Rui Zhang (Class Team): ActiveX-Xi'an Ping-Pong tournament!

ActiveX-Xi'an Ping-Pong tournament is held in Xi’an now. There are 29 Activers from different teams to attend the tournament; these players are divided into 2 groups by drawing lots. The whole tournament includes group game and Elimination game, and there are 196 matches to take place only in group stage. 8 players in each group can enter into Elimination game! This is really funny and interesting with a long schedule around 2 months. Every afternoon, many colleagues will come to watch the matches and add oil for players.

Danae Brooker, Director of Business Solutions:

I wanted to provide you an update of my 10-year old son and my Spring Break.  We rode from Yuma (the Colorado River) to Carlsbad (the Pacific Ocean).  We completed 224 miles over 6 days!  Awesome trip!!!  Here are some pictures:

Marshall & Danae dip their tires in the Colorado River at the start of the trip!

Marshall riding down a dirt road to get to our first campsite.

Mornings were cold as we geared up to ride between 35 and 55 miles per day!

A quick rest stop before continuing the ride through the Anza Borrego Desert.

The weather changed drastically as we headed into Julian – riding up Banner Grade, I was actually knocked off my bike by a huge gust of wind!

On Saturday, we make it to the Pacific Ocean to dip our tires!

Here is the entire group of riders – 50 of which are 5th graders!  Amazing!

Robert T. Klingensmith, Vice President, Media + Marketing: Team Active lines up for the third annual Gran Fondo Colnago San Diego.  Thanks to everyone at Active for their support... it was the best event yet!!

MIKE REILLY rode the Gran Fondo 60 mile event and it was an Active history day. Mike rode with Active USA founder JIM WOODMAN all 69 miles talking about the beginning years of Active up to the present.  The 60 miles went by in a flash.  Our own ROB KLINGINGSMITH produced the event and LARKIN GEYER & LINDSAY NESSELROAD lead the way at the start.

Jeannie M. Freis, Associate Product Manager: The Boulder office sent 4 teams to Sunday’s Buckhorn Exchange (half marathon) Relay.  I ran most of leg 1 (5 miles) with fellow ActiveXers Brett Burch and Chuck Langdon, and was thankful for their many encouraging words along the way.  Just prior to the race start, Brett stated his intention was to see if he could get one of us to throw up.  “After all, this is a race and we should push ourselves!” added Chuck.  Attached is the photo of my relay team members  post race - my boyfriend, Kelly Feagans, me, and friend Katy Rhoades.  We came in 8th in the co-ed relay division.

Michael O’Brien, Desktop Management: I ran a 5K for St. Jude this past Saturday in Nashville.  I raised over $200 in donations and set a personal record of 29:21.  I attached a pic of me in my St. Jude racing jersey before heading out the door to run.

Scott Yeske, Industry Manager: My "Thirsty Niners" Ice Hockey Team Won the Winter Season Championship this past weekend.  We played a best of 3 series and Won 2 games to 1.  This marks our Second Championship in Three Seasons!

Damon Mathews, Sr. Web Designer: Damon took 2nd place in his pool at the 2011 Las Vegas Footbag Jam. Competitors traveled from as far away as Austrailia to attend the event. This was the second time Damon has competed at this event. Below is a link to some random Footbag Circles at the event. Damon is seen in the opening shot and again at 6:06.



The overall winner this year (and last year) was tournament host and director Evan Gatesman from Las Vegas. The official final Circle Contest can be seen in the video below:



Dak Jordan (ActiveEducate) and Mike Fries, ran in the Shamrock Shuffle 8k in Chicago.  After a long, cold, snowy winter, the sun came out and the temperature was in the low 70's, perfect for a run.

Eric Olson, GM of SMB Events, watched his fiancée Mary Beth Ellis out sprint fellow American Kelly Williamson down the finishing shoot for the 70.3 US Championship and 4th overall at Texas 70.3. She fought through jet lag and a cold for a strong follow up to her win at Singapore 70.3 two weeks ago. The race was more stressful for the spectator than the racer. Notice the Active.com logo on the finishing shoot. Sweet.

Karen Hardy, Christina Hanson & Sarah Moosbrugger completed the Medio Fondo 60 Miler with a bunch of fellow ActiveX’ers.  We had a blast & think it would have been even more fun if we trained for it!

Alicia Towery, (Technical Account Manager) ran the San Marcos Roundup - 11K Double Peak Challenge and was the 2nd female overall.  The course was straight up a trail for the first three miles with a total elevation gain of 1600 ft.  It was a fun and challenging course. 

MATTHEW HENRY (Bothell, WA) did not pass go and most certainly didn't collect $200 when The Game of Life played Monopoly on Friday night.  We had a much better showing, though, losing 15-7.  Some great bids (So close to making a catch behind my back!)  But we're getting better!  In bigger news, the Sentinels are in the championship game tonight (that's 9 pm at Kingsgate in Kirkland, if you're in the area)!  After a horrible regular season, we won our game last Sunday night 3-2 and are now undefeated through the playoffs.  Hopefully the season ends tonight, but if we lost tonight, we get one more chance to seal the deal. 

Tyler Jump, Account Manager - Camps, and Janean Nation, Sales Manager - Sports, enjoyed a late winter storm and spent the weekend snowboarding in Utah.  The powder was fresh and the riding was EPIC!

Liz Harrell (Director - Project Management, San Diego) and her boyfriend Hal Helbock rode the 105 mi route of the Gran Fondo on Sunday. We started the ride together, but that was about it.  Lots of hills and headwind made for a great training day for me.  (10 weeks and 6 days until Ironman!)  Hal was the 3rd cyclist to cross the finish line... even though this was a "ride" and not a "race".  Not too shabby for a Mountain Biker. :-)

Chris Gielow, ActiveWorks Interaction Designer, poses at the Olympic Training center SAG station, the halfway point at the Gran Fondo San Diego.

Vanessa Allen, Senior Marketing Manager, Sports, spent a week in Petite Riviere de Nippes, in southwest Haiti, working with school kids on art instruction at a school supported by the American Haitian Foundation. We took opportunities to do some sight-seeing, too, and on our last day in Haiti visited Saut du Baril spring/cascades up in the mountains. We hiked up the trail/road +/- 5 miles to visit the falls that are fed by a natural spring out of volcanic rock. Beautiful, cool clean water – a great way to cool off after a long, hot hike! My friends along for the trek are Mary and Debbie (ActiveX-ers by affiliation). Photo also included of one of our “art school” sessions with the students.

Lindsay Nesselroad (International Specialist) and Larkin Geyer (previous long time Active employee and current Active family member) finishing the Gran Fondo! What a great day and an even more amazing ride!

Steve Mazza had a great ride at the Gran Fondo Colnago, a great day, sunny and lots of smiling Active faces! Kudos to Rob and his team for such a well organized event. Photo snapped as I finished.

DEMIAN DORRANCE, Sr. Systems Engineer, San Diego -
My 16-year-old son and I volunteered then rode in our third Colnago Gran Fondo San Diego, taking on the challenge of the 105 mile century route with many miles of back country climbing.  Hills are my biggest challenge on a bike, and the six mile continuous climb of the "king of the mountain" stage took everything I had. This was the only timed stage, and my 1hour 38minute grind placed me 908 out of 910 riders that attempted the climb-- brutal, but not dead last!

We rode the countryside together, but near mile 83 I turned my son loose to push himself for a better time - he still had fresh legs and mine were pretty well done. We both finished the full century route, a little late, but at least we made it back during daytime this year unlike the year before.  Big improvements for both of us in completing our second century ride ever.  We handled two flats and had fewer technical difficulties than the 2010 Gran Fondo. Loved the course changes from last year, which worked out well and tested us with a serious endurance event including 5,500 feet of climbing and headwinds for the last 25 miles. The event featured beautiful weather, a remote course green from the recent rains, and first class SAG support. A big thanks to the team at Active in supporting another great Gran Fondo, and also to the friends and family that came out to cheer us and other riders on the course.

ELAIN BERGERON & BROOKE KIRKPATRICK  I rode the Colorado-Eagle River Century Ride in Vail, Colorado on Saturday.  The ride was a bit challenging with 4500 feet elevation gain, but the mountain, river, and stream views made it all worth it!  This was Elaine's first time in Colorado and she conquered the ride even with slight high altitude sickness.   Brooke said it was her first Century and is sold!

SHEILA VANDER-HOEK went ocean kayaking with friends for the first time on Gabriola Island, BC (just off the east coast of Vancouver Island) – 20 minute ferry ride from Nanaimo.   I liked it so much I did it the next day too.  Weather was hot (28 degrees Celsius), very little breeze, lots of sunscreen and H₂O.  I am not really a hat person but the sun as so bright I had to succumb to the ball cap.

REPORT FROM XI’AN, CHINA, by ERIC MA (MRI Team Build Lead, M+M), said he really wanted to share this great ride with all the warriors, on Sunday he and CASH XU (Controller) rode a big circle along the Third Ring of the Xi’an City, totally 115KM according from the GPS log, the greatest experience ever counted the last 20mins rushing in the torrential rain when they’re trapped 15KM away from the destination. See the route they rode and where Active Xi’an office is in the map. Well, unfortunately both of them got severe sun burnt during the hours rode under the sun in the noon.

Over 70 SD Active team members did their first Triathlon at the Solana Beach Tri in SD.  First two from Friday’s “Buoy for Bubbly” post training/pre-race celebration. Last pic: pre first heat – Solana Tri.

JAMIE WILLIAMS did a quick 35 mile bike ride along the Coast Saturday to check out his bike thanks to Arch for getting a bike mechanic in this past week for tune ups!  And then on Sunday

he participated in the Solana Beach Triathlon for the second year and set a PR for this year’s race. He’s smiling in the picture so he must have been feeling good!

RICKY GREY and wife Carly and I took part in the Solana Beach Sprint Tri along with many of our Active friends and supporters. As in past years, it was great to have so many friends out their racing the course together as well as all the Active fans cheering everyone along.  The race was a great follow up from our first Ironman 70.3 that we completed just a week earlier.  For all those that are still riding the excitement of Solana Beach and thinking of their next race, I can't say enough about Vineman!  Such a fun race and awesome experience! I included a photo from  Solana Beach and a bike photo of each of us from Vineman.

ANDY REILLY did his first triathlon ever at Solana Beach and was telling his Mom and Sister how it was done!  Its just too bad his old man coudn't call him in since he was at Ironman Lake Placid.

Jessica Wexler (Active Works Communications and Giving) - enjoyed another fabulous Solana Beach Tri. Special thanks to the awesome ActiveX cheering squads out there supporting us and of course special thanks to Arch and Christy Fuston for - everything. Pictured: The pink ladies and Arch (trying to blend in).

AMY SCHWENCK had the BEST time racing in the Solana Beach Triathlon this weekend.  The camaraderie of the Active team before and during the race pushed me to my best time yet on the course.  CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who participated and a HUGE THANKS to those who cheered us on.  Only 46 days to Malibu!!

MIKE MACDONALD did the Solana Beach Tri in 1:05:21.  By far the most fun I've had in any of my tri's thanks to all of the Active crew being there.  We dominated out there!

JIM GARFIELD (M&M) was proud and thrilled to participate in the Solana Beach Triathlon with all the other Active peeps. Watching the Active tri vets and newbies was truly inspiring and getting the extra cheers along the way was better then GU shots for energy!!

RUBEN GOMEZ went to the Solana Beach Triathalon and took some pictures.  Feel free to grab any photos you need.  If for any reason you need larger quality image just let me know. Thanks.

http://www.rubenjgomez.com/solana-beach-tri/solana-beach-tri.html

BRENDAN EGAN this past Sunday, July 25^th I joined 70 other active colleagues in the Solana Beach triathlon. This was my first endurance event ever and definitely not the last. Overall the race was great and I finished in a time of 1:10:50. The swim was much harder than I anticipated but I managed to make it through, barely. The crowd and volunteers were fantastic and the energy surrounding the event was amazing, very fun and can’t wait for next year.

KAT KEIVENS, Online Account Coordinator San Diego, conquered her first triathlon this weekend.  I competed in the Solana Beach Triathlon along with 69 fellow Active Employees.  It was a great day, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect and the surf at the beach was pretty calm which made it easy to get through.  I actually surprised myself with how well I did.  I was able to  finish 11 in my age group with a time of 1:13:51.0.  A big thanks goes out to all those that came out to support and encourage I couldn’t have done it without you all.

PAUL MCLURE yesterday was my second year doing the Solana Beach Triathlon with the support of the Active Crew and my family which makes for a great event. It was really cool to see and hear all of the people cheering for us.  I was close to 20 seconds slower this year with a finish of 1:21:53.

ANTHONY VALENTINO, Account Executive, finished his first triathlon at the Solana Beach Triathlon & Duathlon in 1:01:56.  The best part was the Cheer Squad – tons of Active Network supporters and athletes and my very, very loud and obnoxious family (daughter Jade in this photo).  I loved every minute of it and have tremendous pride in being part of the amazing culture perpetuated by Active Network and the ActiveX posse.  So proud in fact, I’ve decided to wear this outfit to the office today.

EVAN WITTE (Product Manager – San Diego) – Completed the Solana Beach Triathlon along side countless other Active Network Members with a finishing time of 1:00:45. Thanks to everyone who came out in support and congratulations to the first time Triathletes.

ERIN LANGI wanted to report in that I did my first Tri this weekend in Solana Beach with about 70 other employees from Active.  It was an awesome experience seeing so many people from Active out there both participating & cheering.  I had a side ache for a lot of the run which slowed me down a little, but ended up finishing at 1 hr and 17 minutes.

On a recent trip to the Burnaby office, MICHAEL STRICKLAND (ActiveWorks) and his wife Cassie reach the halfway point on Vancouver’s “Grouse Grind.” With 2,830 steps, and an elevation gain of 2,800 feet over 1.8 miles, the hike is aptly known as “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster.”

MATTHEW HENRY (Interaction Designer – ActiveWorks Swimming, Bothell, WA) finished the weekend 1-1, losing pretty handily (15-9) in ultimate frisbee to the inappropriately named Butterfingers. However, on Sunday his Playground Thuggz beat the Honey Nut Ichiros 19-8.  This is his first victory in kickball ever (now a total of 1-9)!  The big news of the weekend was that he kicked off the winter season of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training on Saturday morning.  For the next six months, he will be mentoring and training for his second Goofy Race and a Half Challenge, with stops at the Chicago Marathon and Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon along the way.  If you’d like to donate to his cause, please visit http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/wdw11/mahenry.

After losing their first playoff game last week, the Active Assassins roller hockey team bounced back with a big 3-1 win on Sunday night. Led by a 1 goal and 2 assist performance by star defenseman Matt Cox, the Assassins stayed alive to play another game. Next up for the Assassins is Kdub on Tuesday night at 10:45pm – Burnaby Lake arena. We encourage all Active fans to come out and support the team for this late night game! The Active Assassins are led by Team Captain Justin Leung along with Matt Cox, Chris Hall, Jon Buyco, Nat Strull, Brian Choy, Ryan Lyster, Inderpal Dhaliwal and Julius Dagot.

MIKE REILLY & TOM ZIEBART a great Active client were in the tower at the finish line of the 12^th Ironman Lake Placid, NY.

MIKE REILLY working and reporting from the Boston Marathon. Happy Patriots Day!  His daughter Erin (white visor) and Niece Kim (Pink visor) ran the marathon for the first time.  Lisa Rainsberger the last American woman to win Boston (1985) started the women's race.  Robert Cheruiyot from Kenya set a new course record in 2:05:52.  The Boston Marathon in my opinion is the best in the world and not to be missed.

Photos from Mike:

Jim Garfield (M&M) and Jared Hinkley (M&M) participated in the 6k DOW/Live Earth Run for Clean Water.  Active is doing the registration for this 200 city world wide event to raise awareness for clean drinking water.  6K is the average distance a woman has to walk in Africa to get to clean drinking water.  The DOW event is also the largest clean water initiative in history.  We were joined by Los Angeles based advertising agency clients, professional triathlete Jenny Fletcher and Fall Out Boy musician Pete Wentz.

Lindsay Nesselroad Solana Beach Training @ Mission Bay Park. 4/17 Good Times!!

Stella Cardenas (daughter of Stephany Cavatoni, GM, Consumer Insight and Access) and her U6 Softball Team had a great game against tough competitors this weekend – and all team members had great hits (no tee required!) and are really picking up their fielding game.  Stella rocked out first base!

Eddie Rafols, Software Trainer, kicked off my running season with the St. Albert 10 Mile Road Race on Sunday. I finished with a personal best of 1:10:11. And true to my roots as a member of the golf consulting group, I managed to squeeze in a round of golf in the afternoon as well!

This is WW report from Xi'an, China.

Weekend Warriors From XI'AN, CHINA - CASH XU (Accountant), EDA ZHAO (Development Tools Administrator), PAUL GUO (Desktop Administrator), Fod Shadbakht (English Trainer) and ERIC MA (Directory Market Dev, M+M) took an 80K (60K Flat, 10K Uphill and 10K Downhill) tour ride to Jiulong Pond, a beautiful scenic spot in Qinling Mountains.

It was not cool to ride in such a chilly day, especially they just experienced a weird snow last week in Xi'an! But it's an awesome ride with such a great group. There're so many funs riding the sinuous rocky terrain, so challenging to ride uphill! While downhill was crazy, their hands were so stiff to hold the brake all the while for 20mins, besides have to dodge the vehicles passing through!

Tawnya Bordalo, Heidi Achenbach, James Sola and Jeremy Spitzberg enjoyed a beautiful Sunday morning ride from Fiesta Island to Solana Beach and back (35mi).  As expected, the fog you see in the picture burned off just as we were about to climb the hill at Torrey Pines.

Brooke Kirkpatrick, Account Manager, ActiveSports - I celebrated "spring back to Vail" for the last day of skiing this season.   We have a tradition of dresssing up as Omigos and Senoritas every year. Yesterday was a perfect blue bird day to spend the day with friends, skiing, and watch pond jumping!

Evan Witte (Product Manager - Foundation) ran the Carlsbad 5000 last weekend with a finishing time of ~20 minutes. Unfortunately due to losing a bet he donned a full 80's inspired costume in celebration of the 25th anniversary event.

Busy weekend here in the NW.  Rain or shine, we had a Zoo Outing followed by a Red Mill Burger Outing(In and Out of Seattle). Great day out with Family and Friends.  Thank you for coming out to play

Daffodil Classic Metric Century (100 kilometer/62 mile).

Sijen Olthof and Nicole Pelley (Business Analyst)rode the Daffodil Classic this weekend.  Great day for a ride with Mt. Rainer as our backdrop. This is the longest distance we have ever ridden.  Our goal by the end of the summer is to ride from Seattle to Portland.

Toby Guillette, Social Media Specialist in San Diego camped out in Cuyamaca State Park (thanks ReserveAmerica!) with Airey Baringer, Jesse Hammond and Mike Clarke and did a 5 hour mountain bike ride on Saturday

Jeannie Freis (Associate Product Manager, RegOnline) found some good bump skiing and powder on Eldora’s backside.

Jake Cooney While I wasn't actively participating in it other than drinking Canadian beers (sidenote: I did a 15 mile training run yesterday), I had the opportunity of attending the short track speed skating finals.  It was by far the coolest sporting event I've ever attended and a very exciting event to see live. Unfortunately Apolo was robbed of the silver but at least we got a silver in women's and a bronze in the men's relay.

Matthew Henry (Interaction Designer on Foundation in Bothell) filled his weekend with endurance and athletic activities.  He started his Saturday morning with an hour long run with Team in Training around Seward Park, preparing for the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon.  Immediately following, he endured 13 hours watching Avatar, Up in the Air, Precious, The Blind Side and Inglorious Basterds without falling asleep once.  (It doesn’t have to be an athletic event to be an endurance event!!)  Finally on Sunday morning, he showed up at the Granite Curling Club behind 150 people looking to try curling.   Curling’s actually harder than it looks.  For anyone with yoga experience, imagine half-pigeoning across the ice.  At the end, the junior national champions showed up to make all the newbies feel extra bad. 

Let me know if you’re interested in an ActiveX curling team.  Leagues start in April!!!

We rode in the Chilly Hilly this weekend here in Seattle.  A beautiful day for a bike ride and 2,675 feet of Hilly climbing!

In photo (JASON KARLS, UX Design Lead; SIJEN OLTHOF, Sr. Implementation Analyst; Nicole Wilde, Business Analyst) BOTHELL OFFICE.

ANDY GEORGE and his daughter AVA from the San Diego had an adventuress snowy weekend. Their group weathered over a foot of new snow in less than 18 hours at a remote YMCA Adventure Guide camp located in the southern California mountains.

Larry Andruetti and Stephen Matsuba were Olympic weekend Warriors.  On Saturday, they went to the Gold Medal Men's Curling game that saw Canada's Kevin Martin rink win Gold. Then they went to see the Bronze Medal Hockey game between Finland and Slovakia.  Finland won the Bronze.

Then on Sunday, they went to see the Gold Medal Men's Hockey game between Canada and the USA. The overtime goal scored by Canada's Sidney Crosby is now one of the greatest goals in Canadian hockey history (sorry, USA).

After the game, Larry went to watch the closing ceremony and Stephen went to view the Olympic Cauldron and celebrate with 100,000 other people in Vancouver's downtown core.

Rebecca Zent, New Account Specialist, did a two mile run with my dog  in our open space. I also did lunges half way around the .5 mi loop and  squats on the half of loop.

Alex Afandi volunteered at the Catalina Half  Marathon. My assignment was to annouce the finishers throughtout the  race and the race winners at the end of it. The boat ride to Catalina on  Saturday morning was extremely bumpy so I also did some first aide  assists with folks who were getting sea-sick.

Toby Guillette, Social Media Specialist in San Diego, took on a 23-mile portion of the Pacific Crest Trail for a trail run that climbed for the first 18 miles on a beautiful SoCal Sunday

Jim Garfield (AMG) and Active alum Chris Wheeler, did the Big Rock Triathlon this past Saturday.  It was great to hear the fans cheer "Go Active".  Wish the cheers could have loosened my tight calf's.....but fun all the same!!

Last Saturday, Oct 31, David Detar (National Account Manager - ActiveOutdoors) and his son Matt (10 yrs old) participated in a local Jack-o-lantern Jog.  It was a 5K race.

The course was tough - a 3/4 mile hill less than a mile from the start and then rolling hills throughout.  We also were forced to run through heavy rain and wind.  We still enjoyed our time together and finished respectably in 27:30 and 27:31.  Pacing with Matt, I my time actually put in in 7th in my age group while Matt finished 4th in the under 11 age bracket.  Next up for both of us is a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day!

Michelle Nation, Product Manager - I travelled to Las Vegas this weekend to take on the Desert Beach Big Dirt Triathlon.  The weather and the 1.5 k lake swim were perfect, but the 30 k bike and 10k run were brutal!   As the only female to finish the long course, I brought home the first place trophy which helps me feel a lot better about all the cuts, bruises and sore muscles from crashing on the bike course.   It was my first off-road tri and I will definitely be back for more.

Jim Hine, GM for Consumer Access, rode with a group of eight riders on a 24-mile loop along the South Fork of the Boise River on Saturday.  The stock trails in the Danskin Mountains aren’t maintained so you get pretty worked on the side hills and washouts. You can only ride this area in the fall/winter due to the heavy rattlesnake population in the spring.  I hooked a pedal and got a close-up look at a rock, but the trails were a blast.

Mark Lister (Documentation – Burnaby) competed in the Haney 2 Harrison 100 km road relay this past weekend. Running with “Oconnor’s Washed up All Stars” (comprised of current and former Richmond Kajaks track runners), the team finished second overall in a time of 5:43.48.

Mark was 3rd on his leg of the race, running the 13.1 km stage in 46:26, despite the cold, persistent heavy rain.

Stage 6 results: http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2009/run/H2H2009Stage6.html

Marea Blue (Implementation Analyst) and I (Kirstin Hartos, Technical Account Management Team Lead) traveled to San Francisco over the weekend with our rugby team to play for the Division 1 National Championship.  We faced the Atlanta Harlequins in Friday’s semi-final match, and although they scored first we managed to come from behind in the second half to win 21-10 and advance to the final against Northern Virginia.  We had Saturday to rest and refocus, and came out firing on Sunday – scoring within the first minute of the game to go up 7-0.  We got penalized several times for repeated offenses, and one of our players was sin-binned (like a penalty box in hockey) so we played a man down for 10 minutes in the middle of the first half.  Although we didn’t score again until well into the second half, we managed to hold NOVA scoreless throughout the game.  The final score was 14-0, marking our team’s first ever National Championship.  Marea was also named MVP (well deserved).  Thanks to everyone here for your support throughout the season!

Chris Ochs,  Sales Manager - The Boulder Team participated in Habitat for Humanity.

L-R:  Chris Ochs, Jen Napoli, Dan Partain, Aaron Romero, Eric Johnson, Holly Hale, Nick Stevens.

A fun time was had by all!

Here is the Weekend Warrior from China.

Phoenix Zhong, Jex Chen and Crusoe Xia (From left to right) from Foundations, Chengdu office attended a cycling match at Sunday.

This is the first time China ActiveX team members to attend a national wide, public cycling match in China!

Crusoe got the 1^st place in his group and got 53^rd in the whole match. It is China ActiveX team’s first record.

“225” in these two pictures is Jex

Scott Novell, Development Manager in San Diego - Participated in the La Jolla Gatorman  race for the sixth time.  The Gatorman is the longest running swim race in America, it is a 5k swim from the La Jolla cove to Scripps pier and back, No wetsuits allowed!  It was a tough race this year with 6-7 foot swells and a lot of current, there were times I thought I was going backwards.  It was not one of my fastest times but was still an exciting and challenging event and always an exciting start as seen in the picture!

Robert Subkow, Director of Network & Communications - This weekend marked the 4th annual Helen Woodward Surf Dog Competition at Del Mar in which the Golden Surfer’s were well represented.  Jill Sonar Subkow (Our Golden Retriever) placed 4th in her heat of 13 dogs over 60 pounds, and 7th overall in the X-Large dog category, (Please don’t tell her she is extra large, she is a bit touchy about her weight, lol)….  The waves were challenging as the rip current was strong but Jill was able to get in 11 runs in 20 minutes, well she rode while I ran after the board and reloaded her for the next wave. Hope this is a worthy update

Ryan Lyster, Customer Experience Project Manager - I returned last week from Peru where I did a 4 day trek up the Inca trail to reach Machu Picchu with my Dad on his 60th birthday. The trek was difficult for my standards, reaching 4,215m’s above sea level and hiking the vertical of whistler mountain in a single morning! It was well worth it to see all the stunning ruins along the way and to be surrounded by the Andes. Cant say enough about the experience, would recommend it to everyone!

Charlie Trottier, Team Manager in San Diego, CA played with his Saturday Ultimate Frisbee league team for 60 minutes, 8 v. 8 and surfed on Sunday for 40 minutes. The waves were huge!

Jim Garfield (AMG) joined 1,500 athletes to compete in the Nautica Malibu Olympic distance triathlon.  Jim joined fellow Active X’s Rebecca Divita and Kelly Schulty along with Active alum’s Chris Wheeler and Carrie James.  In addition to Sunday’s race Jim channeled his inner Mike Riley once again to announce Sunday’s celebrity race.  This year’s field included Terri Hatcher and Felicity Hufffman (DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES), Paul Lieberstein (THE OFFICE), William H. Macy and his high school buddy Jeremy Piven ( ENTOURAGE) among many other celeb’s and 3,500 hard charging athletes. This year’s event raised over $1 Million dollars for Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Dave Detar, Account Manager for ActiveOutdoors - My ten year old son (Matthew) chose Labor Day to run in his first ever timed race.  We registered and ran in the 27th Labor Day 5K Classic in Washington, PA.  Since he had never run in an organized race of this length, I kept cautioning him against starting too fast.  Even with the first part of the course downhill, I was concerned when our 1 mile split was 7:15.  I thought Matt was in trouble.  Much to my surprise and delight, he kept running, stopping only for a quick drink at the mid-point water station.  With the finish line in sight, he pushed forward and crossed in 24:03.  This time earned him first place in his age group.  I finished 6th in my age group.  Not bad for what I thought was going to be a leisurely jog to introduce Matt to organized racing! Here is a picture of Matt picking up his first place trophy.

Tina Novak, Software Consultant in Colorado - This weekend I competed in my first adventure race, the Bearable Adventure Race in Lakewood, CO. It was a partner race, though my friend I signed up with hurt her foot last week and had to recruit my boyfriend as a last minute substitute! We had to complete a water crossing, where the hardest part was inflating our mattress we both had to touch at all times… After the swim we mountain biked 10 miles and ran 4 trail miles over the rivers and through the woods with our stuffed bear in tow, all the way to our orienteering challenge where we had to find 6 different points before running to the finish line. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

Jessica Wexler, (Foundations) - Spent the weekend mountain biking, hiking, and camping in the Hurkey Creek area near Idyllwild, California. Next weekend is the big 24 hours of Adrenaline Race so there were many experienced riders practicing the route and zipping past me on the trail. Note to San Diego co-workers this is an excellent place to camp with your dogs!

Toby Guillette, Community Development Specialist, San Diego - For my last long training run before the Noble Canyon 50K on 9/26, I ran up and down Palomar Mountain this weekend via the Nate Harrison Grade Rd. It was a brutal 10-mile ascent with an 8% grade and 4,700’ of climbing. I would recommend it as a solid mountain bike ride but not as a run. The 10-mile descent was a quad killer and got really hot. At least the view was "kinda" worth it

Bret Harris, Account Manager in San Diego - I helped organize this year’s Paddle For Clean Water event around the Ocean Beach Pier.  This is an annual gathering of ocean enthusiasts organized by the Surfrider Foundation to raise awareness about clean water issues here in San Diego by orchestrating a mass paddle out around the longest pier on the west coast.  Unfortunately, this year’s 1.2 mile paddle adventure had to be postponed due to the large swell, but the festival carried on and was a huge success!

This weekend Tina Wilmott in the PR department took trapeze classes in Escondido for a friend’s birthday. I’ve always wanted to try and highly recommend. It was amazing! Here is a video of me (see attached) flying through the air.

PATTI ROSENTHAL, Cycling Account Manager, Durango, CO. Another great backcountry trip up in the San Juan Mountains.  This time to the Wolf Creek area to a spot called Lobo Lookout.  Wolf Creek had just gotten 12 inches of fresh powpow.  Well over a 1,000 feet of climbing up with skins on our skis but the fresh powder runs down was well worth it.  Skiing with great friends on a sunny blue bird day!

JULIUS DAGOT and the [Burnaby office Social Committee |

http://intractive.active.com/Teams/social_committee.html] organized Saturday’s Snow Day—involving 40 employees, family, and friends. The participants skied, snowboarded, and snowtubed at Cypress Mountain. The event was a huge success, and the participants enjoyed a day of fun with the snow, in true Canadian style.

ADNAN ZAIDI played the “Al Mills Memorial Championships”, a USTA sanctioned tournament, in the Men’s 35 Singles. I played well but ended up losing to the #1 seed in the finals. Here is a link to the tournament’s home page (no results have been updated yet):

STEPHEN MATSUBA (Foundations) took part in the 2nd Annual British Columbia Kendo Federation Kendo Tournament as a member of the Vancouver Kendo Club.  The competition hosted participants from B.C. as well as a team from Washington State.  I competed in the individual shodan (1st black belt) division and was a member of the Vancouver Kendo Club’s B Team.  While our team did not make it into the medal round, our club’s A Team came in second.

NICO REIS, Active International, Munich, Germany, went to see the Harlem Globetrotters on the World tour in Germany! Now clearly this is one of the Basketball teams, every fan or Player should see at least once in their life. Amazing ball handling, ridiculous dunks, alley oops, etc. but foremost: Great entertainment. Needless to say they won their game against the Washington Generals (whom the Globetrotters defeated in the past 50 years, by the way).

JIM GARFIELD (AMG) was a victim of the State of California budget woes.  He hit a major pothole on PCH in Malibu while riding up to Ventura. This time it was really only the bike that broke and not his shoulder.  He also discovered that although very cool, the Active riding kit was not road rash resistant.  Hey Arnold…how about throwing some $ towards road repair!!!!

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TOBY GUILLETTE ran 26 miles on the Noble Canyon trail on Saturday morning and then joined up with AIREY BARINGER and JESSE HAMMOND on Sunday for a mellow bike ride through OB, Point Loma, Harbor Island and Little Italy. 

Janean Nation, Account Manager – ActiveSports

My sister Michelle (Product Manager) and I participated in the Iron Girl Las Vegas Triathlon this weekend with another of our sisters.  It was my first triathlon and I had a great time.  Michelle and I did the sprint, finishing 310th and 312th out of about 800 racers.  Michelle had a slightly heroic moment when she helped a panicked swimmer out of the water in the first 25 yards and then swam back up to help me through my weakest leg.  Overall it was a great experience and I can’t wait to give it another go!

Shawn Boom, Sacramento office

On Saturday I ran the Diablo Trail Marathon - 8,000 vertical feet of climbing and 90 degrees, quite a feat and quite tough on the feet given the rocky trail.  I'm normally a 3 hr marathoner and this one was so steep and hilly it took me 7 hours!  Attached is a photo from near the 4,000 ft summit.

Carrie Smith, Marketing Services Conversion Specialist

Last week I was in the British Virgin Islands as part of an open water swim vacation.  The water was so clear that we did underwater videotaping in the sea for stroke analysis!  The temperature was perfect, no wetsuits needed.  This trip had it all…snorkeling, sea life, sailing, plenty of swimming, and sunsets.

Caitlyn Barker, Support Team Lead, Professional Services

I recently travelled to Guam and spent a week swimming, snorkeling and hiking around the island. One of the cool things I discovered was a Geocache game that is played all over the world. Little “caches” like the one in the picture are hidden all over the world and folks are supposed to use GPS devices to find these. I pretty much liken it to a modern day treasure hunt! I just happened to learn about this game when I almost tripped on the canister in the rock on Mt Lam Lam. My boyfriend Colin and I hiked this mountain which happens to be the tallest peak on the island, about 3,000 feet in elevation. Later, we went snorkeling in the bay to cool off. The trip also included a chance to watch some friends participate in the Xterra Off Road Triathlon and Guam Marathon that weekend, watching these participants compete while enduring the high heat and humidity levels amazed me!

Amber Martin

I went on a 3 day cruise to Mexico. Between the sunbathing still managed to get in something Active. We went horse back riding down the beach in Ensenada. My first time on a horse since being bucked off when I was 10…it was interesting to say the least.

Jim Garfield, Director, Business Development

In the true spirit of Mr. Reilly, I had the opportunity to channel him in announcing the Nautica South Beach Triathlon.  In the photo I was happy to announce the winners of the female celebrity relay team (Triathlete Katya Meyer, Tennis Star Anna Kournikova, me and Olympic Gold medalist and world record holder Dara Torres.  Next time I am going to race!!!

Kirstin Hartos, Implementation Analyst

I attended the first of three weekend rugby camps to try-out for the Southern California (SCRFU) women’s select side team.  Each of the seven territories in the US will put a select side team together to play in the USA Rugby National All-Star Tournament in June in Pittsburgh.  We had almost 30 girls at the try-out this weekend, and expect more players at the camp in Los Angeles at the beginning of May.  On Saturday we did some ball-handling, tackling and fitness testing in the morning, broke out into backs and forwards in the afternoon to run through set plays, and then scrimmaged ourselves at the end of the day.  On Sunday morning we had another scrimmage against another women’s team representing the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union (MARFU), but ended up losing 15-0 after 110 minutes of rugby.  I managed to nail the goal-post on our only penalty kick attempt, and the ref changed his mind and took back our try in the first period – it was a frustrating that we didn’t convert on our opportunities to score.  But aside from being generally sore (and bruised), I managed to stay injury free – and am looking forward to the next camp in May.

Michelle Valenti

I supported being active by attending the Navy Moto X World Championships at Qualcomm. I had a fantastic time and really enjoyed the event! The freestyle tricks are unbelievable, and riders like Ricky Carmichael and Travis Pastrana are really impressive to watch.

Tina Novak, Software Trainer

I was up in Utah for a long weekend, camping, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and all around loving life at the majestic Zion National Park. Hiked up a bunch of different trails there, but the highlights were Observation Point and Angels Landing. Observation Point we kind of tackled as an afterthought, and came to find out that we hiked 4 miles to the top of Zion (about a mile high) where this photo was taken. What? You can hike to the top of Zion? I’m glad we didn’t know we were going that high because we might not have done the hike! Angels Landing was my most challenging hike, not physically, but emotionally. I am absolutely terrified of heights but managed to crawl my way across the narrow trails with 1,000 foot drop offs on both sides to the top to enjoy the amazing views. Talk about feeling accomplished!

Alex Walker, sales at EventRegister and Andrew Frantz, developer from Thriva, took a trip to Steven’s Pass for a little action in the Terrain Park. After months of building up the courage, faceplants and failed attempts, we finally we able to compile this short video of our accomplishments.

San Diego Mud Run

LAURA HILTS, ANDREA RISHMAWI, and CARRIE JAMES did the SD Mud Run (Team 5k) Sunday afternoon. At 100 degrees, it was a scorcher, thank God for those breathable Active X shirts

Marc Villanueva,Danny Roa, Bryan Paijit, Jesse Hammond and Jesse's girlfriend

"Mud Run Baby!!!"

Kevin Beatty

Ran in the San Diego 10K Mud Run in La Mesa with a group of friends. Still picking the mud out of my ears and fingernails today but had a blast doing it. No idea what our time was.

Amy Steiner, Heidi Achenbach and Christina Hanson ran the San Diego Mud Run on Sunday. We finished the hilly, muddy, obstacle-ridden and crowded 5K course at 50:10, but with temperatures over 100° in La Mesa on Sunday, we’re just glad we survived it!

Lacey Shaw, Polly Marrangoni and Katrina LeBlanc did the San Diego Mud Run 5K in el Cajon on Sunday. As temps reached record breaking 100 degrees we were glad there was some mud to cool us off. =)