Tuesday, April 29, 2014

In Which I am Successful

So, for those few of you who were probably wondering how my run went, I'll have you know that it was a complete success! This is now officially the farthest distance I've ever run. My next goal is to run an entire Olle trail. I'm thinking number 18, because besides a couple big hills, I remember it being pretty tame overall. I might even stretch it out into a full half marathon. I'm not sure, I'll have to look into it. At any rate, my run was awesome. It was a great day for it. Cool and cloudy and almost raining, but never quite managing it. The unfamiliar territory was pleasant, and the places I'd been before were as awesome as usual. I think that this was a good place and time to do my longest run of my life (so far). On the coast on a cool morning on beautiful Jeju Island. I took a few pictures while I was out. Here they are.

Iho Beach! About a third of the way done.


Running on the coast is the shizzle.

The only real problem with this run was that there were a lot of places where I could see
a long way down the coast and I realized that I had to run there, and it looked really far
away. I pulled through, though.

Finished! This is what success looks like.
So, that's the story of the Captain Danger 1/3 Marathon of 2014! Once again, it was awesome. That's all I've got for the moment. This is Captain Danger out.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

In Which I Make a Plan

For those who may be interested, and I realize that may not be a lot of you, tomorrow I will embark on what I've decided to call the Captain Danger 1/3 Marathon of 2014! It will be just over nine miles, which I realize is more than a third of a marathon, but I don't know if 9/32 Marathon would roll of the tongue nearly as well. At any rate, I think it's going to be awesome. I'm going to run from our house to Iho Beach and from there along the coast to the Dongmun rotary and then I'll catch a bus back home. Here's the route that I plan to take


Anyway, I'm not sure how many people care about this, but I'm pretty excited! I'm going to be taking Nancy's phone to track my progress, so I'll take some pictures while I'm out, and you can watch for a blog post about how it went tomorrow! This is Captain Danger out.

In Which We FINALLY Get out on a Saturday

So, for the last three Saturdays it has rained. Like, a lot. Now, that doesn't always stop me from doing things, but rain does tend to make things a bit more miserable than they otherwise would be. So, we haven't really done much for the last three weeks, and it has been driving me crazy! Finally we had a Saturday where it didn't rain, and even though it was still pretty cloudy (the really maddening thing is that it's sunny, warm and beautiful on every weekday) we got out and went hiking! This time we did Olle Trail number 20, and it the map on the website made it look like it was going to be entirely on the coast. THE MAP LIED. Granted, we only did the first half, but basically it would go on the coast for a second, and then it would go inland through farmland, and then go back to the coast for a second and then back inland. It was teasing us! We want to hike next to the ocean! Despite that, we did get some pretty good pictures and we had a pretty good time. Here are the pictures we took:

A monument to the Haenyo for their anti-Japanese movement during World War II.

Some boats at the Haenyo (woman diver) museum, where the route started.

Ocean! Turns out this is actually considered a beach. It's a pretty crappy one.


Clear water.

I'm pretty sure these are carrot ferns. First time I've seen them here. Also, there were a lot of bugs here and Nancy didn't
like it.


It was pretty windy.


A nicer looking beach. Still too many rocks, though.


There are a lot of flowers all over the island right now.


Another cool spot on the ocean.


I'm wearing my newest hiking clothes. I really like the shirt.


Windmill!


A smoke mound. These are all over the island and they were used to signal someone sometime.

Windmills! I've read that these are loud and annoying, but we got pretty dang close to a couple of them (closer than this picture) and we didn't really think so. Plus, you have to be really close to hear it.

So, that's the story for this outing. It's hard to believe we've only got two months left here! We'll be sure to keep you updated as we wind down. Next week we're going on vacation to the mainland, and we'll be visiting Seoraksan, so watch for that post, because it's going to be awesome! This is Captain Danger out.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

In Which We Make Another Big Announcement

No, it's not a baby. I'll just come right out and say that. I know that's probably what you were all thinking (again) but it isn't. So, it's not a baby, but it's just as momentous as our last big announcement.

Nancy got a job!

We're pretty excited. She got a job at a school owned by the same company I'll be working for, called BASIS. She'll be working at the Ahwatukee location in Phoenix and she'll be teaching fourth grade. She's looking forward to it, this sounds like a good school and the people she interviewed with seemed really nice.

So, we're definitely moving to Phoenix, and we're going back to the United States in only two months! I'm kind of sad that we won't be living in Utah, but I'm sure that Phoenix has its own charms, not the least of which is being only a few hours from the Grand Canyon, which has some canyons that I really want to try. Also, the idea of no winter is somewhat appealing to me.

Anyway, that's about all the news for the moment, but it's big news! We'll both have jobs when we get back! That's one big unknown taken care of. The next one is probably where we'll live, but I figure we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. This is Captain Danger out.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

In Which I Go Running. A lot.

I've really gotten some motivation to go running lately. I'm not sure where it came from, but I've been going every single weekday, and it has been pretty awesome. My longest distance so far has been seven miles, which I'm pretty impressed with. I have a couple longer runs mapped, and, strangely enough, I'm really looking forward to them. Here's the map of my seven miler. It had a lot of doubling back in it. I'm hoping to cut that out in future long runs.


I think that one reason why I like running here more than I did back in Utah is because it gives me the opportunity to do some exploring. I've found that even if a run is difficult and really long, I don't really mind if I'm going somewhere new. Also, I've found myself logging around 25 miles a week, which is pretty fantastic. I go running with Nancy about two days a week, and we do around three miles, and then I go at least five when I go by myself on the other days. I've found some really nice, quiet places around here with some really nice views of the mountain and out to the ocean and across fields and forest. Yesterday I went 5.6 miles. Here's the map from that one:


I was looking around while I was running yesterday, and I realized that I'm really going to miss this place when we go back home. Sure, there are things that I don't like about it (but that's a different blog post entirely), but overall it's a really beautiful, and peaceful place that I really like. I think I've finally learned why people like running. There really is joy in getting out and working hard and pushing yourself to accomplish something.

However, one thing that I'll say about Jeju is that if you don't like running up hills, you're sunk. Entirely. This problem arises because the island is one giant mountain that literally grew it's own collection of smaller hills. They're awesome, though. One thing that these hills have is small, quiet roads with very little traffic, which are perfect for running. At any rate, I think I've rambled enough about how I've learned to like running. In other news, it has rained for the past two weekends, and there's rain in the forecast for next weekend. I think we're going to go hiking anyway. We're tired of being cooped up in the house. This is Captain Danger out.