Bozeman!

I arrived in Bozeman last weekend after the 2,200 mile roadtrip and stops in Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, North Dakota, and Billings, MT. There are incredible trails everywhere around town so I've been going on a lot of sweet mountain runs. This past weekend Ceci and I ran in the Jim Bridger Trail Run which was10 miles with about 2,000 ft elevation gain but the views at the top of the ridge were definitely worth it.The free beer at the finish also made it definitely worth it (apparently that's standard post-race recovery fuel in Montana!) along with awesome prizes - free massages and muscle t-shirts.

Nikki Kimball, Williams ski team alum ran in the race as a "little tune up" for the Western States 100 ultramarathon this weekend

Williams swept the podium!

We heard that the mountain biking is fantastic so we borrowed some bikes and went for a really great ride that crested a ridge giving us views of both the Bridger range and the Crazies.

Bridger range

The descent involved intense mud puddles

We both agreed that mountain biking is way more fun than road biking!

Looking forward to hearing from everyone,

-Sarah

A sunny day in the land of the Swiss

Today's tour: climb up to the right of the mountain range in the background, go around it from the back and back over from the left.

First difficulty: the hanging bridge over the river

Here the tour would have ended already for Justyna Kowalzcyk

Blocked by a waterfall

The Pierreuse natural park. Famous for its fauna and flora.

Some cows chillin'

Sweet little waterfall

Massive rock avalanche

There they are: a couple young ibexes having a good time

Arrival at the first pass

View of the "lower" Alps

A nice surprise on the way down: someone had chilled some beers for me!

Next time I'll take this little gondola up

Arrival at the second pass

You shouldn't be too fat to do this tour!

A nice spot to take a little rest

View of the final pass

The long descend back home (you can faintly see the town in the distance)

In the background, the Eiger with its famous north face is faintly visible

An ice bath in my fountain to cool the legs and a major sunburn

Well deserved: the best post-workout drink, 3/4 cold delicious Bavarian "Weizen" beer, 1/4 lemonade. You get the slow-burning carbs and the quick sugars and its delicious.

Who knew breathing could feel so good?

I just got back from the hospital after getting sinus surgery yesterday. I can finally breathe out both my nostrils and I feel like a new person. Unfortunately, I won't be able to train for a week without profuse nasal bleeding, but hopefully I'll get back to being a hard nail soon (even harder than ever now that I've got access to all airways). My thoughts are with Amy as she recovers from a much more intense surgery- she is such a trooper!

(Note: embarrassing picture brought to you by my mother)

Protecting the nail

It has been pretty wet outside the last week in Switzerland. Despite Bud's impressive purple coating on the nail, I expect it to be subject to rust if exposed to these conditions. Therefore I am playing it safe and holding back from training until the weather becomes nail-safe again.

Image: Michael Harvey