After last week's trip to Santa Cruz Island, we all owe a huge thanks to Ernie. Not only did he make all the reservations and get us all into the right place at the right time (read: very early), he even managed to have about a hundred dolphins show up just at the right moment to accompany our boat for part of the ride over.
 

So – for anyone who is interested – a brief (ok – maybe not so brief) story of my first Triathlon.
 

Trail Runners Club    1988 – 2008
 
As I look back on the last 20 years the first thing that comes to mind is how much I’ve enjoyed the mountains, their gorgeous and challenging trails, the outstanding camaraderie we have experienced and the wonderful friendships we have formed with fellow runners. 
 
I have experienced many wonderful high-lights during these years. A few of them include:
 

Did you have a tough run last Sunday?  Here is how Mieko’s run went up in Washington –A very tough 50 mile trail run in the elements:

This is quite a group—These Trail Runners.  After you’ve been with the group for awhile, you get little tidbits from members, and after a bit you realize that some of your pals are pretty amazing.

Some people try in a lifetime to collect a postcard from each of the 50 United States. Others, like my crazy friend, Maureen, risk life and limb to collect photos of themselves crossing each state's state line. But the Trail Running Club's Rachelle Nesgoda and a group of dedicated runners has a goal that makes those shrink in comparison: she's setting out to run a marathon in each of the fifty states.
 

Buster Martin of the UK may become the world's oldest marathoner at 101 years old.  He's already the UK's oldest employee as he still works a full-time job!  He plans to attempt the London 2008 Marathon.  He recently completed the Roding Valley half marathon in Essex on Sunday, March 2, 2008 in five hours 13 minutes.
Yahoo! News article
Buster's Wikipedia page

January 13th  Garapito Trail
A beautiful morning greeted us for our always tough Garapito Trail.  And Piotr returned after a year's absence due to a leg injury.  Evidently, he will have to get used to following the arrows again.  We had a pretty big turnout for this popular run.
 

This was another professionally produced video of the Trail Runners Club with some good interviews with members and scenes in the Santa Monica mountains.

Westridge in the rain
We made the last minute decision to change the scheduled run to Westridge due to the high chance of rain and extremely muddy conditions on the Ray Miller Trail.  It poured on the drive up to the trailhead but let up just as we were getting out of our cars.  Not another drop fell confirming that we were meant to run that day.  Some of us dove into Sullivan Canyon and were treated to a hearty, babbling brook that crossed the trail more than a dozen times along the way up to Mulholland.  The rocky soil guaranteed no mud and the dampness killed any chance of dust.  I can't remember a better day at Westridge.