MARK LINDSLEY Business Analyst, Product Management reports a handful of people from the Irving, TX office participated in the Dallas Running Club Half Marathon.  Pictured are Brandon Krauska (Software Engineer), Cairo Lindsley (Mark Lindsley’s 15 year old son), Mark Lindsley (Business Analyst), & Chris Risen (Professional Services Consultant).  The second picture shows Jeff Hook (General Manager, Active Faith) and Brigitte Hook (Jeff Hook’s wife).

ELIZABETH NORRBOM, Operations  ConnectionPower part of Active Network reports her and HOLLY ADDLEMAN were at the 11-11-11 Veterans Day 11k Run and 1 mile walk in Las Vegas. We both completed the one miler this was Holly's first Active event! We made shirts to celebrate our Veterans.

TIM WOOD, Sr. Manager, Software Quality Assurance, San Diego office.  I competed in the San Diego Duathlon on Fiesta Island this Sunday, it was my third duathlon this year and third of my lifetime. The weather turned out to be great and aside from some slipping and sliding on the bike course, I got through it well, besting my minutes per mile times on both running legs as well as the bike leg. I'm officially hooked!

EMILY JOLLER AND MARGARET PATRICK competed in the IronGirl 10K last Sunday in Del Mar, CA.  As always it was a great event and fun to be surrounded by so many driven females.  Although it was a cool morning it didn't slow Emily down.  She was the 3rd fastest 10K finisher!!!

MICHELE CREPEAU reports great fall marathon weekends back to back with Marine Corps Marathon and then the NYC Marathon.  For MCM, Valerie Prestidge, Mike Coleman, Tim McMahon and Michele Crepeau all braved the weekend snow storm on Saturday which thankfully cleared out for Marathon Sunday for MCM.  Valerie, Tim and Michele ran the MCM 10K which started at the National Mall and ends at Arlington Cemetery at the marathon finish line.  NYC Marathon weekend kicked off with NYC office/ client happy hour and then the Runner’s World Party followed by a beautiful fall marathon weekend cheering on our charity teams.  Mike Coleman and Michele Crepeau jumped in to volunteer at mile 17 passing out pretzels and bananas to the runners.  We cheered as part of the MMRF charity team.

RUSS MILHAM, Bothell, WA office reports his wife and Couch-to-5Ker, Mara Mulcahy, ran her first 5K this weekend with three of her friends as “Team Magnum PIneaple” in the Seattle Pineapple Classic.

Mara is second from left in the “clean” before picture and far right in the muddy after shot.

JAY OZIMINSKI, Facilities Representative II reports that 12 Nashville employees participated in the Tennessee Ragnar Relay on November 4-5, starting in downtown Chattanooga and ending in downtown Nashville. Team Active Outdoors finished the hilly 196.1 mile course in 32:00:56…sleep deprived, smelly, but very happy with their performance. Runners included Patti Hunt (Project Mgr), Gintare Naujokaite (DB Admin), Curt Jeppson (Information Security Engineer), Ron Toussant (Business Systems Analyst), Jim Harnage (Telecomm Engineer II), Jonathan Denson (Software Engineer), and Jay Oziminski (Facilities Rep II). Volunteers included Sandy Nornes (Software QA Engineer, Assoc. Mgr), Shelby Abernathy (Software QA Engineer), Sherry Oziminski (Senior Mgr, Software QA), Paul Norman (Software Engineer) and Nick Ritchie (Business Systems Analyst).

On October 29, ROB EREKSON ran the Hoover Dam Half Marathon at the beautiful Lake Mead National Recreation area and Hoover Dam. The race ran along the lake via the Historic Railroad Tunnels that once took supplies from Las Vegas and Boulder Highway to the construction project when the Hoover Dam was being built in the 30s. The trail gives stunning views of Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, the Bypass Bridge, and you get to run through 5 HUGE tunnels. A tough course with about 1500 feet of ascent, including some nasty switchbacks. Despite the tough course, Rob PR'd his half marathon by 30 seconds for a 1:56:11 official finish time.

On November 5, Rob and Elizabeth Norrbom  ran the S.A.F.E. House Run for Shelter 5K in historic downtown Henderson, NV. Proceeds from the 5K were donated to S.A.F.E. House, a shelter for domestically abused women. Elizabeth run/walked her way to her first 5K  finish ever and Rob was able to PR at 23:09, finishing 8th overall. Elizabeth's next 5K will be this coming weekend, November 20th at the Valley of Fire. Lastly, this past Saturday, November 12, Rob participated in the Moonlight  Madness 30K, a night-time trail run of single-track and access roads through Cottonwood Valley just outside of the southwest side of Las Vegas. With 2400 feet of ascent and a few difficult trails (including a hill affectionately dubbed "Satan's Escalator"), the course was challenging, but Rob was able to finish with a time of 4:11:18.

STEVE JANKE, Network Engineer ran my first RAGNAR Relay here in Tennessee two weeks ago. The race started in Chattanooga and ended in downtown Nashville. The team I had participated on, Van Hailin’ , came in 68th overall of 210 with a finish time of 28 hours and some change. We had original estimated about around a 30 hour finish time. Overall it was an awesome experience and I can’t wait for next year. I’ve never seen that many people carry some much enthusiastic energy for that long of a time period. It was to say the least, very motivating. 

JOE SCHUM, Sales Manager, Enterprise Events, ran the Hill Country 15K Trail Race at Serenbe on Saturday.  The race was conducted on the miles of horse trails in the Serenbe community.  Post race featured music, beer and burritos.  They can keep the burrito. 

ALAN DEICAS, International, spent a week traveling through Guatemala with a friend where he was able to hike volcanoes, tube down rivers, climb Mayan ruins, explore underground caves with only a candle, and experience the largest game of chicken for 30+ hours on Guatemalan roads in a van crammed with 13 other people. Magic Mountain has nothing on the thrills of riding in a car through Guatemala.

STEPHEN BRENSTETTER, GM of Youth & Education, got bruised, muddy and exhausted at an awesome event called the Pineapple Classic. You run a 5k while holding a pineapple and traversing through about 15 obstacles including monkey bars, small tubes to climb through, lots of mud, walls to climb over etc. I got third out of 900 dudes with a 21:48 time but lost all bragging rights with other friends doing the event due to a timing chip malfunction. Watch out for the first drink station – half-way through the guzzle you’ll realize the “sports drink” of choice is a fine Pale Ale.

Austin Braaten, Bryan Pavin, Jen Meanley, Valerie Prestidge & Active friend Tyler Sargent braved Seattle (Thanks Austin) type weather and hiked merrily along the hills of Elfin Forest, fueled by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTSA_sWGM44 . From the top the group snapped off a few photos and took in the great views of Lake Hodges and Stone Brewing Co. where the group later capped off a great afternoon.

Stacey Johnson, Sr. Account Manager and a group of friends & family took the train from Solana Beach up to Santa Barbara this weekend to run (or just have fun/be the cheering squad at) the Santa Barbara Half Marathon.  We had perfect race weather – rained up until the start of the race, and then started sprinkling just after we finished.  What a beautiful course – cute little trails and bridges, rolling hills (and a cliff), and the last 2 miles on the coast with big white puffy clouds.  The wind and the cliff (they weren’t joking when they named that street Cliff Drive) made for some extra fun.  I finished in 1:48 – no PR or anything, but I’m not complaining with that course.  Some serious good eats and great shopping made the weekend in Santa Barbara even better.

MATTHEW HENRY (Bothell, WA) finished up his Sunday with the rare opportunity to play on the main ice at Comcast Arena.  The Sentinels played Mid-Ice Crisis … again.  And for whatever reason, the newest team in the league is attempting to build a reputation for being chippy and a little dirty.  The Sentinels, on the other hand, are building their reputation as the worst team at line changes.  The important thing is that when all was said and done, the giant scoreboard over our heads said Sentinels 5, Micrisis 1.  It was a fun game and great to play with all those seats around us.  Even if 98% of them were empty!

JANEAN NATION (Associate Sales Manager, San Diego) and MICHELLE NATION (Product Manager, San Diego) ran the Irongirl 10k at Del Mar.  We loved seeing lots of mother-daughter teams and some familiar faces from Active at the expo and out on the course.  We'll definitely keep this tradition going next year!

CHRISTINE CROSBY , Account Executive, and CONCORDIA CHEN, Business Analyst rode in the 2nd annual Bike the Coast.  We participated in the 50 mile bike ride traveling from the Oceanside Pier down the 101 to Sorrento Valley and back up.  It was a cold morning but soon warmed up.  It was a fun and fabulous ride!

Tom Keefe, Senior Manager Client Relations says Duck hunting in Minnesota was good this weekend!

DON CRAMER, Product Manager (ActiveGolf.com/Click4TeeTimes.com), participated in the Bike MS: Vegas Challenge this weekend.  As a newbie to road cycling it was a great couple of days of riding.  On Saturday the route began downtown at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and took us down the “Fabulous” Las Vegas strip.  The Sunday ride it was an out an back from downtown Las Vegas to Henderson and back.  For the two days I rode 70 miles and raised $250.00 for MS.  Looking forward to next year’s ride and going further!