I received an email from a friend of mine today, John Evans, informing me of a new cover photo. A year or so ago, we went to Castle Valley where he took photos of Katie Menghini and I climbing Fine Jade. One of the photos ended up on the latest cover of the Access Fund's publication Vertical Times. It will be a while before I can do that again, so it felt good to reminisce about what I could once do. The route was a big challenge for Katie and me




I spent the last 4 days and nights with another instructor and 12, count 'em 12, high school students. We were on a school climbing trip on Independence Pass above Aspen. It was my first trip and I found it quite challenging. The climbing was a cinch--set up a few top ropes, make sure the kids tie in right, cheer them on, etc. It was night time that was interesting--funny how 12 kids appear so quickly when dinner is served and disappear even quicker when the dishes need to be cleaned. It was a lesson in patience, but overall a great time. I love seeing teenagers get excited about climbing and hope that they will continue to pursue it beyond high school. It provides boys with some healthy risk and girls with some much needed confidence.

Another milestone this week--12 weeks! I'm feeling better and better! I am very excited about something--today I received an official "okay" to run a race I've been wanting to do, the Rim Rock Run. I ran it in 2006 and my friend Sarah asked me to do it with her again this year. I will be 18 weeks, and the race is 22.6 miles. The doctor I spoke with told me "just don't compete", but I can do it as long as I take it easy. Yeah! I also registered for the Las Vegas half marathon in December. Mike wanted to do the full LV marathon, so we decided to make a fun weekend out of it. I tried to research endurance training during pregnancy, but couldn't find much info. So, I asked the dad, an ex-OB doc, of one of my students and he gave me the okay.