The measure of who we are is how we react to something that doesn’t go our way.

July 2018 update:  HUGE travel month – South AFRICA, Yellowstone & ALASKA.

Marathoning played second fiddle to B-I-G adventuring, experienced prior each run.  2-night sleeps in an Elephant Lodge, learned firsthand: elephants DO snore, then Jeep-safari’d at Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve.  Africa’s Big 5 all showed: lions, cheetah, rhino & hippo.  Whatta LIFE adventure!

12 days later, got my GEYSER on in Yellowstone, day before running high-altitude in scenic Montana.  Then ended July in WILD, BIG beautiful ALASKA!  Trail ran Mount Roberts 2-hours after deplaning, kayak’d to Mendenhall Glacier following day.  Travelling back to ALASKA next summer, LOVE this place!  Gonna trade ice crampons for fishing gear in 2019 – the salmon are calling & I must go.

Lot less training miles logged.  Summer season.  Running a Novel, not a Short Story 😊

Race ReCap:  3 more marathons PLUS tagged my 5^th continent (tally now 124).  Knysna Forest Marathon (South AFRICA), Big Sky Marathon (MONTANA), Juneau Marathon (ALASKA).

Marathoning Streak:  56 months

Mileage ReCap:  ended July at 247 miles (104 miles behind GOAL)

Marathon Calendar:

• 08/11/2018    Mt Sneffels Marathon (Ouray, Colorado)
• 08/26/2018    ET Full Moon 51K (Rachel, Nevada)
• 09/03/2018    Huffin’ Puffin Marathon (St. John’s NEWFOUNDLAND)
• 09/15/2018    Bismarck Marathon (Bismarck, North Dakota)
• 09/23/2018    Cheyenne Marathon (Cheyenne, Wyoming)
• 09/30/2018    Maine Marathon (Portland, Maine)
• 10/07/2018     Twin Cities Marathon (Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota)
• 10/14/2018     Prince Edward Island Marathon (Charlottetown PEI)
• 10/21/2018     Atlantic City Marathon (Atlantic City, New Jersey)
• 10/28/2018     Marine Corps Marathon (Arlington, Virginia)

16 marathons, 2 DNFs (both ultras: Huff 50K & Golden Gate Dirty 30).

1083 miles – virtually ran from England to Scotland, entire length of the island.

AWESOME motivator these past 6 months as I trained for my 52 mile goal race.

The COMEBACK is always stronger than the Setback.

Congratulations Keenan, you’ve done it – here you are at John o’ Groats, at the northernmost tip of the Scottish mainland.  Dunnet Head is further north, of course, but there’s not much there except for a rather essential lighthouse.  With Land’s End to the southwest, together they form the two most extreme inhabited towns on the British mainland.

 

John o’ Groats might sound like a fine Scotsman, but he was actually a Dutch settler – Jan de Groot – who came to the area in around 1489, and ran the ferry from the mainland to Orkney at the end of the 15th century, after the island had been returned to Scotland from Norwegian control in 1472.

 

Modern day John o’ Groats is something of a draw – in 2005, Lonely Planet described it as a ‘seedy tourist trap’, and you even needed to pay to have your photograph taken at the famous ‘Journey’s End’ signpost, which has its counterpart in Land’s End.  Since 2013, the town has undergone considerable refurbishment, the hotel has re-opened, and photographs are now free.  Keenan, you’ve done it – what an achievement!

Tally:

121 marathons (including 6 ultras)

• 113 US, 4 Canada, 1 Brazil, 1 Ireland, 1 New Zealand, 1 Russia
• All 50 States, 34 States x2 (gonna circle the US again by 2019 year-end)
• 4 continents (depending where you place NZ) – marathoning all 7 by mid-2020 (including Antarctica)
• Streak: 55 consecutive months

Think my journey ends in Scotland?  No way.

More miles per day, HUGE distance GOAL, longer time commitment 🙂

• Route 66 Virtual Challenge
  • FINISH: Memorial Day 2019
  • 2280 miles, length of the mother road from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA

Teamwork

by Paul McGowan, CEO PS Audio

 

Companies are groups of people coming together for a common purpose. We call this collection a team—a term also used by sports and horses. PS Audio’s team now numbers 42, quite large from the original 2 of me and Stan.

 

Teams aren’t faceless. Each person within the team brings a lifetime of experience and stories; family and memories; love and dedication; purpose and determination. It is the rich and cumulative experience of the team that defines any company, for better or for worse. In our case, the better. We have an extraordinary group that design, build, package, and account for all things PS Audio.

 

Take for example our CFO, Keenan Haga, who runs a marathon every week. He’s run so many of these 26-mile races that after completing his first 50 (one in each state), he’s decided to go for his second. And early next year he’ll run a marathon in Antarctica.

 

Or, senior software developer Tyera Eulberg, captain of the USA Women’s Underwater Hockey Team. Yes, indeed, you have that right. Check out this NHL video of Tyera.

 

Or, senior programmer Barry Solway, an author, engineer, software developer, writer, dancer, martial artist and a former Marine. His latest book, Gladiator, is a sci-fi thriller that is a real page-turner.

 

And these are only part of a great team that come together 5 days a week to build the best audio products on the planet and take care of our greatest asset, our customers.