AK’s Adventures

Beer, chicken wings, curly fries, bacon cheeseburger, and girls in orange Dolfin shorts — yup, that would be Hooters. Oh yeah, they happened to be showing the big UFC 66 fight between Chuck Liddel and Tito Ortiz as well that drew a capacity crowd of 14,607 at MGM, with a $5.4M live gate, a [...]

It’s business as usual in Sin City…Christmas Day, and there’s the mass of tourists and shoppers along the Strip. The only indication that it’s a holiday are some dealers and staff are wearing Santa hats — no sign of Santa himself though, or most anything else associated with Christmas. No songs about reindeers [...]

Those who are familiar with adventure racing will know who Danelle Ballengee is — one of the most accomplished female athletes in the world, and a former Nike/ACG teammate, that consisted of Mike Kloser, Michael Tobin, and Ian Adamson. Currently, she is racing with Team Spyder, who is made up of Travis [...]

Jeff and I drove together for the Twin Peaks 50 training run in OC Saturday — a 14 mile loop (although it was argued to be a tad longer) starting from Trabuco Creek Rd off the 241 toll road in Rancho Santa Margarita. The trailhead is about 4.5 miles east of here on dirt [...]

The Westvleteren 12 is currently ranked #1 on both beeradvocate.com and ratebeer.com. But wait — before you rush out to BevMo for a six-pack, let me just say that you will not find it there, or any other store for that matter. The beer is only made in Belgium at the Westvleteren [...]

If you thought Sam Thompson or Dean Karnazes’ 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days achievement blew your mind, then read or watch what some buddhist monks do in Japan to reach enlightenment below.
Summary:
Location: Mt Hiei, near Kyoto Japan; 5 main peaks (highest at 2782′); rain, high humidity, snowFootwear: straw sandals (couple spare pairs)Equipment: [...]

Who can forget the images of Julie Moss crawling to the finish line in the 1982 Ironman.
Almost 25 years later, I watched this year’s Ironman Hawaii on TV this afternoon — I always look forward to it since it’s so nicely produced, and it’s also the closest I’m going to get to participating in this [...]

Last night (only a few hours ago), we went to a new wine bar called Vertical in Old Town Pasadena — it is where the Burning Leaf used to be, upstairs on Raymond, just north of Union on the east side of the street. The interior is very nicely done — a mix of [...]

So I’ve been stressing about the Wasatch lottery for a while, since that would’ve determined whether I would be able to do the Grand Slam or not…so I thought. It seems that they’ve made a provision recently, and as long as I get my app in on time, and finish the first three races, [...]

Sunday’s OTHTC 50k in Ridgecrest marked my last official race of 2006. Whew! It was also the 3rd 50k (well, the second was really 35 miles) I did in 3 consecutive weekends — started with the new SM50k two weekends ago, and the SB9T last weekend. I also did my annual Thanksgiving [...]