As 2016 closes out this week, I thought I’d take a look back at the calendar year.  Like my race recaps – this “year recap” serves as a mechanism to reflect back at the past calendar year and look forward into 2017.  Again, it’s long, but I tried to include a bunch of pics in to keep it interesting.   I turned 35 in 2016, so I’m officially in my mid thirties.  I think I can safely say the first third of my life is behind me.   If all goes well, still have two thirds left!

I’ve broken out 7 of the key topics or subjects from 2016 to look back at:

1. Finley Amara Schoultz.
All the other events and developments from 2016 pale in comparison to this one:  the arrival of Finley on 15 May.  We found out Allie was pregnant in Aug/Sept of 2015.  The birth itself was pretty wild – done almost completely naturally (she needed an epidural at one point during labor for safety reasons, but was off painkillers for the actual birth). Finley was great right out of the gate – opened her eyes pretty quickly and starting taking in the world around her.  Allie had some complications post-birth with her placenta, so I got to hold Finley to my chest for about an hour while the doctors helped Allie.  It was a cool Daddy-daughter moment.

When we got home a few days later we transformed the couch in our living room into a giant bed, and spent the next week or so all hanging out and sleeping in there.  Now she’s over 7 months old.  In her first 7 months, she’s gotten to travel to New York, North Carolina, Colorado, and 3 Ultramarathons.  She loves the dogs, and they love her.  She has a very caring, nurturing, and loving mother.  She’s full of personality, and has the best smile in the world.

2.   Peppy.
Shortly after the arrival of this new family member, we said goodbye to another.  Peppy – my grandmother on my mom’s side – passed away on 11 July 2016 at 94 years old.  She passed the final months of her life in a nursing home, supported in large part by my aunt Loretto.   I have great memories as a kid of going up to Peppy’s house on Long Island in the summer to spend several weeks.  My brother, sister, and I used to really look forward to these trips – they were kind of like adventures for us.
One silver lining with her passing is that she got to meet Finley – her first great-grandchild – one week before she died.  Over July 4th weekend, Allie, Finley, and I drove up to Long Island for a couple of days, primarily to see Peppy and introduce her to Finley.  The writing was on the wall that she was not doing well and probably had limited time left, so we made it a point to make the trip as soon as Finley was ready for 9 hours in the car.  We took Finley to the nursing home and spent several hours with Peppy there.  It was obvious that she was struggling – but lit up when she met Finley and I could tell was very happy and content to spend a few hours with her in the courtyard of the nursing home.  It was hard for her to talk, but when she did her maternal side shone through – she commented on how beautiful Finley was, and made sure she had enough blankets to stay warm and got fed when she got hungry.

It was hard to say goodbye at the end – there was an understanding when we said goodbye to Peppy that it was probably for the last time.  But I’m very glad that before she passed she got to meet her great-granddaughter Finley.  If I could do it over again, I would have held Peppy’s hand more during those hours.  When words are few and far between, physical touch is a universal language.

3.  Running
Ok the first two items were pretty heavy….we can now lighten things up a bit.  This year I dove headlong into a new hobby/passion/obsession.  I can actually trace it’s inception back to last fall, but it really took a turn after the new year.   It started when I signed up for the Virginia Beach Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon.  This was I think last July or early August, and that race was in mid-Sept.  I had no aspirations initially of doing more than this one race, but I kind caught the bug after it was over.  I thought “Well, I’ve got ~ 6 weeks of training invested, I might as well get another race out of it.”  So I signed up for the Richmond Marathon and ran it in mid-Nov.  After Richmond I wanted more – I wanted to run longer races and run more trails.
Well in 2016 I had a great year of ultra running and racing.  In early Jan I relinked with a buddy from college, Greg – and through him I was introduced to Carter, Stacin, and some other locals, and we’d link up for weekend runs and day trips out to the Blue Ridge mountains.

As for races – the details of my fall races are captured in earlier blog posts.  This year I did:  2 marathons, 2 50k’s, 2 50 milers, and a 100k+, plus a handful of shorter races (half marathon and below).
The spring season consisted of a marathon and two 50k trail races.  The marathon was the Shamrock Marathon here in VB in March – in which I just broke 3 hours.  I was sore and limping around for about a week afterwards.  My first ultra was the Promise Land 50k at the end of April.   It was humbling – a hard 50k+ (actual distance was about 34 miles) that I went out too fast in and struggled through the last 8 miles.  Greg ran this race too (and beat me) and I remember him telling me early on, like a wise old sage, to ease off a bit and not push too hard on the early uphills.  I didn’t take his advice, got caught up in the early race competitive momentum, and kinda ran out of gas about 25 miles in.  It was a good lesson though, which would help me in all the rest of my races this year.

I ran another 50k in June, the Eastern Divide 50k, in which I went out conservative and finished strong, and ended up placing 4th overall (this was a smaller race with a less-stacked field).   I felt great during this race – and it was cool to have Allie and 1-month-old Finley there in support.
After this race – I had about 3 months of hard training over the summer to lead into my first 50 miler, the Run Rabbit Run in Colorado (see RRR race recap).  Training through the heat of a Virginia Beach summer is hard, but I managed to stay consistent and felt well prepared going out to CO.  I would load my weekends with most of the miles – these back to back long run days really helped build the leg endurance and resiliency.   Longest training run was 30 miles, as a course sweep of the Iron Mountain 50 mile trail race that I aid station volunteered at.  Recaps of my other races this fall are here:  Mountain Masochist, Richmond Marathon, Hellgate 100k.
What is hard for some people to grasp is that most of the time I really enjoyed it.  Yes, there were days when I didn’t want to run and had to force myself to, or had to power through miles when I couldn’t get into a rhythm, but I’d say most of the long runs and miles I put in over the summer were very enjoyable.  For a while we had a weekend run group that met outside the state park and ran together.  I looked forward to these “social runs” all week – they were a great break from solo runs during the week and it was fun to talk to other runners about training, races, dogs, family, etc (anything besides work).

4.  BC Backcountry trip, Year 2. 
In February I went to Golden, British Columbia for the second year in a row of backcountry skiing with Golden Alpine Holidays backcountry huts and touring.  I’ve established a sort of informal agreement with Allie that this trip will be sort of an annual pilgrimage to the mountains for me…to satisfy an otherwise unfulfilled passion for skiing and being in the snowy mountains.
This is the week in a nutshell: take a helicopter deep into the Esplanade Range of BC Rockies, where it drops you off at a remote hut.  This hut is helicopter accessed only and is somewhat rustic – no electricity, no running water, no cell service, no internet.  In short – you are essentially off the grid and self-sustaining for a week.  The package we’ve gone with each time is the guided/catered package – which includes a guide and a “custodian” (essentially assistant-guide, who’s primary duty is taking care of the hut and preparing meals).  The catered package takes a lot of the logistics planning off our plate – we can just show up with our ski and hut gear and get on the heli.  During the week, all skiing is human powered, and we don’t see another group or set of tracks all week long.  The guide does have two-way radio comms with base station at Golden, but other than that we’re on our own.  The terrain is absolutely world class, and the snow has been deep and reliable.  Even in 2015, which was an extremely bleak snow year throughout the Rockies, we had epic conditions up in the Esplanades.

In 2016 I went out there with Dale, who I’d met during the 2015 trip, and we joined a group of three from the UK.  We hit a different hut this year, so saw new terrain (GAH offers 4 lodges.  The first year we hit Meadow Lodge, this year we hit Vista Lodge).    The week was great, despite the a significant disparity in skiing and fitness levels within the group.  We had super deep snow, and our guide Yoshi let me and Dale off-leash every now and then to turn laps on our own in certain zones.  Had some really memorable tree skiing and pillow lines.  Here is a short video edit that I put together with some clips from last year’s week out of Vista Lodge.

I’m booked to go back this winter in March.  This year’s trip will include (so far) my sister Roberta, my buddy Ryan from Seattle, and some of his extended skier-friend network.  Should be a great week.  This year we’re hitting Sunrise hut – which I’ve heard nothing but good things about.  Super stoked!

Don’t know how many years I’ll stick with GAH before trying something new, but the backcountry week in British Columbia is really one of the highlights of the year for me.  There’s something very therapeutic about it, it’s almost like rehab from 51 weeks of being exposed to the world’s stimuli.  Up in the hut, the world disappears and there is only skiing to think about.

5.  Schoultz Family Reunion
In September we flew out to Colorado to spend a week and Forestdale Ranch, home of my uncle Scott and aunt Sue.  We spent 5 days there for a Schoultz family reunion – which brought together the entire Schoultz side of the family.  We last did one of these in 2011 – so it had been 5 years and it was good to get everyone together for a few days.  Forestdale Ranch is located in a remote valley high in the mountains about 90 minutes SW of Colorado Springs.   The ranch itself sits at about 9000 feet above sea level, so adjusting to the altitude took all of us flatlanders a few days.  Finley met her Oma and Opa (great-grandparents on dad’s dad’s side), as well as Scott, Sue, and my cousin Vincent.

The Ranch is a good getaway – it butts right up against National Forest and we spent a lot of time in the outdoors hiking around.  It was also good altitude acclimation for me, as I had my Run Rabbit 50miler the following weekend.

6.  Work
Don’t want to go too deep into this – but 2016 was unique in my short career, in that I was mostly home, and had pretty complete control over my schedule.  My current job is very predictable and allows me to plan personal events well into the future (like the Schoultz reunion, races, vacations, ski trips, etc).  At the same time, it is plenty busy and engaging, and for the most part I feel like I’m making a difference (hopefully for the better!).   I have about 5 months left in my current job, and then we will move from Virginia to California.

7.  World events: Short comments on a few of the major world stories of 2016:

– Aleppo:  Rarely does the focus of many of the world’s superpowers convene on one city.  We are living through a bombing and civilian casualty situation the likes of WWII firebombing.  There are lots of dynamics at play, but this is one that I think 20 years into the future some of us will read books about and think to ourselves “Wow, this happened while I was alive? I knew there was something going on, but not like this.”

– Brexit:   another very complex issue, but bottom line as I understand it is that Britain shocked itself and the world when, through a popular vote, it decided to secede from the EU.  Why this matters:  two things in my opinion.

1. For those who view globalization as progress, this was a major step backwards.  I personally don’t view globalization as progressive…I view it as inevitable.  Brexit in my mind represents a clinging to an old world order that will eventually go the way of the Dodo.
2. This represents a significant instance of the will of the populace being executed against the will of the establishment – for better or for worse.  From what I understand, most economists, politicians, market power players – the “experts” – predicted and almost pleaded for Brexit not to pass.  They said that it would have dire consequences for both British and European market stability.  Regardless, the British people’s vote was for an exit.

Regardless of the acute effects, I see this phenomenon as a good trend in the bigger picture – the will of the people trumping (no pun) the will of the establishment.  We see similar developments in the US presidential election, the legalization of marijuana in some states, the rise of “crowd powered” business models (Uber, AirBnb) in the market.
As an establishment’s interests become more detached from the interests of the people that constitute and support the establishment, its foundations weaken and there is eventually a schism.  I think we’re seeing the early symptoms of these schisms around the world.

– US presidential race and election:   Not going to open up the political can of worms here, but this is in the same vein as my 2nd point above about Brexit.  Frankly, I didn’t have the time or patience to follow the circus of the primary and national campaigns.    However  – I do think that we are living through a revolutionary era in our political system.  I think things may get worse before they get better – but in the long view this “shakeup” of our system exposes its flaws, and the need for a better political system.

– 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and WWI:  this one passed largely unnoticed.  I probably would have missed it too except that I happened to be listening to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast on WWI at the time.  July 1st 2016 was the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme – one of the bloodiest days of warfare in the 20th century, and probably all of warfare history.  The British initiated an offensive against entrenched German lines – and suffered roughly 60,000 casualties in a single day.  The battle was a microcosm of WWI as a whole – after this initial volley it then bogged down into a stalemate and fighting continued through November of that year.
The battle of the Somme was just one of many horrific battles in WWI, and we are living through the 4 year long 100th anniversary of the war.  100 years ago really isn’t that long. A single human lifetime.    But since no one alive today lived through it, it is interesting how we as a society fail to notice the 100th anniversary of such a major event – one that absolutely shaped the world we live in today.

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Books I read in 2016 (not in order):

– Magicians of the Gods, Graham Hancock
– Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver, Michael Maloney
– Primal Endurance, Mark Sisson
– Why We Run, Bernt Heinrich
– 100 years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
– Alas Babylon, Pat Frank
– Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
– Our Town, Thornton Wilder
– Revenant, Michael Punke
– The Places in Between, Rory Stewart
– Hologram for a King, Dave Eggers
– When Breath becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
– Nothing to Envy, Barbara Demick
– Alone on the Wall, Alex Honnold
– Be the Pack Leader, Cesar Millan
– 8 Days on the Somme
– The Dog Stars, Pater Heller
– Ultramarathon Man, Dean Karnazes
– Essentialism, Greg McKeown
– Musashi Books 1 and 2, Eiji Yoshikawa

 

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A look ahead to 2017
I’m mapping out the next year, and I’m excited!   Some life changes on the near horizon.   During 2017 Finley will probably learn to walk, maybe say a few words, and transition from a baby to a toddler.   In late Spring we are moving from Virginia Beach, where we’ve lived for almost 7 years, to northern California.   The move itself will be challenging – we’re still trying to hash out a plan with all our stuff and the pets.  I’ve got two backcountry ski trips coming up in the next few months – to Idaho and back to British Columbia.  For running – I’ve already got my races for the year pretty planned out.  I’m signed up for my first 100 miler – the Mogollon Monster 100 in Pine, AZ in September.  Prior to that I’ve got a plan to do some 50ks and a marathon out east this winter/spring, and a 100k in Tahoe in the summer.  And if all goes well, maybe I’ll come back out east in December to take on Hellgate again!

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What am I going to work on, at in individual level?  A few things: I’m not going to call them “New Year’s Resolutions” – those rarely stick.  But things that I’m continually working on, and a few goals for the year:
– Be a good husband and dad
– Continue to improve at and enjoy running
– Keep writing
– Make time for music
– Cut cost of living
– Do well at my job