especially towards the end but today I managed to stay ahead.

The course had some hills over the first 6 or 7 miles and was facing in to the wind with the remaining 6 miles mainly flat. For about 10 miles I was pacing at 7:15 min/mile pace and up to about 8 min/miles on the hills. This was averaging out just less than 7:30 pace, which I was very happy with.

By the 11th mile, as the course became easier I was disappointed to fade badly only just managing to stay below 8 min/mile pace for the last 3 miles.

My time from the official results was 1:39:15 but the actual time, allowing for crowds at the start, was probably around 1:38:55. I placed 67th of 445.

All entrants got a pretty cool lump of glass with a 3D image of a black dog in in it, which was pretty nice.

After the race I went for sunday lunch with Mum and Fred. Mum cooked the roast potatoes without fat for me due to my Survivor Challenge's no fat week.