The universe continues to teach me lessons in Triumph and Disaster. This past weekend is a perfect illustration of the highs and lows I seem to experience in very compressed time frames.

Saturday morning I ran 14 miles (my longest distance ever) with absolutely no pain in any joint of my body. I ran relatively swiftly, too, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. That 2 hours of running felt like a huge breakthrough in my training, and suddenly I again saw all sorts of potential on the horizon -- potential whose hope had eluded me lately.

24 hours later, I crashed a motorcycle into a guardrail while mis-navigating an S curve on Highway 20 east of Winthrop.

Crashing a motorcycle is a pretty painful imposter. Running 14 miles pain-free is just as beguiling, however. (That is, my subsequent training run was about the worst 50 minutes of my life -- absolutely excruciating and demoralizing).

What lesson am I to learn? I'm not sure, but somebody's trying to tell me something and I'm not quite sure what the message is. Second chances are a rare treat and I guess I better figure out why I get a second chance and what I'm supposed to do with it. I've never really been a cocky sort of guy so I doubt I am committing the sin of hubris and inviting disaster upon myself from the gods. I just want to enjoy the small pleasures life has to offer.

Also, if it is true that we learn more from our failures than from our victories, I have to tell you that I'm learning a lot about myself lately. Last night, as I huffed and puffed through the most miserable hour in my recent memory, I thought: "Who do I want to be? I am defeated; I am demoralized. I can't change either of those facts. But I CAN decide how I'm going to react to them, and I CAN control how I am perceived in the face of total defeat." Small comfort, maybe, but it helped. The 20 year old Max would have broken something (a golf club, tennis raquet, fifth metacarpal, telephone, etc.). The 32 year old Max is finally learning not to break stuff.

Except motorcycles.

Speaking of motorcycles: I discovered that 115 mph = 8,000 RPM.

Oh crap. Maybe I DID commit hubris after all. Dis aliter visum.

I met the laziest cat in the world this weekend. She is 16 years old and her name is Airhead. Well, she's not so much lazy as smart. Check out her latest trick:

MATHER MEMORIAL PARKWAY, JACKSON VISITOR CENTER, AND CHINOOK PASS

I ticked off another 450 miles on my bike in a 35 hour period from Saturday morning to Sunday evening. My bike is currently at 1,235 miles so I am out of the engine break-in period and I'm going to stop worrying about RPMs.

The weather was absolutely perfect this weekend which aligned nicely with my activities.

Saturday morning, Lorinda and I cruised down to RMC and picked up the license plate for my bike. Now I look a little less dorky (without the temporary paper license), though apparently I still need to eliminate my fender altogether to avoid complete dorkiness. Then we headed south to Auburn and on to Enumclaw where we had breakfast at a Subway, then sped towards Crystal on highway 410 where we were to meet a few of my running buddies for a short trail run in the forest along Buck Creek. They (Tony, Lesley, Jersey, Keith, Andria, and Robin) showed up a few minutes late and we had a very pleasant, easy warmup run (Andria's pictures are posted here) of about 4 miles (the real fun was coming on the following day).

After the run we all headed up Crystal Mountain Boulevard (nearby) to the Silver Skis Lodge and had lunch, then a dip in the pool. Since there were a few hours to kill before dinner, Lorinda and I steered our bikes towards the Henry Jackson visitor center in Mount Rainier National Park. The next 2.5 hours were the most fun I've had on a motorcycle so far! The Mather Memorial Parkway and Spur 123 were a nice warmup, but then the 21 mile twisty road up to Paradise was absolutely exhilarating! Massive cliffs, tight bends, views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier and surrounding hills, perfect blue skies, waterfalls, old growth forest... It was a pretty incredible ride. Here's a picture of us near the visitor center:




Ascending and descending this 21 mile stretch of road felt like I was in a video game, only with consequences. I love how my bike responds instantly to a twist of the throttle. I can pass cars so easily! I almost never try to pass vehicles, especially while driving uphill, when I'm in my Isuzu. That's pretty much because I CAN'T pass.

We made it back to Crystal a little late for dinner but still in time to partake of Polly's wonderful meal of salmon, green beans, chicken skewers with peanut sauce, and potato salad. We spent the rest of the evening lounging around the lodge, chatting with fellow runners. We spent the night in a top bunk where it was quite warm to the extent that I didn't really sleep at all. So it was sort of easy to get up at 5:30 to get ready for the big run of the day.

We ran 12.35 miles along the beautiful Skookum Falls Trail and Buck Creek Trail (and maybe detoured onto a couple more) and finished the loop in just over 2 hours. I was surprised to see that our pace was just over 10 minute miles, which is pretty good (for me) especially given the terrain (uphill/downhill, tree roots, branches, mud, etc.). I felt great! The knee foot and ankle issues which have plagued me this spring seem to be mostly gone. I'm looking forward to upping my mileage the rest of this summer, and hopefully run a darn marathon before I die.

After we returned to the lodge, had a huge breakfast and another dip in the pool (in lieu of a shower, at least in my case), we decided to take the long way back to Seattle -- via Chinook Pass, Yakima, and Ellensburg.

Chinook Pass (highway 410), at 5,430 feet, is absolutely breathtaking! The riding experience in and of itself was stellar, but the views were stunning. I didn't stop to take any pictures (not sure why) but I definitely recommend Chinook Pass as a fun road trip.

After the long descent on the east side of the pass, we crossed American River several times; at one crossing, we pulled our bikes off the road and dipped our hot feet in the cold river. We also spent time scraping dead bug guts off our helmet visors.

We stopped in Naches for lunch/dinner, at a roadside diner where I saw another blue Z750S parked. The owner's fiancée came outside to tell me all the customizations he had done to her bike. He only scoffed at my fender by implication. OK, OK, I WILL get a fender eliminator kit soon, I promise!!!

From Yakima we climbed up Uptanum Ridge and Manastash Ridge; descending on the north side of Manastash, we were treated to a beautiful view of Mt. Stewart in the North Cascades. We followed I-90 West through Cle Elum (of course, we had to stop at the Indian John Hill rest area, which my father has always referred to as the Indian Hill John), Snoqualmie Pass, and North Bend before arriving home in Seattle about 6 and a half ours after we left Crystal Mountain.

My hands were not as sore after this trip as they were the weekend before, so I think I am adapting to the repetitive stress of road vibrations and throttle gripping. I'm learning to ease up a bit on my white-knuckle grip of death, as my confidence increases with each additional mile on my bike.

I'm so glad there are several weeks of summer ahead of me. I plan to do the northern Cascade loop (Stevens Pass on Route 2 and Rainy Pass on the North Cascade Highway) one of the next two weekends. I will try to force myself to stop and take pictures.