ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY "TOP 10"

Today is our One Year Anniversary!!! We have tried to make each and every day unforgettable by doing as many activities together as possible. However, as Rachele and I push the limit of what we can accomplish together, we have made a few close calls...what I typify as "NEAR DIVORCE" experiences!

TOP 10 NEAR-DIVORCE EXPERIENCES OF OUR 1ST YEAR OF MARRIAGE: (In good humor)

10. IRONMAN ST. GEORGE ENTRY......The moment when Rachele found out I paid $550 for the Ironman St. George entry before we got married.

9. WASATCH 100, MILES 52-61, WITHOUT A HEADLAMP......I had Rachele pace me during the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run. I arrived to the mile 52 aid station about an hour later than expected, and I hadn't packed my headlamp until mile 61. I thought we could make it just fine, but on a descent down to Millcreek Canyon, the sun was completely down and so we had to walk the next 2 miles at a crawling pace because the trail was so rocky and we couldn't see a thing. Rachele wasn't too happy with me.

8. RIVER RAFT "EL CHORRO" WATERFALL ON HONEYMOON......This was a mutual decision! We decided to raft the wildest waterfall drop on Los Chorros river in Costa Rica. We didn't expect the river to be that bad, but in a small/tight 3-person raft, the river threw us around like a rag-doll. The waterfall drop was freaking scary and it was one of those "near-divorce" moments, just two days into marriage haha

7. FLAMING GORGE THUNDERSTORM......Rachele and I took our Kayak to the beautiful red rocks of Flaming Gorge Reservoir to practice our open water swimming. The weather report predicted a slight chance of thunderstorms on the 4th of July, but we figured it would be fine. This was quite the crazy adventure because we took all our gear (tent, sleeping bags, food, etc) and strapped it to our kayak. We went 6 miles out to an island and set up camp, and that afternoon we followed each other during a few miles of swimming in the open water. The next day we wanted to alternate swimming around the big island, and unfortunately we got stranded in the open in the middle of a nasty thunderstorm. To make a long story short, we made it back to camp and a boater pulled us the 6 miles back to our car at the boat launch.

6. ANTELOPE ISLAND 100K......Once again, I failed to pack a headlamp at the appropriate aid station. I had already run 50k when I met my beautiful wife to pace me for the 2nd loop. The good news was that the trail terrain was fairly easy and didn't require a lot of light. The bad new was that there were wild herds of buffalo roaming this famous island. Somebody let us borrow their little pocket flashlight, but it really didn't do a whole lot. With just a few miles to go, we came right up to a herd of buffalo standing 10 feet off the trail we were running on. It really freaked us out and I definitely learned my lesson in this, another "near-divorce" moment.

5. 10 MILE OPEN WATER SWIM (With the In-Laws)......Rachele as you know is an avid open water swimmer with aspirations to swim Catalina and the English Channel some day. Together, we thought it would be a great idea to have Rachele's parents sit in a tandem kayak for five hours and spot Rachele during the Deer Creek 10 Mile Open Water Swim. By the end of it, Rachele's parents (whom I love dearly) were not too pleased I ever let my wife push herself that far!!!

4. POCATELLO 50 MILE ULTRA (Couples Relay)......My friend was directing a 50 mile mountain ultra run in Pocatello Idaho. Rachele would be running the first leg (17 miles) and I would finish it up. Everything was calm at the start line, but when a rainstorm came in over the mountains, I knew it would be bad at higher elevations. Rachele was 10 miles in when she couldn't move her hands and couldn't run any further because of the freezing rain. She got a ride down to the relay exchange point and found me. I know how much Rachele hates the cold so she was not happy I had her run this race. I ran the second leg and it was a wet snowy mess. As it turns out, she was the smartest runner that day because they ended up cancelling the race a couple hours later due to lost runners along parts of the course.

3. BEAR LAKE OPEN WATER SWIM (8 MILES, 54 degree water)......We set out on a Friday night up to Bear Lake (2 hours away) hoping to swim the 8 miles across and kayak back, then ride the 50 miles around the entire lake. After camping out on an empty lot somewhere in Garden City, we started the swim. The water was absolutely bone-chilling, mind-numbing cold but the beautiful turquoise blue made for a surreal experience. I made the first 3 miles, then Rachele jumped in and went the next 3 miles, and I finished it up to the east shoreline. After a grueling kayak back, our arms were sooooo tired, but legs felt good so we biked around the entire lake. While the bike was a bit warmer, the wind made the last 10 miles miserable. We drove home and were completely exhausted but happy to be alive and together ;)

2. SEATTLE ALL NIGHT DRIVES (BOTH WAYS)......We left on a Wednesday night at 8:00pm for a Thanksgiving weekend in Seattle. I felt good driving, and with a few Red-Bulls and some caffeine gum, we safely made the 12 hour drive through the night. Three days later, we reversed the course hoping to get home by 10:00pm. After hitting a major snowstorm that ended up closing parts of the Interstate East of Boise, we didn't get home until 7am on Monday morning driving through the night again.

1. KAYAK THE JORDAN RIVER......On Labor Day, I convinced Rachele to kayak the Jordan River. She was very hesitant since I had not researched the route, but we took our tandem kayak and drove 15 miles up to Lehi, looking forward to a day of floating down the nice calm river on our tandem kayak. Everything was ok for the first hour or so, then we came to a major river blockage with restriction/warning signs all around. We had to portage the heavy kayak for over a mile to get below the dam, it was absolutely miserable.
An hour later, another river blockage, but we received help from some scary looking meth/skinheads who were gutting a fish. They helped us get on our way but with the heavy river flow we were running into bushes, spiderwebs, currents, and actually had to navigate down multiple drop-offs. Six hours later we got to 11400 S in South Jordan happy to be alive. The next day I curiously googled "Kayak Jordan River" and all over the internet were articles of a couple who, just a month earlier, had died trying to kayak a section in Murray. We were blessed to make it back home and I am here to tell you this was definitely the number one "near-divorce" experience!!!

***With all the ups and downs on these crazy adventures, these kinds of moments really bring us together and we love each other more than ever before. Stay tuned for our next adventure!!!