I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A GREAT TIME AT YOUR ACTIVE NETWORK HOLIDAY PARTY. WE’VE GOT A PRETTY SPECIAL COMPANY BECAUSE OF ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE THAT WORK HERE. A LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR! Mike

MICHELLE CREPEAU with Active Giving out of NY ran the New York Road Runners Club 4 Miler. It was held in Central Park on a chilly 29 degree day. Michelle ran thru the cold with a time of 33:19 which equates to 8:37 pace per mile. Way to get out of bed on a cold morning Michelle and do it!

SARI RUDY an Account Executive with Active Tennis says she didn’t do anything this weekend but her son sure did. She was a proud Mom watching 12 year old Andrew compete in his first Golf qualifier with top kids in the Country and low and behold he won! Andrew will now be taking Mom and family to Myrtle Beach to play in the World Championships in August.

CAITLYN BARKER Support Team Lead in SD took her two Retrievers and went up to Idyllwild, CA and spent the entire day hiking with the pooches. There was a foot of snow on the Southern California Mountains which made for a challenging trek. The dogs had fun eating the snow (hope it wasn’t Yellow) but Caitlyn didn’t have fun trying to get her car out of an icy parking space.

TOBY GUILLETTE, Online Community Specialist for Endurance Sports. Now I like Toby, he’s a cool kid but what he did this weekend was not normal, which is Okay. Toby ran 52 miles on Sunday! You heard me right. What he did was run a series of four, 13-mile loops in Los Penasquitos Canyon in San Diego that lasted just over 12 hours. He said, it was a test of the training I've been up to this fall to get a feel for where I’m at and to end the year on a positive note. He was very happy with his run now I’m going to go see him to see if he can walk!

AND NOW HERE IS A REAL TEAM EFFORT FROM ACTIVE TEAM MEMBERS. From PHILIP ROWCLIFF Senior Director of Active Tennis.



Here’s the scoop on the First Ever Active Tennis Doubles Tournament which was held from December 11th -13th (last Tuesday thru Thursday). Active Tennis account manager MELISSA MAGAT planned, hosted and ran the tournament…and did an outstanding job all around. A total of 18 Active employees (9 teams) participated in the event in 2 divisions Beginner/Intermediate and Advanced.

In our Beginner/Intermediate event, 5 teams competed and here are the results:

• KATE HANAHAN and MOLLLY MUELLER vs. VICTORIA TINSLET & ALISON HALL - Kate & Molly won ( 8-6 )
• MARC VILLANUEVA & JESSE HAMMOND vs. JENN TAPSCOTT & SARA ALLEN – Marc & Jesse won ( 8-3 )
• Kate and Molly vs. Philip Rowcliffe and David Rubio – Philip and David won ( 8-1 )

In the Finals - Marc and Jesse vs. Philip and David - MARC AND JESSE WIN THE EVENT ! (8-4)
Highlight of the final was David hitting a serve directly at his partner, Philip…which Rowcliffe says threw him completely off his game, hence the loss. Just kidding! Huge kudos to Marc who is a developer and Jesse, a content producer, both on the Consumer Media team…well played!

In our Advanced event, 4 teams competed and here are the results:

• Nelson Abalos and Andi Neugarten vs. David Kipper and Danielle Grassi – Nelson and Andi won ( 8-3 )
• Adnan Zaidi and Rich Neher vs. Adam Kossak and Melissa Magat – Adnan and Rich won ( 8-2 )

• In the Finals - Nelson and Andi vs. Adnan and Rich - ADNAN AND RICH WIN THE EVENT ! (8- 6)
For those who don’t know Adnan, he’s a technical account manager on the USTA account, lives in Miami and is a former coach and accomplished player. Watch out, he plans to be in SD for all future tournaments! Rich

Other Tournament Winners:

Winner of Best Christmas Themed outfit: Kate Hanahan and Molly Mueller - looking super cool in their offsetting/matching red and green elves outfits…complete with Christmas knee high socks. The tournament was fun for ALL! We hope more Active employees will participate in the future, as we plan to organize earlier and hold a tennis tournament quarterly!




RAY EBERT Team Lead with League One in San Diego had a climb of a lifetime, here are his own words.

Well, finally made my attempt on some big mountains in Ecuador. I didn’t summit but I still feel good about my attempts. I made it to 19,100 on Cotopaxi, just 300 feet below the summit. I was pretty much suffocating at that elevation and could barely make a step after 3 or 4 pressure breaths. This after 7 hours on 50 to 65 degree ice. At one point we barely made 300 feet in an hour and were averaging 6 feet per minute. I decided to turn around when another climber was sent down with a “Productive Cough…”, I was seeing stars at this point – literally. For my attempt on Cayambe I felt great and it was a glorious day in the mountains, there was lightning below us and when the clouds broke we could see the town of Cayambe 8000’ below us. However by the time we’d crossed the corniced main ridge and entered the crevasse field below the upper headwall (sorry for the lingo but, well, that’s how it’s described…) we were in a nearly complete white out. We’d used all but three wands marking our trail to that point, we couldn’t see more than 15 feet, it had been snowing for hours, and one guide had already fallen into a crevasse to his thigh. The guides commiserated then opened the discussion to us, the three remaining climbers, and we all agreed that it was probably safest to turn around. No one had been higher than this point in days and going on not being able to see where we were going just didn’t seem smart. So at 18,200’ we headed back down in a snowstorm. By the time we got back the refugio at 15,000 it was raining and we were soaked.

On the way home as the plane was landing in Houston and the artificial atmosphere went below 5,000’ it felt like someone was pushing on my chest, pretty bizarre. Then as I walked around the airport at 500’ my fingers and skin started to tingle, it felt sort of like when you hyperventilate or blow up an air-mattress or something. I was kind of hyper-oxygenated just sitting there breathing. Now that was weird and it kind of made me dizzy. This lasted for about a week. Now I’m all better and rested and thinking about my next mountain(s)!

Couple of fun attached pics. One of my team in front of Cotopaxi and the other my watch at my high point. There’s much more detail on my blog if you want to post that: http://rayinecuador.blogspot.com