One of the great things about Bend is the fact that is so small. It is a place where you can’t really go anywhere without seeing someone you know, whether it be at the pool, the trails, the grocery store or the bar. The cool thing about that is that whenever people come to town to train or visit Bend, it is pretty easy for them to track me down.

So the other day Barrett Brandon rolled into the shop while visiting over the Holidays. Of course it always takes a second to recognize someone when they are out of place from where you know them, but it was great to see Barrett in Bend. I had seen Barrett briefly at Tinley’s last October, but haven’t hung out since our epic night of shenanigans in New York City in ’06. "Barrett WAKE UP!!" Good Times.

So we agreed to meet at the shop and I was going to show him the world famous “River Trail Run” up and down the Deschutes. After I dug my car out of the 6 inches of new snow, I got my lazy butt to the shop. Of course Mr. Early Riser was already finished with his cup of coffee and his Wall Street Journal by the time I got to the shop. Change o’ plans. With that much snow trail running is just asking for an ankle injury so we had to adjust to running along Century Drive, one of few plowed streets in Bend. Of course it was the last Sunday of the Holiday break so there where a ton of people headed up to the mountain to slay some pow pow, bro!! We ran on the shoulder facing oncoming traffic and got our run on. Considering at 7AM there is NO ONE coming down the mountain, we felt it was a good option. Apperently with the numerous texts and phone messages when I got back to the shop, my friends didn’t agree with this being a safe option. Hakunamatata;)

Anywho, it was good to catch up with Barret, and re-live the old days. We have been racing with/against each other for quite a time. There was that Lake Placid World’s Qualifier as Age-Groupers, where that crazy Texan Barrett raced in a speedo in torrential downpoor and 50 degree weather. 1st impressions are great aren’t they. I do believe our first interaction was me passing him on the bike yelling something like “ you are insane dude”, with him actually responding with “I AM FROM TEXAS”. Funny stuff. There was that and the Worlds in Cancun, where we both ran the slowest 10k in the history of 10k’s. Water in a bag anyone? It was good to take a stroll down memory lane.

Barrett just finished up his MBA at Nebraska, and finally has a year to just put in some quality training and racing without the stresses of school. He is racing for I month I think in France this summer, and is bound to have a breakthrough year! We will probably hang again next in the campsites at Wildflower. See ya then Barret, looking forward to it!!