Mountain Hardwear’s Send a Kid to Camp Campaign

My sponsor Mountain Hardwear does some very cool things...  now get clicking!

Mountain Hardwear’s Send a Kid to Camp campaign is back again.  For every click on the “Send a Kid to Camp” button found at www.mountainhardwear.com/givesback.aspx Mountain Hardwear will donate $1 to the cause, up to $40,000.  You can and should come back each day until April 15^th and click the button until we’ve reached our goal.  The following organizations are part of the 2010 Send a Kid to Camp program:

                Big City Mountaineers – Denver, Colorado

                City Wild – Denver, Colorado

                Girl Ventures – San Francisco, California

                Kismet Rock Foundation - North Conway, New Hampshire

                Outdoor Outreach - San Diego, California

                San Jose Inner City Outings, Sierra Club – San Jose, California

                St. Louis Inner City Outings, Sierra Club – St. Louis, Missouri

                SOS Outreach - Avon, Colorado

                Summer Search - New York, New York

                Youth Enrichment Strategies (YES) - Richmond, California

http://www.mountainhardwear.com/GivesBack.aspx

Montrail's Go To Girl Contest

Mountain Hardwear and Montrail have launched an online Mountainwear promotion for women! Go To Girl

We want to know who that Go-to-Girl is that motivates women, and we’re giving away head to toe outfits for the pair of them!

4 weeks. 4 sets of gear.

· Visit Site
· View Prizes
· View Entries

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Video For Montrail Presentation - Seattle 2009

i'm sitting here on a sunny sunday putting together video for my montrail presentation with sean meissner. the presentation is wed may 13th at the mountain hardwear store in seattle. here are some of the good video clips i've dug up over the last three or so years of my life in the ultra scene. i'll be sure to publish the whole thing at some point, but i thought i'd share the good clips.













i am overwhelmed with video and reformatting it to be able to edit it. ugh.
this is the last one i'll post.

in august 2008 i joined karl meltzer during his appalachian assault. he made a valiant effort to break the 47 day appalachian trail record (2,174 miles). i joined him from the start on mount katahdin through maine and into new hampshire, where we are both from. the maine section is considered the roughest section of the appalachian trail. we also had the misfortune of having monsoon weather, which caused higher rivers than anyone had seen in 40+ years. at least it made for good video!

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Montrail Presentation

MARK THE CALENDARS FOR THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH!
May 13, 2009 6pm at the Mountain Hardwear Store Seattle

so far i've given two presentations on ultrarunning for montrail at their mountain hardwear stores. it's always good fun to show some pics and video and geek out talking about running.

this time around it will be even better.. because sean meissner and i are doing it together! here is the montrail press (.pdf w/more info on it).

for me this is simply about putting my passion on display in hopes you will catch the bug. my goal is to simply inspire you to run trail... period.

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Mountain Hardwear - Weather the Weather

win gear. get out.

one of my sponsors mountain hardwear is giving it away for free! check out the new contest, and take note of the hot model in the oversized shirt... wait am i going bald?!

Mountain Hardwear Phantom Down Jacket Review

one of the greatest things about backcountry.comis the reviews of the products we all lust over. the reviews are often great, totally aplicable and answer a lot of the questions you need to know. as a backcountry.com athlete it's my job to contribute. i just posted this review on the mountain hardwear phantom down jacket (click link and check out the other reviews).

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Lightest and Warmest

i chose the mountain hardwear phantom over the mountain hardwear sub zero for two reasons:

1. it's warmer with 800 fill vs. 650 for the sub zero.
2. it's lighter at 15oz (440g) vs. the sub zero 1lb 11oz (765g).

i am 5'10 with 31 inch waist and i even went a step further and went for a size small. it's perfect, but any smaller and it would be too small. it's light and super warm. i like the shortness of it in case i need to wear a harness however some might feel it's too short. it packs down into a nice little package for packing on the skin up. AND the fleece lined pockets are a very nice supprise luxury for a superlight jacket.

TransRockies - Day One

I ran into Adam chase before the race today. Michelle Barton and Adam won the mixed category last year. He told me about the 2:09 marathoner and just how serious the competition was in the men's open race. Because today's stage does not suit our strengths as runners, I told myself (but not Sean) that top 10 would be good. Adam said the same and he knows the competition better than me.

We started a bit hot. Both of us breathing pretty hard. We started at 8,000 and ran most of the race at 8,700 ft. We settled onto a just over threshold pace and ran in 6th for a bit. Before the first and only control at mile 7, a couple teams passed us. We hung just behind them through the control. I surged ahead to get in and out fast (Sean thought I was surging for the camera). We dropped nuun tabs, grabbed a gel and were gone. I looked back and couldn't see 9th place. Up until then we ran the dirt road side by side. For the last 6 miles, I sat right behind Sean, basically drafting him. He was setting the pace and I was just holding on. I told myself I just needed to suffer for at most another 45 mins. So I stared at the Mountain Hardwear bolt on the back of his Montrail jersey and got to suffering.

We finished in 8th overall in 1hr 34 mins.

WTF?! Sean and I struggled to get all out gear in the 3 "official" race bags. That's three total for us two. Bryon used his own massive bags, and way more than his alotted 1.5 - that's some bullshit!

Walking to the start in downtown Buena Vista.

After the race, we just arrived at tent village.

Mountain Hardwear Ghost Anorak Review

mountain hardwear ghost anorak (mhw link)
i am a big fan of super light weight versatile pieces. adventure runs don't typically necessitate heavier jackets and they add to much weight anyway. assuming you are actually running the whole time even if weather rolls in or gets windy i've found that a light weight wind jacket/shirt can provide enough protection from wind and rain in most conditions.

so this mhw ghost anorak first grabbed my attention when it was named "gear of the year" by trail runner. when i was down in portland to speak at the mountain hardwear store i was hoping to check it out, and maybe take one home. but they weren't carrying it. so i was stoked to find out it was part of our montrail ultrarunning team kit. it's only 4oz!.. and has proven to be a fantastic wind protector and seems to be pretty breathable. unfortunately there is an inverse relationship between the amount of protection a jacket provides and how breathable it is. but i've been running in the anorak when it's colder out with great results. it breaths better than i expected actually. i've been road riding in it too because it's less baggy than my actual lg team dart-nuun riding jacket... so it doesn't flap around. i think it's perfect for adventure races and i'll be taking it as my rain jacket/extra layer on my long distance adventure runs this summer. sweetness.

aditional specs
• Articulated sleeves
• Reflective patches
• Adjustable hem drawcord
• 12" welted zip with chin guard at front neckline
• Stretch ripstop with DWR finish
• Concealed zipper side pocket
• Full elastic cuffs

Portland v2.0 - The Mountain Hardwear Presentation

sunday ended up being a great day. it started with a run right from the hotel to forest park where the montrail marketing manager paul curran i ran the run like a girl 10k course. it was pretty sweet and had a nice bit of climbing.

later that day i had my presentation at the grand opening of the mountain hardwear/montrail store ~ it went amazingly well. what a great time. my topic = ultrarunning. the prior days presentation had about 3 people and 4 employees listening. so my hopes weren't high for turn out. plus most portland area ultrarunners would most likely be at sean meissner's race, the peterson ridge rumble 60km. i had a handful of runners say they wouldn't make it because of the race. so i was blown away! i'd guess there were 30-40 people packed into the store. with the raffle, the forest park conservancy and introductions the whole event was supposed to be about 40min total. i ended up talking for just over an hour. people were interested and engaged =) i covered the basics of ultrarunning; what it is, prominent races, gear (montrail, teko, nathan), nutrition (amazing grass), hydration (nuun), training and mental toughness... of course interjecting personal experiences using some video i took on adventure runs;


this one from a run in snoqualmie



and a longer version of this one from the rim to rim to rim double crossing of the grand canyon
paul even had to cut the questions short since we were out of time. the portland running community is awesome. they were very warm and welcoming and i met a lot of great people. thanks paul, phyllis and mountain hardwear for inviting me.

it means a lot to me that today my inbox was full of "thank you" messages from folks that attended. "Super inspiring talk about ultra running, makes me want to get out and start training lots!!" that kind of response makes the effort all worth while.

here is the slide show of photos i used. if you've run something cool with me you probably made the cut!



*****
on a similar note.. last week i recieved word that i'm being invited back to speak to the next round of team in training runners about nutrition and hydration. that will be fun.

Portland

the weather here has been amazing! mid 70s. tshirt and shorts for a 7 mile run right from the hotel. washington park has some great urban trails. i also stopped by to listen to mike libecki's presentation at the new mountain hardwear store. good stuff, too cold for my tender toes though.

for my encore run today i brought the camera and snapped a few. my presentation is tomorrow.. should be fun. friends keep asking if i'm nervous. not really. as part of dart-nuun i've help present on adv racing and taught navigation on many occassions. plus i'm talking about ultrarunning! a sport i love ~ cake.

Speaking At The New Montrail/Mountain Hardwear Store

recently the decision was made to move montrail directly under hardcore gear company mountain hardwear. i think this is great news. keep the core products together, and far far away from anything called bugaboo. that means montrail is moving from portland down to the bay area where the mountain hardwear offices are located. they are also opening a montrail/mountain hardwear store in portland, oregon. the grand opening is this weekend, sunday 4.13.08 and they have asked me to speak about ultrarunning. come check it out.. if nothing else there will be some cool photos to look at! =)

below is the press release they created. i had nothing to do with writing this!.. and it's hard to post because it makes me sound cooler than i probably am...

montrail announcement - mountain hardwear announcement - msn money

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Elite ultrarunner and endurance coach Matt Hart is giving a 40 minute presentation on Sunday, April 13th at 2 p.m. Matt’s joining us from his hometown of Seattle where he’s an endurance coach and ultrarunning ambassador for Montrail and nuun active hydration. The ultrarunning presentation will be held at the new Montrail/Mountain Hardwear Store, 722 SW Taylor in Portland. Matt will present his experiences at events such as the Grand Teton 100 Miler and the HURT 100K in Hawaii. You’ll learn what it takes to finish your first ultra (50K) and advice for racing fast 50Ks to 100 milers. Matt says, “Don’t rush into high mileage weeks because you read that is what all the top ultrarunners are doing. It takes years to build the body to be able to handle that kind of load. Build gradually and intelligently.” Matt will discuss race nutrition, training recommendations, and apparel/footwear needs. Following Matt’s talk, Stephen Hatfield and Jeff Hough from the Forest Park Conservancy (formerly known as the Friend’s Of Forest Park) will share their favorite trail running routes and discuss volunteer opportunities and the importance of stewardship. Montrail will provide a stylish beanie to all attendees, plus we’ll have a raffle for additional prizes – including two pairs of free shoes! Raffle tickets are $5 each or 5 tickets for $20. Your raffle donation will be given to the Forest Park Conservancy. Limited seating, please arrive in advance.
Learn more about Matt at http://coachingendurance.com/

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