Latest Updates from Birthday Challengers Far and Wide...

11/21/04

Shhhh - Challenges, Through The Grapevine

Some guy from Rockreation, WLA, did something in Joshua Tree but we never heard exactly what. X amount of shots and climbs were talked about but that's the last we got wind of.

What we know for sure is that famous climbing photographer, who's also ever-reticent, Greg Epperson celebrated his 47th by leading 47 trad routes, all 5.10 or above, in Joshua Tree National Park. He had a crew helping him by setting gear and anchors so he could climb and lower quickly and word is he did all "real" or  classic climbs, not Josh's numerous glorified boulder problems or approaches that often serve as "climbs" on record days. A stout achievement, especially given Josh's geography and that classic climbs are generally few and far between.

11/20/04

Derek Dunn 

A triathlete from Sunset Beach, Ca, has something planned beginning New Year's Day and going until his birthday in July. Check back for details as it's not finalized yet.

11/11/04

Nathan Welton

Though he's a journalist, Nathan doesn't seem too good at covering his challenges since we haven't seen a pic in 2 years. But here's his report:

This year's challenge:

9 holes of golf (or, more or less, 27 holes divided by 2.7)
2.7 hours of cycling
27 waves caught while surfing
Total of V27 on boulders, no repeats
27 laps on T Crack
270 pushups
270 situps
2x700 vertical feet of running over the course of 2.7 miles

After my second year doing this:
Birthday challenge: 2. Me: 0

One of these days I'm going to finish a challenge - that is that point, isn't it? As with last year, all I was really worried about were the 27 laps on T Crack. So I wound up not completing half my sit ups and 200 of my push ups. I also didn't surf, but the waves were flat. I felt pretty good at the end, though, and I'm already planning my challenge for next year! This one wasn't hard enough. (Never mind the fact that it went uncompleted.)

11/11/04

More Madness From Wisconsin

After being part Steve Schultz's support crew for his frohawk challenge, I have decided to do my own challenge. I did kind of an unofficial one last year but wasn't too serious about it. Even though my birthday is a ways off (March 8th) I figured I 'd contact you seeing as I'd like to raise money for glaucoma research. I am going to email the Glaucoma Research foundation tonight as well. I am going to direct them to your site to better explain what I'm doing. Anyways, here is my challenge: 

Tony’s 21st Birthday Challenge

10/31/04

Aaron Baker Did A Challenge, Really...

Anyone got any pics of the guy? The story looks so naked all by itself.

10/21/04

Tim Lindl Back For Seconds

10/11/04

More Everest Challenge

Aaron Baker did a write-up on this event (scroll down) a couple of years back. It's one of the best sufferfests one can aspire to on the bike. This year, our trio of Aaron, Steve, and Russ McBride all pretty much wussed out of this sucker because we didn't have the proper trainer (though Aaron certainly must have - you'll see when we get his report up). Then again, reading the below diary entry from pro racer Dotsie Cowden, who logs more miles in a month than, say, Steve has all year, perhaps this decision was prudent. One of these years, however, there's going to have to be a birthday challenge assault on this race.

September 30, 2004

Put a fork in me....I'm done! The culmination of my 2004 season was the Everest Challenge this past weekend. It truly re-defined the phrase "epic climbing" for me. I have never in my life seen or done anything like it! Amazing, incredible, ridiculously challenging, painful, crazy insane suffer fest!! Did I mention suffer fest? We started out day 1 with 120 miles ahead of us. In the NEUTRAL zone the guys started picking up the pace to quite a clip. I glanced down at my heart rate, and it was 160!! Could it be the altitude? I swore to myself I would not go over 135 for the first few hours. I swore I would "respect the sheets", to quote my friend Dave Worthington. I knew with 15,000 feet of climbing to go, I needed to chill at the beginning of the race. BUT, there was a nasty head wind and it was just too tempting to stay in the draft rather than drop off and fight it alone. So, in the draft I stayed, at 160!! At dinner the night before, Chris Walker said there was no way I could do the entire race at 160, and my estimate of keeping my heart rate below 135, was a good idea. Well, Chris, my heart rate hovered at 160 for 5 hours!!! yep, 5 hours!! The day took 8 hours, but finally my heart rate chilled out a bit at 145. Anyway, I signed up for this "death march" with my boyfriend, Kirk. Or maybe I should say, I signed him up. Wooops. He is 3 months fresh out of a wheelchair! He suffered a bad accident in April. So, I come to find out about half way through Saturday's stage that he was doing this with me because he knew how bad I wanted to do it, but that he NEVER would have sighned up himself. All I could do was apologize 80 million times up the last 23 mile climb, as we winced for any amount of oxygen that still remains at 10,000 feet. He was suffering bad, and his body was doing those weird things only ultra-endurance athletes are familar with. He could not eat. He could not get comfortable. His back was killing him. He was miserable! I swore up and down I would never enter us in anything like this again.......and he just kept growling at me mentioning the fact that we could be in Cabo right now on the beach! He was amazing though. He finished that day AND the next day. He climbed and climbed, and we came away with lots of laughs that we will have forever. My favorite part was riding with him on Saturday, and watching him conquer the mountains. Oh yea, and it is also probably the ONLY time I will ever beat him in a bike race, EVER! On Sunday, he wanted me to take off and try to win the women's event. So, I did (i actually felt really good on Sunday) and climbed and climbed and climbed some more! The last 5 K on Sunday were the steepest I have ever seen (minus maybe San Fran). I swear it took an hour to complete that last 5K. Finally it was over. Hot chicken soup and grilled cheese sandwiches awaited us at the top. Those were the best grilled cheese I have ever had in my entire life!! (sorry Mom)

Ya'll should do it next year! It really is a cool race.
Cheers,
Dotsie

9/24/04

Hans Finishes 10,000 Challenge in 4th

8/24/04

Updates From Colorado

8/24/04

Adam D'Arono

8/23/04

Brad Checks In

In summary: I’ve flossed every day, had 6 new foods, 7 unique beers, 9 unique drinks, 2 ice creams, ran 16 miles on 12 trails, done 3 home improvements, and donated $40 each to 4 different charities. I woke up this morning feeling a bit overwhelmed by what I had gotten myself into, but then remembered to climb it one pitch at a time…

8/22/04

Aaron Baker Does Something Ridiculous On A Bike

Report soon to follow, but Aaron did something insanely hard this weekend (not to be confused with his exceedingly hard last weekend or the merely super hard weekend prior).

8/20/04

New Guy From Boulder

Hi Guys,  

Great web site! I am turning 40 on August 23, and have never done a birthday challenge before, but after hearing about Hans Florine’s challenge, I was inspired. I am not particularly fast or strong, but I can keep going for a long amount of time and I am highly organized, so “40 Feats of Strength in 40 Days” fits my style. As my bachelor party weekend is included towards the end of the 40 days, I should not have too much trouble completing the drinking feats, although it may affect my climbing in the Needles ( South Dakota ).  

Thanks for the inspiration,  

Brad Schildt
Boulder, CO

8/19/04

From Greg Carter in Austin

8/18/04

Congrats to Phil!

8/16/04

Congrats to Jill!

8/10/04

Hans Reports on 50,000 Challenge

8/8/04

Congrats to Vera!

7/10/04

The Year of the Kid

7/10/04

More From Austin...

I am on a competitive rowing team (http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/txcrew/index.htm) and am trying to get my fellow teammates involved, but we'll see. We are also looking for a fundraising avenue that we are currently exploring...stay tuned. This should be fun! I would love to get you guys involved!

7/8/04

Greg Carter Update

Update on the challenge so far: 
Drinking and seeing music is going well. Haven't missed a day yet and me and Pug have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Training has not gone so well. Slightly pulled my hamstring on the second day of the challenge while waterskiing - this is becoming more and more of an "off the couch" challenge...

check out Greg's page

7/02/04

Hans Finishes 40-Day Epic!

Hans finished his monstrous challenge and fell a few short (as we tend to do). But he wants to be held accountable as he's promised to finish all of them within the rest of the year. Feel free to write in a bug him if he doesn't update his journal. Here's a note from the man:

I'm committed to do all the challenges that I didn't finish or didn't attempt, by the end of my 41st year. ( one year from the 18th)

I'll update this page and the Journal page as the year goes by.

Thank you for giving me hits.  Will work to get the 40,000 hits with in the year.

Be great!

Hans

Incidentally, it's been a big year for the Florine's. Hans' wife, Jacqueline, just finished blitzing the 2-hundred-some-odd length of the John Muir Trail.

Here's the journal.

Here's his challenge.

7/01/04

Roberto Back In Action

Bob Banks did another off-the-couch and completely unannounced challenge yesterday. Not bad for a guy that started the month with hernia surgery.
(of note: all of these runs are extremely steep)

got up, drank some coffee and had some toast. 

1. Turned on the computer, registered to vote so I can help get that cocksmoking, idiotic, greedy liar out of office. 
2. Drove to Inspiration Point. 3.3 miles. Ran up it. 38.01 
3. Drove to Rattlesnake. 3.5 miles. Ran up it. 40.07 
4. Drove to Cooper's Ranch. Did a set of 33 pull ups. 33 push ups. 33 Hanging Leg Raises. 33 Lunges. 
5. Ran up Glen Annie Road. 3.3 miles. 26.37. Too long a rest and tired. 
6. Back to Deb's. Ate Huevos ala Mexicana at EL Buen Gusto. 
7. Lizard's Mouth. Attempted to clean up graffiti which has been sprayed ALL OVER Sunset Blvd. Didn't work so good. Did 33 boulder problems, 11 V3 or harder. Harder than you'd expect for me, however if you knew my climbing condition... 
8. Beer at Deb's. 
9. Arnoldi's for dinner. Wine, spaghetti with Meatballs. 
10. Beers at Jimmy's.

6/30/04

Greg Carter Update

OK, one more revision. Just two days after I sent the last message and only 4 days into the challenge, I am dropping the recently added taco shack event. I decided that with the live music events and the drinks, this challenge was going to be expensive enough without having to buy tacos every day too.

6/28/04

More From Greg

I just reread this and there are a couple of additions/corrections: 
In the 35 days section, I also have to eat at 35 different taco shacks/mexican restaurants 
The sit-ups: I will be doing 35, not 3500, with my son on my chest.

6/25/04

Greg Carter At It Again
This will be Greg's 3rd challenge.

2001
2002

I am starting my birthday challenge this Saturday. I had been thinking about doing one for a while, but had been blowing off figuring it out and training. While we were on vacation in Arizona last week, I finally figured out what I am going to do. The theme of this year's semi-off the couch challenge is "The baby is not slowing me down..." Here is what I have figured out so far (This is probably it)

In 35 days: 
Attend 35 live music events (stay for at least one full set at each, see 35 bands/performers, my son will be at least 3/5 of them)
Drink 35 different drinks (each must be a different type of drink, different brands don't count)
Train for the one-day event (I am in pretty miserable shape, so I am giving myself the next month to get ready for the events below)
In one day: 7 mi (2 x 3.5) trail run while pushing my son in the baby jogger 
35 km hike with my son on my back 
35 mi bike ride pulling my son in a trailer 
read my son 35 stories 
lift 35000 lbs (3500 of this will be lifting my son in reps)
350 sit-ups (3500 with my son on my chest in a front carrier) 
Eat 35 jars of baby food

6/24/04

Preliminary Challenge Report
by Janice Uhrig

6/21/04

7 Samurai
by Steve Edwards

Russ McBride, of Titanium Man and--now--Hans' 50,000 fame came up with a harder version of the Berkeley Death Ride a few months back which was supposed to include the 7 hardest climbs in Berkeley. Yesterday, Russ, Aaron Baker, and I upped the 7 Samurai just a bit by doing a harder variation. Not only that, Baker decided to make it even harder next time, concocting a 10 in 10 challenge where someone (probably only him) does the 10 hardest hills around Berkeley all in under 10 minutes. Yesterday, Baker did them all under 10 except one, Thorndale.

Here's the breakdown:

Moeser: the sign says 20% but we never thought it exceeded 18%. Fairly short with a few easy sections, it was our 'warm-up' climb. Actually, we did a real warm-up climb first but this was a first time to push beyond our AT. This climb is not on the Death Ride but was on Russ' original 7.

Marin: The steepest street around Berkeley that--reportedly--has a 30% section. Didn't find that exactly but is was very steep and very crowded. Employing a weave tactic would be deadly. Hard for both me and Russ, Aaron blasted up it so fast I lost site of him.

El Toyanal to Lomas Cantadas: The last section of this climb is hard, about 1K at 15% (similar to Las Floras in Malibu). It was also quite long, so I suspect Aaron's 10 minutes was only the last section, and the first part wasn't exactly a picnic.

Claremont/Drury/Maroborough/?: This was my favorite, a new climb the Aaron found to miss "non-steep" Claremont. You turn off Claremont and immediately hit a 15% grade and undulates all the way to the top. Great climb where you gain a lot of height and exposure amazingly quickly.

Thornhill: We were looking for Thornton, didn't find it (not on the BDR, or any ride), and ended up doing what Aaron didn't want to count except that it was just as hard as everything else (over 15% sections) to Russ and I so we wouldn't allow him to nix it. Ended up on Snake, which seems flat in comparison, then went searching for Thornton. Hmmm

Thorndale: We had trouble because it was actually called Thorndale. Aaron had mentioned that he was scared the first time he descended it, cause Russ and I to pause at the top as Aaron dropped in. Talking to a neighbor (who was warning us how dangerous is was to go down), she then assured us she had seen cyclists come up it. "Not often, but I've seen it," giving us no choice but to head down. Perhaps it was our dread/fear, but this one went well, even though I think it's the hardest of all, and the only one Aaron missed 10 minutes on.

Centennial: This is a 'standard' climb but still hard that heads straight up to Grizzly Peak from the UC football stadium. 

Russ headed home, but Aaron had one more climb to do which I, fearing I wouldn't make it up and it was on the opposite side of home, backed out of. Aaron then added Canon, which was steep but only took 3 minutes. 

For the 10 in 10 he plans to add South Park and one more which he hasn't found yet, making a very hard day out completely psycho.

6/20/04

100K with Hans

Yesterday, Hans did one of his challenge feats, a 100K ride with 4,000 feet of climbing, with 4 bikers: Markum Connelly, Aaron Baker, Russ McBride and Steve Edwards, all who were extremely impressed with the way Hans kept up. For the uninitiated, you might not think it was such a difficult feat given Hans' athletic prowess, but biking is an odd sport with specific muscles and techniques. Hans was spent, but everyone else was also tired and due to inferior machinery and lack of technique he had probably burned twice the calories of the rest of the crew. Indeed impressive!

Not to mention, this was following a 2,000 point gym day (hard to explain but trust us in saying it was HARD), and a night of drinking where Hans fell just short of finishing 4 martinis.

6/15/04

Hans Keeps Hammering Away

Check out his journal. Hans has been going amazingly strong on his challenge. So far, he's only failed at the 400s (familiar 40th theme). Party this weekend, so he's almost done, but not so fast. He's still got some riding to do. And if he survives that, he's attempting a record-setting 4000 score in a gym route. Okay, this probably doesn't make sense to anyone but, trust us, it's REALLY hard!

6/3/04

Russ McBride Finishes Race to 50,000!

In a grueling unbelievable display of madness, Russ has won the  race to 50,000. As the weekend kicked off, Russ still had near 10,000 reps to go and in our weekend conversations we had estimated the contest would last at least another three weeks. We returned for the extended weekend to this:

Done!!!! 8:06pm June 1

Hans, it's a good thing you didn't update the web page until now.  I never would've rallied that hard today if I had known what the numbers were. 

Some stats and facts: 

14 day sprint finish:  2 rest days (no reps those days)                        

total reps during the 14 days = 14,738                        
ave. reps per workout day (12 days) = 1,228 
Last day:  1811 reps            
863 pull-ups  sets of 8 reps for the first 136, then sets of 6            
500 push-ups            
448 ab-rollers    
3 exercises hit 10,000 today (abs, then push-ups, then pull-ups) 
Most helpful supplement:  Green drink in the mornings (Green Vibrance), the NO2 tabs may or may not have helped, can't say.  Force feeding myself at night seemed to make the next day's workout go better. 
Only had 1 1/2 massages for the duration of the contest.  A long one from Becky last Sunday really helped though.  She claims my rhomboids are screwed but they don't feel bad to me. 

Injuries: Had absolutely no problem with a potential hernia, but I would also suck in and tighten my lower abs before each rep.  I think done this way, they are totally safe. Got my first real injury today (unsurprisingly I guess).  The last 5 workouts or so I've occasionally felt this weird sensation near my solar plexus, like a muscle would get stuck and then snap during my first pull-up of a set.  In my final 120 pull-ups today I felt the same thing magnified, a burning tearing sensation followed by a numbness in my top right ab muscle where it connects in the center.  I finished up the last 120, but it feels very weird and numb right now.  Don't think it's TOO serious.  
Lesson:  stretch your stomach! Do the cobra stretch. 
Biggest overall problem-- my elbows from the pull-ups.  Both almost the entire contest they were right on the edge.  I thought for sure I would blow out my left one today.  Neutral grip pull-ups seemed to help.  Rubbing them all the time seemed to help.. 

6/1/04

Another Wisconsin Challenger, Vera Naputi

5/27/04

Race to 50,000

The race to 50,000 is coming down to the wire, with Russ "Titanium Man" McBride and John "It's all about balance" Georgevits getting close to finishing. 

Of note is the late entrance of Stacey Collver. 

5/27/04

Race to 50,000

The race to 50,000 is coming down to the wire, with Russ "Titanium Man" McBride and John "It's all about balance" Georgevits getting close to finishing. 

Of note is the late entrance of Stacey Collver. Stacey was recently diagnosed with a rare lung disease called lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). Statistically, it is fatal within 10 years of diagnosis unless she can get a lung transplant. Please visit her site, the Windsong Foundation, and try and help out if you can. 

Even with her condition, which requires her to carry around oxygen everywhere she goes, Stacey's reps-per-day is more than double any of the other women in the competition and far more than most of the men. Go Stacey! 

5/26/04

Hans Update

May 25th, day 13,  5:40 am start. met Jim Cope at the Touchstone Concord gym.  We jumped on the wall and I climbed 40 routes with no falls, ( I did 41 if you include a hang on one route).  I managed to do the routes in 3 hours and scored 823 pts per the workout sheet.  my40 routes were comprised of: 17 routes of grade 5.9 or less, 18 routes of grade 5.10, and 5 routes of grade 5.11.  Ran/strided with stroller 2.4 miles to pick up Marianna at school.  Looking at doing the 40 swim laps later today, stay tuned...... nope I did 5 laps.

May 26th, day 14.  5:58 am started riding the bike.  went down the Lafayette/Moraga bike trail 8 miles to Moraga then out Canyon for 2 miles, it then gets steeper, I turned around - wanting to keep my MPH pace high.  Wandered by JMIS my junior high school.  Rode out to Orinda and out San Pablo rd to Richmond.  Hung a right on Castro Ranch and looped into Pinole for a mile. Tagged the edge of Martinez on Alhambra rd, then went on to Pleasant Hill.  Got on the bike trail and headed out towards Concord/Clayton for 6 miles. turned around and came back through Walnut Creek and tagged into Rossmoor before coming home for another 100 km ride complete!  and SWAM 40 Laps in condo pool! - finished swimming at 10pm.

5/25/04

Hans Update

May 23rd, day 11,  I ran a marathon or a little over 40 kms.  I have a high tech distance measuring device I wear on my shoe from Nike Timing, so I was able to make any course I wanted as long as it totaled 26.2 miles.  I started off at 7:12 am from our Lafayette home and headed for the Lafayette/Moraga bike trail..  I ran the first 5 miles in 38 minutes,  That's a 7:36 minute mile pace!  Things slowed down from there. At 6.7 miles I had my first water and Power Gel break at the Moraga Commons.  At mile 9 I found myself running by my old high-school track and couldn't resist going for lap around for time, I did a 92 second quarter!  I arrived at Lafayette reservoir after running 12 miles.  The half way point, 13.1 miles, was reached in 1:48:16, with an average heart rate of 160 BPM, and an average mile pace of 8:16.  The reservoir has a rolling paved 2.7 mile loop so I did that three times.  My wife, Jacqueline and the kids saw me each lap and gave me a banana, Power Gel, Pria bar, and Revenge sport drink.   That got me to nearly 22 miles, so I headed home via a different shorter route.  I have an instantaneous reading on my high tech watch for current mile pace, it was scary! - often times going over a 10 minute mile pace.  I really never thought I could "RUN" that slow! But there I was slogging along.  As I approached home I could tell I would be a half mile short so I added a 1/4 mile detour which was darn debilitating to be running AWAY from home given how my legs felt.  I finished exactly at 26.2 miles as I was 50 ft on to the cobblestones of our driveway, Jacqueline was filming. so we should have that on the web shortly. Check back in.  OHH.-  I finished the run in 3:57:40  That's a 9:05 minute mile pace average.  My last half average was a 9:53 minute mile pace and the average heart rate in the second half was 147 BPM.  I hopped into our pool to cool the legs off and stretch.  I'm knackered, but psyched MY FIRST MARATHON RUN! (because someone asked:  NO, I did not stop the time when I drank or ate or went potty)

May 24th, day 12,   I'm whooped, my legs are very stiff and sore!  I got in an hour of Yoga.  and nailed 40 very good cookies! - Oatmeal/raisin/pistachio/butterscotch.

5/22/04

Hans Update

May 20th, recover from pushups teach clinic in Belmont.

May 21st, ran 2.2 miles at a 7 minute mile pace, ascended 44 boulder problems at the Touchstone Concord member competition.  took 3rd place.  gave 40 kisses to Marianna and Pierce.

May 22nd, (day 10), did 3 loads of laundry. rested for Sundays marathon....

5/16/04

Hans Update

May 17th, Day 5 Headed out to ride on the bike with Mo Mcgee.  4,5 miles alone before meeting up with Mo at the Iron Horse Bike trail.  Rode down to Trader Joes in Livermore, 23 miles.  Started figuring that this ride could be easily prolonged to be one of my 100k days.  Regrettably I only had a t-shirt on and probably burned as many calories this day staying warm as I did turning the cranks.  Got back to Walnut Creed and had logged 46 miles.  Rode up to Pleasant Hill with Mo. to make it 51.  headed home to Lafayette and looped out Bike trail another 3 miles to make the day total 63 miles, or 100KM!  Thanks Jacqueline for giving me the extra time.   Stats   5 hours and 31 minutes  out, 14 miles off the bike trails 49 on bike trails.  My hinny hurts..

May 18th,  day 6,  Climbed 10 Yosemite pitches with Scott Cory.

May 19th,  Day 7,  banged out 170 push-ups before noon.  went out to Park with kids to meet Greg and Ryan.  Greg joined me for 120 more pushups.   Steve Edwards joined me, virtually, for the 400 push-ups.  Finished the 400th push-up at 21:00

5/18/04

Janice's Page Is Up

5/17/04

Suspense

News From Winter/Spring 2004