Another 13.1 in the books...

Peggy here, your guest author at KnPnCnC.  Some of you may recall that I did a half-marathon in Fort Collins, CO shortly after moving to Colorado.  Since then, I've kept up with the running, more or less.  After all, it's impossible to lay on the couch, eating chips and drinking beer when you live in BoCo.  You either swim (which is a great weakness for me), bike (too scary...I sold mine) or run (BINGO!).  Right around Christmas, I was itching to do another half when my sister Jess mentioned that Lansing, MI, her current hometown, was putting on the inaugural Lansing Half Marathon in April.  And after much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, I was able to persuade both Jess and my other sister, Cathy, to sign up as well.


Training began in January and I have to admit, I gave it my all.  I didn't care what my time was but I was NOT going to be beaten by two YOUNGER sisters.  Race weekend came fast and Chloe and I flew to Detroit and then drove to Lansing the Friday before the race to spend time with my sister Jess and her family.  As is typical, I slept very little the night before the race and felt nauseous with anxiety when I woke up.  Cathy, Jess and I lined up and off we went on this mostly flat course.  It was crazy cold and windy but I warmed up fast and at mile 5, I KNEW this was going to be one of my best runs ever.  I felt so strong and when the first of the two big hills came, I powered up it, barely breathing hard.  Mile 10 was a little tough as I was starting to tire but I cranked up the Eminem on my MP3 player, thought of Kurt and how hard he pushes himself when he trains and fired it up.  Mile 11 and 12 flew by as I sang and smiled...I HAD THIS.


I always make it a point to turn off the music the last mile as the crowd energy and support is overwhelming; you have to hear this.  I ran across the line SMILING...what a truly awesome time.

Cathy came by next and then Jess.  We all rocked it and I was so proud of all of us.

The three Walls sisters with their shiny medals.  YEAH US!

While both of my sisters had a few choice words for me as they came across the finish, along the lines of "Who's ideas was this?!?!? Never again!", I am already hearing rumblings of doing another one from Jess and I am confident that Cathy could be talked into it again as well.

Some Racing Pix

The bike racing season is in full swing, and on Saturday I participated in my 5th race of the season.  There was a photographer out on the course and he snapped some photos of me... follow this link, this link and this link to see the 3 photos with me in it. 

And, just in case you were wondering, I got 13th place out of 31 racers in my category.

Tough Mudder Donations

Apologies for the delay in posting this, but some people were wondering about how to go about making a donation on my behalf for the Tough Mudder event I'm in come June.  Well, follow the link below to make an online donation, and thanks!  (The event benefits The Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit whose mission is to aid injured military personnel.)

Tough Mudder Colorado 2012 - Fundraising Page for Kurt Schrammel

Happy Easter...

... From The Schrammels

Some more pictures from the day can be found here.

Happy Birthday, Chamberlain!

The Birthday Boy turns 13 today
(Sorry about the hat buddy... )

A Picture is Worth 12,840 Words...

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Hey Dad~

I know the custom is for the birthday honoree to receive gifts on his/her special day.  But you know me pretty well, and sometimes I don't always follow custom.  So, as you tick off another birthday, I want to thank *you* for some incredible gifts you've given me over the years.

Sure, there were...
 - the times you, Eric and I had our friendly claybird shooting competitions in the State Game Lands.

 - the baseball gloves and bats (and sticking with me and my 0.119 batting average in Little League), and countless trips to soccer, band and track practices and games/meets.
 - the various family get-togethers where you kid around with Chloe (I love that.)
 - the little moments, like 1) the "thrill ride" we took in your (I believe old Red F-150) pickup down that hill North of Claussville on Route 100, to see if we could hit 100 mph before turning onto Lyons Valley Road, and 2) not being upset with me when you took me deer hunting and I (repeatedly) fell asleep in the sun, leaning up against trees.  (You had your giggles one time when you found me this way and took my rifle.)
 - the many family summer vacations.
The list of tangible things and memories could go on and on.


But, as I look back on things, I think these are the two greatest gifts you've given me.
1)  The example, and importance of, being oneself.  What I mean is, you are you no matter where you are, or who is around you.  And I really admire that, and have tried to live that way and set that example for Chloe as well. 
2)  Unconditional support.  Sure, we had our wobbles here and there (remember AFROTC?) but by and large, and through my many moves and events, you stuck with and by me.  And never stopped being my Dad.

So, from a very appreciative and loving son, Thank you, and Happy Birthday!

The Birthday Boy

Another Season Kicks Off

... then wait 15 minutes

A headline in the local paper today...

Boulder weather: Sunny, warm today; freezing rain, snow possible Wednesday

Crazy weather here... highs in the mid- to upper-60s today and plenty of sun; tomorrow the high isn't expect to get out of the 30s and some wintry precipitation is expected.

A Telluride Weekend

With it being both (close to) Peg's birthday and a 4-day weekend for Chloe, we loaded up the car and traveled to the southwest part of the State, a part we've always wanted to check out since we moved out here as we had heard the San Juan Mountains were absolutely spectacular, and the skiing could be pretty good, too.  A trip to this part of the State is no small undertaking... we luckily had great driving conditions, and it still took us over 7 hours of moving time to get there.  We knew within moments of arriving, though, that those 7 hours in a car seat were well worth it (and he hadn't even put on our skis yet.)

I could sit here and give you a detailed day-by-day recap, but each day was pretty much the same:  wake up, eat breakfast, take the funicular down to the slopes, ski until the lifts close, grab a drink and/or bite to eat, head back to the condo and its hot tub, then either eat dinner in or go out.  Sure, there are subtle differences on some days, but that was basically the (glorious) routine.  We had 2 perfect days of skiing weather-wise on Saturday and Monday (with the latter being a blue bird day), whereas the weather on Sunday was cold and windy -- highs in the low 20s and 25+ mph winds.  The warming huts were very popular that day, and the gloves stayed on a lot that day, too, so few pictures were taken.

We didn't stay in the town of Telluride itself, rather, in the nearby Mountain Village (the newer part of the ski area) with it's often-times huge single family homes, and larger hotels and condo complexes.  The two areas, though, are connected by a free, public gondola system that allowed us to get into town in about 20 minutes time without having to get in our car or worry about parking.

And last, but not least, HAPPY 29TH PEGGY!

Here's a slideshow of pictures from the weekend.

Here's another cool picture I found while writing this post and researching some of the details of the town, mountain, etc.  It annotates the visible peaks and their elevations.  (Click on the image to enlarge/magnify it.)  It was taken near the same spot where Chloe and I had our picture taken atop Chair 14.