Hope all you US people had a nice 3 day Holiday weekend and the rest took Monday off just because!  Stay Active everyone and create a great week! Mike

CHUAN HU from our Chengdu, China group reports they played a soccer game with a team from the Nokia Chengdu office. The weather was nice, as well as the condition of the field.

It was a hard match for us because Nokia team is a really strong team, but at our side, it was only the second time our team played together. We scored two, also lost numerous opportunities. It was nice that there were 5 girlfriends/wives joined in the cheer team. We had a lot of fun together!

HOW COOL IS THIS!  ANDY GEORGE & BURT REPINE tackled Mt. Shasta (14,179 ft.) where they summited via the West Face and then snowboarded back down. Summit day included an 8+ hours, 5000 foot crampon climb to the top and a snowboard descent of almost 6500 feet back to the parking lot at the Bunny Flat trailhead. A day that will be hard to top!  YOU GUYS ARE STUDS!

AMBER MARTIN & ANDREA RISHMAWI and friends hiked The Grandest of Canyons (that is the Grand Canyon)this weekend!  While numerous rangers warned against attempting to do the 16.5 mile down and back hike in one day, the girls scoffed at the idea of camping at the bottom.  While several canyon personnel told the girls to plan for at least 12 hours, they annihilated the 7 mile trek down in 3.5 hours, had an hour long lunch break, and powered through the 9.5 mile hike back up the beast in an astonishing 5 hours, bringing their total time to exactly 9.5 hours.  That canyon’s got nothing on us.  This first picture is of a sign saying “Do Not Attempt This Hike In One Day.”  YOU GIRLS ROCK!

Yours truly MIKE REILLY was on a pleasure trip over the Memorial Day weekend in St. Louis and a few triathletes heard I was in town.  Before I knew it I had a bike under my butt both Sat and Sun mornings and was discovering the Midwest on 2 wheels.  The group in the photo are all competing at Ironman Arizona in November.  Man is it humid back there! 

TOBY GUILLETTE joined BRYAN PAVIN for a 12-mile trail run on Saturday morning and we crossed trails with ELAINE BERGERON who was mountain biking at Daley Ranch in Escondido. Then I ran 20 more miles that night (with a headlamp) at Mission Trails for a 32-mile day. My training is right on track for the Vermont 100 in July!

MICHELLE NATION reports: As part of my taper for Rock and Roll Marathon, I climbed from the Mountain Station of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up to the peak of Mt. San Jacinto (10,834 ft) on Saturday with a group of friends.  We enjoyed amazing views and relatively mild temperatures but were surprised to find almost a fourth of the trail still covered in snow.

On sunday, I had the privilege to be an adult “running buddy” at the Girls on the Run 5k in Balboa Park.  My 11 year-old buddy found speed in her legs that she had never exhibited in the 12 weeks of practice leading up to the event and it was all I could do to keep up with her intervals of sprinting and walking!   I was supposed to be motivating her, but ended up finishing my fastest 5k since the 1990s.  It was so inspiring to see the support of sponsors, parents and dedicated volunteers … it’s amazing how much the program has grown over the years.  Congrats to our very own Megan Stillerman as one of the GOTR board of Directors for a job well-done.  www.gotrsd.org   

MICHELE CREPEAU: I ran the Santa Barbara Half Marathon with my brother, best friend and her son and cousins.  We ran in honor of my Grandmother Sylvia Barter, through the Santa Ynez valley into her hometown of Solvang.  Great weekend and family renunion for Mother’s Day.

After a hard day of workouts and spectating at the Red Bull Air Races, NOLAN HANSEN (Active Accounting), Active Camps client Carson Sofro, RYAN DREW (Active Tennis) and JIM GARFIELD (Active) made their way to after party at the Hard Rock.  Needless to say Sunday morning’s work out suffered.

EMILY CHAN-NORRIS, HEIDI ACHENBACH, TAWNYA BORDALO and CHRISTINA HANSON participated in the Dam Sprint Triathlon on Saturday up in Lake Perris. We went up there with Tawnya Bordalo who competed in the Big Rock Olympic Triathlon and met up with fellow Active-ite Victoria Wilkens (also doing the Olympic distance) who spotted us in our Active.com gear. It was a beautiful day and a fun race for all. There were a lot of first-timers in the group and we all had a blast!  (pic from left to right: Heidi, Victoria, Emily, Christina, Tawnya)

TOBY GUILLETTE attempted the PCT50 on Saturday morning in Cuyamaca State Park but dropped out at mile 25 for my first, and certainly not last, DNF (Did Not Finish) of my ultra running career. My PR at OC Marathon last weekend took more out of me than I realized but had to give it a shot just to test my limits

ROB PUCHER reports: MATT EHRLICHMAN, NICOLE PELLY, JASON KARLS and ROB MAGNUSSON won the Bothell, Washington office Golf Tournament last Friday afternoon at Bellevue Municipal Golf Course.  After fierce competition all afternoon long it came down to an incredible long clutch birdie putt by Nicole Pelly on hole 18 to win it all for Team Magnusson.  This dream team put together great shots all day long, with every player contributing.  Rob Magnusson, team captain, had an impressive showing with several birdie putts to anchor their impressive victory.  Magnusson was quoted as saying, “I am so proud of my team!  What an incredible team effort!  Nicole Pelly really stepped it up on 18 with that long birdie, and we couldn’t have done it without key shots from Jason Karls and Matt Ehrlichman all day long.  I felt like Matt Ehrlichman learned a lot from me today on how to swing the golf club.  It’s apparent he is a natural when it comes to golf and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on the PGA tour if he continues to progress.”

Team Magnusson won 1st place with a score of 4 under par.  Team Hawley received second place honors by shooting a 3 under.  3rd place went to Team McCathern at 2 under.  Closest to pin contest was won by Matt Ehrlichman and longest drive went to Sean Fortune.

The Bothell office will put on another tournament in late August or September.  This is the second time this event has taken place and it keeps getting more and more popular.  There were 36 participants to make it an even 9 foursomes.  In addition, the Bothell office had a potluck on Friday afternoon with grill masters, Rob Gillespie and Joel Werdell, flipping up burgers and dogs prior to the golf event so the entire office could have some fun.

DON CRAMER competed in the Zone shooting event in Olympic Trap.  Shooters from California, Utah and Nevada competed in the hot Las Vegas sun in shooting over 125 clay targets.  Some of the competitors have represented the US past World Cup events.  This event is looked at as a warm up for the USA Shooting National Championships scheduled for July in Colorado Springs, CO.

At the end of the match, I manage to grind out a score of 106 out of a total of 125 targets, leaving me alone in second place and 1 target behind the leader Aaron Holguin of Southern California.  To conclude the event there was a 6 person “single shot” final to determine the overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners.  As it was late in the day, the 6 finalists had a very difficult time breaking targets as they traveled into the setting sun.  With a final score of 15, I secured second place with a total of 121.  Aaron Holguin broke a final score of 16 for a total of 123.

It was a great day for shooting and catching up with friends and colleagues.  Now it is time to focus on the Nationals coming up in a couple of month.

For more information on Olympic Trap, please feel free to visit www.usashooting.com, the National Governing Body for Olympic Shooting Sports.