RIP Scott Doyle

I know most of my content on here is ultra-related, but I just wanted to post a brief tribute to a good friend of mine who passed away today after battling a coma for six months.

Scott and Steph after their first antenna jump

I first met Scott Doyle (aka "Moose" or "Other Scott") at Bridge Day '07 where Scott and his lovely wife Steph were both enjoying the six hours of legal BASE jumping that happens every year at the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, WV. As it turned out, Scott was a fellow Marylander, so he was quickly indoctrinated into the MD BASE Crew (which I am not technically a member of because I do not BASE jump).

The day after Bridge Day, some folks headed out to a local less-than-legal antenna where Scott and Steph both did their first antenna jumps. I hung around and took pictures. Fast forward a couple months to the beginning of skydiving season '08 and who else is joining me in the ranks as staff members at Skydive Delmarva? None other than the safe, caring, and funny tag-team of Scott and Steph Doyle. Scott and I were both somewhat newly-licensed tandem instructors while Steph taught AFF students. Over the course of the year we had our share of fond memories - the overweight students, the puking students, the close call malfunctions and the late-night dropzone shenanigans. It was all good fun that we shared together, and as per usual in the sport, we grew closer as part of the Delmarva family.

Since ultrarunning has come into my life, I have spent a significantly less amount of time at the dropzone, but that didn't make it hurt any less when on May 10, 2009 I got a call saying that Scott had suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury and had gone into a coma while BASE jumping in Idaho with Steph. For six months he fought his hardest to wake up, at some points showing movement and responding to external stimuli, but today his body had enough of the fighting and decided it was time to move on to a more peaceful place.

It is with great sadness that I remove my "Wake up Scott" wristband that I have worn these past six months and add it to my desk alongside a picture of Bert Brooks, another good skydiving friend who lost his life while BASE jumping with his loved one. Scott wasn't the first skydiving/BASE friend to go, and unfortunately he won't be the last. BASE truly is an unforgiving sport.

As a tough-as-nails firefighter saving the lives of others and also as a skydiving instructor sharing the gift of flight with those looking to experience something new, Scott definitely earned his angel wings. Fly free my brother. I will miss you...

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Here is the LINK to Steph Doyle's blog from the past 6 months.

Quick weekend update Feb. 7-8

Popping in real quick to give a very brief recap of the weekend. Got in 27 miles at TWOT on Saturday in 6:41, then did 5 skydives out at West Point on Sunday. My camera with my TWOT pics is at a friend's house, so I'll post those shots and a race report on Wednesday. In the meantime, here's a quick video from Sunday's jumps. I shot the footage from my helmet-cam and Ahmed edited it all together. For not having jumped in 4 months, it's nice to see we didn't suck too bad!

Wingsuit BASE Proximity Flying video

Wingsuit BASE Proximity Flying from Ali on Vimeo.

I feel like I had to post this video for some reason. Probably because over the course of the last four days I have been sent multiple emails, IMs, facebook messages, twitter messages, post-it notes and singing telegrams all asking me if I've done this before.

No, I have nowhere near the skills and/or cajones necessary to take up Proximity Flying. I own and fly a wingsuit, but only out of planes. I don't BASE jump (parachute from fixed objects), and although I think I'd absolutely love it, I'm keeping myself away from BASE because I know I have an addictive personality.

Wingsuit Weekend at Skydive Nagambie in Australia, 2004. I'm on the far right.

However, I do have tremendous respect and admiration for Loic Jean Albert, the tall skinny French dude in the video who flies within feet of rock ledges while roaring by at 120mph. This guy is one of the pioneers of wingsuit flight, so he is one of only a handful of people who have the skillset necessary to pull off successful flights in such close proximity to solid objects. When flying a wingsuit, small body movements translate into large changes in your flight pattern. In the sky or to a lesser extent flying away from a cliff, it's not the end of the world if you have some side-to-side flutter or you can't control your exact glide ratio. Flying within feet of fixed objects and small inconsistencies like that could prove to be fatal... but MAN does it make for some sick footage!

I am reminded of a quote, but can't recall who said it: "Take risks not to escape life, but to keep life from escaping."

These guys are definitely taking risks, but they are definitely living life to the max and not letting life escape them. Have fun out there and be safe, but don't forget to take risks every once in a while!

2008 Recap

Here we are in the final few hours of 2008. Wow what a year it's been! I didn't get as much skydiving in this year as I had hoped (roughly 100 jumps in '08 compared to 200 jumps in '07), but I did accomplish A LOT in terms of running. Let's see, where to begin?

• December '07: First run more than 5 miles (ok so it's not 2008 but it's close)
  
• March: First Half-Marathon (B&A Half - 1:39:57)
  
• March: First Marathon (National Marathon - 3:48:20)
• October: First 50k (PHT 50k - 5:18:37)
• November: First 50-miler (JFK50 - 8:23:32)

I'm finishing off the year with roughly 1962 miles logged. If it wasn't for a few nagging injuries before and after JFK, that number would be 2000+. Oh well, just another goal to have for next year, though I'm sure 2000 will come easy with all the races I have planned! Speaking of '09 plans, here's a quick list off the top of my head. I'm not really good with making "resolutions", but here are some personal goals that I am currently working on that will come to fruition in the coming year:

• First 100-miler (MMT on 5/16)
• Complete the Beast Series
  
• Eat healthier so as to be better prepared for above mentioned races
• Become more flexible to prevent annoying little running injuries
  
• Skydive more, or at least do more fun jumping (as opposed to work jumping)
• Blog more often (because let's be honest, I'm an engineer not a writer, so it's hard to sit down and type willingly)
  

It's a short list but I feel that shorter lists allow you to focus on what's important. I started 2008 with one goal, to complete a marathon, and look where I am now! I'm sure 2009 will be a wild ride, so hold on tight kiddos and keep checking back for plenty of race reports and skydiving stories!

PS - Shout out to AlanaB for making my fresh new banner at the top of the page!

Skydiving pics from the weekend

Just stopping by real quick to post some pics I took in the sky this weekend. I apologize for the millions of pics of Ahmed under canopy, but I'm still working on my camera skills so I shoot tons and hope one turns out alright.

Interactive 360 Degree Skydiving Picture

Nothing new or exciting to report in the world of BGill, but I found a 360 degree, fully interactive, picture of a skydiving exit. I have no idea what kind of camera was used, but I sure do like the end product! Check it out.

They grow up so fast

10-way formation for Alexis' 100th

I've been a tandem skydiving instructor for about a year and a half now. This past weekend, one of my former tandem students, Alexis, did her 100th jump. When I took her on her tandem jump early last year, she seemed eager to learn so I taught her a bit more than the usual "arch, legs back, I'll take care of the rest." Together we did turns, forward motion, pulled the ripcord, and went over some canopy flight basics. Apparently those little bits of knowledge were enough to give her the skydiving bug, now here we are a year later jumping together and having a blast. She's my first student to follow through with the sport after getting that first taste of adrenaline, and I'm very proud of the progress she's made over the past year. Congratulations, Alexis!

The gang (from L-R: Dave, Bruce, Ahmed, Mike, Me, Dana, Larry, Chrissy, Alexis)

Photos: Lance Lippencott

Another day at the "office"

Being the busy-bee I am, after logging a solid 20-mile run Saturday morning with my group and another 10.5 on Sunday morning on the Greenbelt trails, I headed to work and spent Labor Day at the Delaware office.

Lucky for me the Delaware office is at 13,500ft! Here are some shots from one of my tandem jumps this weekend. Enjoy!

Weekend video

Just a quick video from this weekend of jump #701, filmed from my perspective of a freefly jump with Ahmed. I ended up having to work on jump #700 since another instructor hurt his foot, so nothing too out of the ordinary on that milestone jump (is 700 really that significant though?), but this video shows us doing some head down docks, a linked transition from head to sit, and some nice solid sit docks. Overall, very happy with how far our freeflying has progressed! (Freefall doesn't sound pretty on video. You might want to turn your sound down before playing this clip.)

8/16-8/17 jumping and running

Ahmed freeflying over Delmarva (photo: Me)

I was finally able to get up in the sky this weekend and do some playing around! Did some fun freeflying with Ahmed for my fun jumps and countered that with 5 tandem working jumps. 9 total jumps for the weekend, bringing my total to 698 jumps. So close to 700! Gotta start planning something fun now.

I must not have been paying attention to the dropzone calendar because, to my surprise, there was a huge catfish and crab feast after jumping on Saturday. Good jumps, good friends and good crabs... gotta love it!

Crab feast (photo: Thalia)

As for running, had a nice 18-miler early Saturday morning with the XMP group, including some pretty decent hill sections to spice it up a bit. Usually I would expect my legs to be trashed, but I took an ice bath afterwards and my legs felt great, even after jumping tandems later in the day! Looks like an ice bath is going to become a usual part of my routine after long runs.

I'm in a recovery week now so I've got 2 days off and total weekly mileage should only reach around 50 miles. Remember, recovery is a vital part of proper training! Back at it next week...

The root cause of a national epidemic

There is a national epidemic out there people. It affects millions of Americans on a weekly basis, often striking with little to no warning. No, I'm not warning about the dangers of eating jalapeno peppers or talking about how fat our youth are getting (seriously kids, easy on the pudding pops), I'm talking about A Case of the Mondays.

Yeah you heard me. A Case of the Mondays. You know that feeling when your alarm goes off on Monday morning and you force your eyes open, you accidentally fall asleep at the traffic light on the way to work and can't believe that you're about to sit at a desk for 8 hours. Apparently this is a common occurrence for most people, but not so for me. I usually feel great and refreshed after a nice weekend of running or skydiving.

"But what is the cause of this epidemic?" you may be asking yourself right now. I'll tell you. I didn't find this out after years of painstaking research, but rather accidentally after a weekend of doing the things I love to do. The dreaded Monday morning exhaustion is caused by a combination of lots of running AND lots of skydiving. Yup, apparently millions of Americans are just as insane as I am and are running and skydiving on the weekends like there is no tomorrow. I know I did, and I am officially done for.

16 miles Saturday (after the rain passed)
woke up at 5am Sunday for another 8 miles
6 tandem skydives Sunday (oh, and 4 hrs in the car driving to and from the dropzone)

I guess hauling around 200lbs of meat (aka a person) with a 60lb backpack (tandem rig) back and forth, up and down from 13000 feet all day isn't the best recovery for 24 miles of weekend running. Who'd have thunk it?

Someone wake me up when my energy returns...

New toys and good runs

I got in a nice easy 16-miler early Saturday morning on the Capital Crescent Trail, there and back from Bethesda down to the Kennedy Center. Average heart-rate was 138 keeping a 9:09 pace, so I was definitely training in my correct zones. Temps were much cooler than recent weekends so that was surely welcomed (as was the flat and shaded route).

While running I got to enjoy some of my new favorite running toys (yes, I'll admit it - I'm a gear whore). Earlier in the week I picked up a Nathan Sports HPL #020 Hydration Vest. I've heard great things about it from other trail/ultra runners so it's something I've been wanting to get for quite some time now. I tested it out on some mid-length trail runs during the week and was surprised at how comfortable the vest was. It didn't budge during the log-hopping and tight corners, so it gets an A+ for staying put.

My one issue with it, though, is the mouthpiece. It's difficult to open/close and I can barely get any suction through it. The mouthpiece on my CamelBak works 100 times better. Ah-ha, I've got an idea! I swapped the tube and mouthpiece assembly from the CamelBak and put it on the Nathan Vest. I think we have ourselves a winner!

Actually, one more thing about the vest. During the run you could hear the water swishing back and forth pretty loudly. Since I was the one setting the group's pace for a good portion of the run (who's bright idea was that?), people were commenting that I sounded like a metronome. Tick-tock-tick-tock. Then again, I was the only one wearing a hydration pack so maybe they all make noise and I just hadn't noticed it before. Everyone else had either hand-held bottles, which make much less noise but are somewhat annoying to hold for long periods of time, or a waist pack that stashes a water bottle like this one, which I have yet to try. I didn't mind the noise of the Nathan pack at all, but since we passed so many water fountains on the CCT I think I'll reserve it's use for medium to long trail runs or any type of run where I can't refill a bottle every couple of miles.

Nathan Vest and Chocolate GU. Awesome.

I also recently discovered the joy that is Chocolate Outrage GU. I had previously been using the Tri-Berry, Lemon Sublime or Plain GU flavors and thought I had found my personal favorites. Boy was I wrong. Chocolate GU is like brownie batter disguised as endurance fuel! As a former fat kid, I don't think there's anything in the world that could make me happier. It's so good that I'm tempted to eat it as dessert after meals. Luckily I have at least some self-restrain.

Chocolate GU, *drool* Oh, sorry. Self-restrain, right...

On the jumping side of things, Sunday was scheduled to be my day of skydiving for the weekend. I was really looking forward to it too since it's been over 2 weeks since I've jumped. Oh, and I have a paycheck waiting for me at the dz, so that's even more of a reason to head down. Unfortunately, mother nature brought upon some torrential downpour yesterday (Sunday) so it was one of those days where, aside from my run, I just sat around twiddling my thumbs. Oh, and I caught up on the latest season of Weeds. Love that show.

In total, 21.5 miles this weekend (50 for the week) and 0 jumps. No skydiving= bummer, but the runs were great so I can't complain. Until next time... adios amigos.

Video from this weekend

This past weekend I finally made my way out to the dropzone and got some good jumping in - 9 jumps total. Showed up late on Saturday and they put me right into the thick of it with all the tandems we had booked for the day. On Sunday business was much slower so I took advantage of it and got in some great freefly jumps (and a wingsuit jump too).

Here is the video of a head down freefly I did with Lisa on Sunday (filmed from her perspective). It was the first time I've docked on someone while head down... and I did it twice! What an amazing feeling. I had a blast!

Introducing yours truly

Aloha my fellow ultrarunners and skydivers! I am BGill, and this is my first attempt at blogging. Who knows how often I'll have time to post to this or whether I'll actually come up with stuff to talk about that is useful/interesting/doesn't-put-you-to-sleep, but I'm going to make an attempt. Now, since this blog will focus mostly on the two sports that consume the better portion of my current existence, skydiving and ultrarunning, I'll give some background about myself with respect to each sport. Please see the relevant category below that most fits your description:

Skydivers: I started jumping back in 2001 with a tandem at the Cleveland Parachute Center when I was 17 years old. Why Cleveland? They were the only place I could find that would let me jump at that age (the rules have since changed for any youngin's out there looking to jump, so you'll have to look elsewhere). When I turned 18 I did another tandem and decided I was hooked, so I went through the AFF course at Skydive Delmarva in Laurel, DE. I jumped throughout college and was the president of the University of Maryland Skydiving club, accumulating roughly 400 jumps throughout college. Now that they tell me I'm all grown up, I'm still jumping at Delmarva and I work as a tandem instructor on the weekends. To date I have 783 jumps and somewhere around 3 hours in the wind tunnel. For funjumping, I mostly freefly and work on swooping, but I have been known to don my wingsuit on occassion and participate in the occassional RW jump. I fly camera too. Basically, I do a little bit of everything and I love it.

Runners: I haven't always been a runner. In fact, I'm pretty new to the higher mileage running scene. I started running in high school, but nothing significant and mostly just trying to lose weight. I ran on and off throughout college and my longest run was probably 5 miles. Never did any races or anything (although I once rode my bike to lead the pack of a 5k). Then, back in December of last year I decided to up my game and start training for a marathon, the SunTrust National Marathon in D.C. to be exact. To gain entrance in the National Marathon I had to have a qualifying time in some sort of recent race, but seeing as how I had never actually run a race I looked around and found the B&A Trail Half-Marathon. I ran B&A in 1:39:57, more than enough for the 2:30 needed to qualify, and was on my way. However, about a week after B&A I came down with tendonitis in my right achilles. Keep in mind this was 3 weeks out from the marathon. After 2 weeks of rest (aka swimming, aka drowning in a forward motion) I was able to lace back up and I took it relatively easy as that would have been taper time anyways. Race day came and the achilles felt fine, but still I was hesitant to push too hard just in case. I ran a 3:48:20, not too shabby for a first time marathoner if I do say so myself. It was the hardest thing I've ever done... and I want more of the challenge! So that's where ultramarathons come into play. Leading up to the race I read Dean Karnazes' book, Ultramarathon Man, and it put some ideas into my head. I took to the internet and have read everything I can about ultras. I signed up for the JFK50 this coming November and have started training with the Montgomery County Road Runners Club's XMP program. To say I am excited is an understatement. Marathon/ultramarathon training has gotten me in such great shape and the sense of accomplishment that comes from self discipline is something I can't live without. I'm hoping to run JFK in under 10 hours, but as long as I stay uninjured and finish I'll be happy. 100 miles? Some day...

Non-runners/jumpers: Git outa my interweb! Yer kind ain't wanted here! Mary-jo, go git me muh shotgun! No, just kidding. Everyone is welcome to come and browse. Whereas the skydivers think the ultrarunners are crazy for running so much, and the ultrarunners think the skydivers are crazy for jumping our of perfectly good airplanes, you will just be special in that you will think both of my sports are crazy. Who knows, maybe I'll post some breathtaking skydiving picture that makes you want to come for a tandem and taste the adrenaline, or maybe you'll come to understand the pride that comes from training for an ultra/marathon and you'll sign up for your own race that pushes your limits. Whatever it may be, welcome to my site and I hope you enjoy yourself. Please feel free to leave comments about anything and everything.