What's your ACTIVE? : 2010 : December

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Holiday Workouts

Posted by IMVoice Dec 13, 2010

CHRISTIAN KLOCKARE, Business Systems Analyst about to do some serious snorkeling in the waters of Maui.

JIM GARFIELD (M&M) rode his bike along the Venice Beach Christmas run, chasing various Santa's, elv's and LA Tri Club members. The event raised thousand's of dollars for Harvest Home, a shelter for battered women with kids. A stunning weekend for a good cause.

RUSS MILHAM, Manager User Research decided to bring my bike with him to SD this week as an alternative to renting a car! So far, I’d only blasted in and out of SD on Active work and I hadn’t been in downtown SD for about 10 years and had never seen the outlying countryside. I did 3.25 hours this afternoon covering 40 mi through the downtown area and a goodly swath between the airport, up through Mission Hills, Kearny Mesa, and out to Sorrento Valley via Genesee, Miramar Rd, etc. Lots of good hill grinds and I was glad to have had my Garmin Edge GPS/Bike computer to keep me trending (more or less) in the right direction. I’ve attached some photos showing the process of unpacking the bike at the airport and getting it into portage configuration (to get me from the airport to the hotel) and then a final photo (IMAG01202.jpg) showing it as it sits now; striped down and ready for a week of work here in SD. Just to round out all my Weekend Warrior activity (assuming I understand correctly what it means to be a Weekend Warrior); I also did my customary 27 mile cycling loop on Saturday morning for a total of 67 miles this weekend.

Report from ERIC MA from Xi’an, China – 14 Active Employees – Karen Yang, Kelly Yang, Vivian Wang, Wesley Wang, Rui Zhang, Tony Chen, Eda Zhao, Paul Guo, Anson Zhao, Bruce Xu, Colin Li and Steven Xue, did couple of amazing things in a chilly winter day. A round 60K ride trip from the city to the S.W. Village at the foot of the Mt. Qinlin is amazing, no one fell behind and girls were pretty skillful, even it’s someone’s first ride. The cycling team is growing bigger! The hiking after the ride was crazy, since there’s no route on the mountain, but only a small trail made by the mud-rock flow, 6 of them did it, and they climbed 300m to the hill peak through a very steep slope. Going downhill was another pain. THEY ARE 250s!

AUSTIN BRAATEN, Account Executive ran the Jingle Bell 5k on Sunday morning with thousands of elves and Santa’s in rainy downtown Seattle.

JON BELMONTE and former Active-ite JULIE ORR just got back from Costa Rica. Activities included zip lining, whitewater rafting, and horseback riding through the jungle. Tons of wildlife, as expected. Great trip all around…highly recommended to all.

EMILY JOLLER & MARGARET PATRICK completed the Santa to the Sea Half Marathon on Sunday. The times weren’t the only thing blazing…it reached a scorching 82 degrees during the run. Emily was the 2^nd OVERALL FEMALE!!! Margaret had a good run and still managed to PR by 7 minutes after going into survival mode at mile 10. Overall it was a great event and beautiful area.

PAUL MCCLURE, Account Manager did the Tinsel Triathlon on Sunday and finished with a personal best of 1:15:50. Maybe it was the bike – Thanks Mazza. The weather was just perfect for the event this year.

MATTHEW HENRY (Bothell, WA) returned to the ice last night, playing for the offensively challenged Sentinels. We lost to Gang Green 8-1, but we do seem to be getting better, getting outshot 36-12 (yes, that’s an improvement). Matt did get the assist on the only goal of the evening by harnessing his inner NHL ‘94 for the Sega Genesis. He carried the puck all the way up the right side of the ice and when he was about parallel to the goal, he centered it right in front of the goal for the score. (This is how you score in NHL ‘94). Hopefully next week’s game will be closer!

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Rock n Roll, Mud and More!

Posted by IMVoice Dec 6, 2010

JAKE COONEY, Bothell, WA – spent the weekend surfing Costa Rica which was great. The waves were awesome and the weather was excellent. I toughed it out through many jellyfish stings but something of unknown origin chomped into my foot. Nothing serious but the idea of something with teeth in the water ended my final day of surfing a little early.

LISA BALDWIN ran the Las Vegas half marathon this weekend. Great to see so many Active staff at the event representing SD, Bothell and Burnaby. A great experience running down the strip...very different Vegas experience that's for sure.

STACEY JOHNSON QUALIFIED FOR THE BOSTON MARATHON!!!! I ran the California International Marathon in Sacramento and finished in 3:44:20. I qualified with 79 seconds to spare, but who's counting? Oh yea, me. The course was beautiful - starting with rolling hills through farmlands and amazing fall colors (yes, California does have fall colors!), and finishing up at the capitol building downtown. I had about a 3 hour fight going on in my head wanting to quit the stupid race starting early (at about mile 5), but I hung in there and pulled it off in the end... barely. My stomach wasn't happy with me as soon as I crossed the finish line, forcing me to the medical tent for a few minutes. Note to all you marathoners who've never visited the medical tent: do your best to avoid that place - it's quite the (unhappy) scene! Today I'm happy though - very sore, but happy.

MICHELLE NATION ran the Las Vegas Rock n Roll Half Marathon this weekend with a great crew from Active. We were able to get folks from 3 offices (Burnaby, Bothell, and San Diego) together for a picture at the start! The 5 of us are issuing a challenge to all the other weekend warriors out there to get a future photo submission with more than 3 offices represented. The run along the strip was fantastic. At mile 12 I got some much needed support from Arch and got to see some familiar faces from our Media and Marketing team at the finish. Oh yes, I also got a new PR so it was a truly fantastic day!

FIONA MACMILLAN, Melbourne office, LUKE LITTLER, Sydney office and MIKE REILLY were working and enjoying themselves at Ironman Western Australia in Bussleton, AUS a few hours south of Perth on Sunday.

PATTI ROSENTHAL reports the local ski resorts (Durango, CO) are now open but some of us are still motivated to mtn bike in the snow! You have to go early while the snow is still frozen or otherwise it turns into a mud fest later in the day. We hit our local trails in town (Sale Barn Trail system) for a 2 hr fun ride in snow, mud & a few spots of dry trail. Was a blast but not sure it was worth the 2 hrs spent in cleaning the mtn bike after the ride! Happy Holidays everyone!

JENNI MILLER, JENNIFER ROMINE and a few of our friends did the Gladiator Rock'N Run in Irvine this weekend. The first mile and a half of the course was actually fairly tough, being nothing but hills and stadium stairs. However the second half of the race was obstacle after obstacle including running past people throwing "wrecking balls" at you, swimming through mud and climbing over muddy hills. Check out our before and after…

MATTHEW HENRY (Bothell, WA) - Made his first ever trip to Las Vegas to run in the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. Like most thing Vegas, his finishing time is staying in Vegas, but it was easily the best Rock and Roll event he’s participated in. The strip was shutdown for our race and the music was started off with Cher singing our National Anthem (We’re lucky she’s so easy to find in this city!) and capped off with an amazing turnout for Bret Michaels. We even had a club rented out for the night for us! One of the best parts about this race was getting to meet up with some of his fellow Active employees from the San Diego and Burnaby offices. Congratulations to everyone, same time next year!

JIM GARFIELD (M&M) ran the R and R half in Vegas this weekend with a slew of Active folks. I joined Active ambassador Ben Davis, and Actives Molly Conners and Jordan Katz in checking out Sugar Ray’s Mark Mcgrath’s Guitar Hero competition. The race was great…a far cry from the very first one in SD years ago that started an hour late and ran out of water. Saw a great sign on the course “ no matter how slow you are…your faster than your couch!”.

EVE GARDNER (Sr. HRIS Analyst, San Diego) - completed my top bucket list item that kept me going during my 3 surgeries and subsequent recuperations for colitis this past year. I spent the past two weekends participating in a PADI Open Water Certification class – all without worrying where a bathroom was!! After 5 quizzes, 1 final, 2 pool dives, 4 ocean dives (2 beach dives off La Jolla Shores and 2 boat dives in Los Coronados, Mexico) and several torturous mask remove/replace skills I am an Open Water SCUBA diver!! Anyone in San Diego want to team up with a newbie diver, let me know.

TOYA REAVIS, Implementation Analyst San Diego raced in the Mainly Masters 10K on Saturday. I won my age group and was 6^th woman overall. My 2^nd race after 2 years of health issues. I have a long way to go to get into race shape. Nothing like using races to get in shape!

On Saturday, SHANNON STEWART (Sales Manager) IZ HARRELL (Director – Project Management), and VALERIE PRESTIDGE (Technical Account Manager) rode from the Solana Beach train station (San Diego county) up the coast to the San Juan Capistrano train station, we then rode the train back to Solana Beach. It was 48.5 miles of great weather, little wind, and an AWESOME ride with AWESOME people.

Active Advanatge Web Developer BRYAN PAVIN spent his Sunday with bro Chris Wheeler up in Ridgecrest, CA running the 25th Annual Over The Hill Track Club High Desert 50K Ultramarathon. Cool morning temperatures and beach like sand trails made for a challenging but fun day up in the High Desert. Both Chris and Bryan finished with big smiles in 6 hours and 2 minutes.

ANTHONY VALENTINO, Account Executive – Communities/Higher Education (San Diego) started off Saturday with a quick trip up Cowles Mountain followed by racing in the Hot Rum III sailing regatta. The race officials ended up stopping the race as the winds vanished about halfway through the race. However the after party was still a go and Anthony got to hang out with fellow Active employee JAMIE SNOW, Senior Technical Account Manager. On Sunday, Active Employee SCARLETT DALGLEISH, Software Trainer, brought the intensity to Anthony’s weekly Sunday morning 90 minute SPIN class.