Surf City Marathon

Helen and I just got back from a GREAT trip down to Huntington Beach, California for the Surf City Marathon – a top rate event which I HIGHLY recommend if you are looking for a scenic marathon to run. We were there with our good friends Kevin and Cindy Casper.

Cindy had a great race and she qualified for the Boston marathon! Way to go Cindy! Kevin ran his first half marathon, and Helen successfully finished her 15th marathon – whew! I had a good day as well with my 2nd best time of 3:17, 11th in my division and a Boston qualification.

Ultra Marathon

As you might recall, I am planning a possible attempt at the indoor velodrome 1 hour unfaired recumbent record for some point next Spring/Summer. However, since my training for the Surf City marathon went so well, I have decided to also plan something that I’ve been wanting to do for many, many years now – a 50 mile (80.5 km) Ultra Marathon. Yikes! I haven’t picked the race yet, but it will be in June which gives me about 4 months to train. My training started on the day after the Surf City Marathon with an attempt to run which was quite laughable. More like a very enthusiastic hobble than a run. Boy was I sore from that marathon!

Training for the ultra will consist of short runs almost every day with two back to back long runs each week consisting of 3 to 4 hours each. I am actually looking forward to the challenge.

New Web Site www.Human-Power.com

My speaking career has been keeping me very busy. I was in DC a couple of weeks ago to speak to Nutricia Corporation and that was a TON OF FUN! They are a GREAT group and I got a super enthusiastic response from them. Future bookings include a potential presentation for a Winter Olympic sponsor event in Vancouver!

A lot of my business is generated by Google search, and my web site www.human-power.com place on organic google search for keywords “motivational speaker” in very important. To improve my position, I need to start to generate links from other web sites to my human-power.com web site.

You would be doing me a huge solid if you could link http://www.human-power.com from your web site – possibly with the linked text “motivational speaker” Many thanks, and I would be happy to link back to yours from this blog in return.

Also, if there is anything at the speaking web site that you care to comment on, please email me your thoughts at greg@human-power.com. Sometimes we are so close to our trees, that it become difficult to see our forests if you know what I mean. I have worked very hard with my mentor – motivational speaker Steve Donahue, on staying relateable in my actual presentation which I think has resulted in a very impactfull but honest presentation. Your comments – both good and bad are appreciated.

PedalTheOcean.com progress

Ken and I have ordered and received all of the carbon and core supplies and we are ready to sart construction of the new ocean crossing boat. We are just waiting for final details on the drawings from naval architect Stuart Bloomfield.

As you may recall, last year I made a 30 mile trip out into the Pacific ocean from Tofino, BC with the prototype version of WiTHiN and encountered some 15 foot swells and I got so sick I thought I was going to die. Link to that blog post here. I really love the wild west coast of Vancouver Island and was so inspired during the two sea trials that I conducted there, that I decided to look more seriously into a new route for PedalTheOcean.

Rather than crossing the Atlantic by human power which dozens (and dozens and dozens) have already done, I could be the first person to travel from Canada to Hawaii under his own power – this has never been attempted before. The distance is about the same as my Canary Island to Barbados route, and the currents, waves and average weather conditions are also similar.

I contracted weather expert Rick Shema at www.WeatherGuy.com to do an analysis and comparison of both routes, and Rick thinks the new route is doable. I have a PDF report if anyone is interested in reading it. A departure window of May/June is required, so I am looking at possibly June of 2010. This gives me this winter and spring to finish construction and this summer, and next winter for sea trials and experience building.

Most EXTREME

OK – check this out. Ollie Hicks has departed from Tasmania on his ultra extreme ocean rowing quest – to be the first person to circumnavigate the planet by rowing. He is circling Antarctica via the Southern ocean. Ollie is rowing 18,000 miles of the most hostile marine environment on earth. He will will encounter freezing temperatures, 50 foot waves – OMG! You can follow his progress here. I will certainly be watching.

Also Mostly EXTREME

Jennifer Figge is attempting to become the first women to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Figge is a 56-years-old mother, ultra runner, and swimmer. A few weeks ago she dove into the Atlantic ocean wi
th the goal to swim across 2100 miles from the Cape Verde Islands off the African coast to Barbados. According to Jennifer, her epic swim should take about two months, swimming around eight hours a day, but the math doesn’t add up. An average endurance swimmer can swim about 3 km / hour (on flat, calm water – not in rough, open ocean!). 8 hours per day * 3 km/hr = 24 km per day. 2100 miles converted to km is 3300 km. 3300 km / 24 km pr day is 137.5 days! that’s about 4 1/2 months, not a couple of months. Still, I wish Jennifer the best of luck and I will definitely be following. Here is Jennifer’s FaceBook page.