The Skinny

Sorry I've been absent up till now, but it's week four of the Spring semester and my first round of tests have been keeping me preoccupied. So here's the skinny on me. I'm a last semester senior studying Forensic Science at Waynesburg University in Western Pa. I'm the latest addition to the Outdoor Crazies, with two official outings under my belt, both of which involve mountain biking in winter time, an activity that I wasn't even aware was legal with four inches of snow on the ground. I began my foray into the outdoors two years ago when my now fiancée and I purchased two Pelican kayaks and started doing trips to Shawnee Lake and Canoe Creek to relax on the weekends, and eventually did some day trips down the Raystown branch of the Juniata River. So I guess kayaking is my first love. I was happy with that for a while, there are enough kayaking stories to fill up pages on here but maybe I can get into that another night. This summer I moved to Ocean City, Maryland to work with the police department down there for my summer internship. While I lived at the beach, I actually stepped foot in the ocean a total of four times in four months, not because I hate water or the beach mind you, but gas prices, my gas sucking Blazer, and an engagement ring pretty much kept me close to home in Willards, a mere sixteen miles from the beach. (Honestly though, OC is a freak show. Why anyone vacations there is beyond my comprehension.) However, my frugality paid off when I bought a diamond and she said yes at 5 a.m. on top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park in Maine. Also, it led to my favorite pass time, or addiction as my family and friends say: running. I would come home from working my twelve hour night shift and not be able to sleep, so I would throw on my Asics Gel trail runners on and go hit the highways and back roads of Maryland and border towns up in Delaware. This is also when I started biking, riding thirty or so miles on the weekends to do a little geocaching around the area (I'm a bit of a geek I guess), or to visit friends over in the city without wasting much needed gas. It actually paid of threefold, because I lost the majority of my 130 lbs, trimming down from 310 to 180 lbs and a size 44 to a 34. I don't say this all to brag or anything, in actuality I despise talking about it, but it's a huge plus to getting active and starting my love affair with the outdoors.

I've also been trying to branch from strictly road running into trail running, and adding variation by training my feet and calves to withstand a little abuse with barefoot running. I started running in my Vibram fivefingers, fell in love with them, and have been converting fellow runners and non runners to their awesomeness. I would like to transition to strictly barefoot by summertime, but we'll see how that goes.

So there it is, my beginnings that eventually led me to hook up with these other two individuals who are as stupid... er... adventurous as myself. I'll post a little more tomorrow, but for now I've gotta get some sleep, got a 5 am run and 8 am breakfast with the woman. Until then, take it easy and enjoy the day!