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Personal training sit ups exercise outdoors in a park on a yoga mat.
There's me sitting on my mom's lap. It seems I've just said something really smart. Taken in late 1960's.
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Personal training sit ups exercise while laughing in a park working out.
Young Adults Help Hotshots Earn Fitness Award
Approximately half of the 2014 Ruby Mountain Interagency
Hotshot Crew (IHC) was young adults. These members added
strength to an already strong group and helped the crew earn the BLM Interagency Hot Shot Crew Fitness Challenge Trophy. The hotshots competed with 10 other crews in a nationwide test and earned the highest scores for four exercises: pushups, pullups, situps, and a 1.5-mile or 3-mile run. Individual fitness is often a limiting factor in wildland firefighting. Fatigue is a contributing factor in many accidents and numerous studies show that physical fitness is a good way to mitigate fatigue. “This award is a great accomplishment for the crew and it shows that our employees are dedicated to their fitness and setting the example for the fire community,” said Ruby Mountain IHC Superintendent Craig Cunningham.
16 random things
To start off with, I really don’t like talking about myself, because I feel that I post photos on here to showcase my passion behind the camera, not to talk about myself, good, bad or indifferent. But since I was tagged by several different people, I guess I’ll open up a little bit.
1. I probably started drinking coffee around 12 or so. I remember going to Roaring Camp (gold mining camp) and having it in the mornings while my mom was still alive. LOTS of sugar, and nothing else). I still drink 4 cups a day. I went cold turkey once and was dope sick for days. I was also addicted to chap stick for 8 years.
2. I actually am a 2nd degree black belt in Tang Soo Do, which I started at age 11 when my brother joined and our parents thought it would be fun to do together. Chuck Norris was our head instructor at the time, which I only met once.
3. My mom died from smoking when I was 13. Sorry to all you smokers out there, but I absolutely despise it.
4. Every year, just before my birthday, I do a physical routine to make sure I’m not getting old. This includes: doing a backflip off a tall swing, running a mile, a “cherry drop” from the monkey bars, pushups/situps and random balancing acts. I’m not afraid of getting old, I’m afraid of being old.
5. My wife will confirm this; I have the world’s worst memory and am the worst speler. I’m always mixing up brides names, don’t remember appointments my wife tells me, and forget random things. As for spelling, I’m just lucky that there are spell checkers now.
6. I got my B.A. in Geography from UC Santa Barbara in 1996 and had planned as a graduation gift to myself to bicycle across country, dip my foot in the Atlantic and then fly back. This ended when Lockheed Martin hired me as a defense engineer and instead I moved to Philly for 4 years. I can't tell you what I do now or I'll have to kill you get sent to prison for treason.
7. My first date was when I was 19. Kiss too. Months later.
8. I don’t believe in owning pets, or the domestication of pets. I feel like its animal slavery, even if they love you and want to be with you. Fish are the exception, because they’re dumb and taste good on a small bed of rice.
9. I ran the 1996 LA Marathon on a dare. I completed it in.. about 5 ½ hours. Don’t ever dare me to do something.
10. Unlike most people, I really haven’t been through a lot in my life and have absolutely no reason to be sad, emo, remorseful, bitter, etc. Okay, I have been through some stuff, but why let those little things bring down your whole demeanor and walk around kicking stones being sad all the time. I think about those born in 3rd world countries who drink, bathe and defecate in the same water source. Now they deserve to listen to dark music, wear hooded black sweatshirts, and get emo tats & piercings.
11. On a dare, since I was so insecure and shy, I decided to give improv comedy a try in Hollywood. I was hooked after the first class and it really helped me open up and be okay with exploiting my own insecurities and flaws. Since then I’ve had no problem with being in front of hundreds of people. This confidence might come across as ego here and in person, but those that know me know I’m just a goof and have a low tolerance for those without a sense of humor.
12. If I had more time and less A.D.D. I think I’d be a pretty good writer (as some of you may know from your testimonials.) I wrote a 90 page story for my English class in 11th grade inspired by a photo she put on the chalkboard. The story was supposed to be 2 pages, and I asked for an extension. I’ve written several other short stories/books, all Westerns.
13. I love Westerns more than any other movie genre, and I own over 40 John Wayne movies on tape. Just something simple and pure about that lifestyle.
13 ½. I’ve only been to the dentist twice since 1991. No cavities. No braces. Just a thick enamel layer. Gross? Don't worry, you're not kissing me.
14. I wasn’t the greatest student in middle or high school, but it wasn’t because I didn’t go to school. From the middle of 7th grade on, I never missed a day OR class in middle or high school. I also was never tardy. I never had any excused or unexcused absences in high school. I was at every single class, every single day, thus perfect attendance. I did this through illness as after my 10th grade year it became a personal goal and by 12th grade I was having nightmares of me waking up late and missing class. (still did until I was almost 30) So when I got to college my buddy said that was a pretty cool thing I did in high school, too bad you can’t do it in college… I did it in college too. Approximately 1400 days or 8,500 classes straight without a miss or tardy. This stopped in 2000 when I was going to grad school at Penn State and had to miss a class in order to take a work trip to Australia.
15. I really am not a fan of music. I think it’s still a fad. There’s some I like, but most of the time, I’d rather sit in silence than hear some pre-fabricated music with artificial lyrics created from music mogul’s high tech studio. If I had my druthers, I’d listen to a combo of French pop, bossa nova, house, chillout and some trance music. Think…. Chillin on the beach in Ibiza in the early afternoon after being out all night at a dance club on the other side of the island until 8am… that was my 2002.
15½. I have an enormous fear of dropping things in the crack of an elevator, when the door opens.... I hold my keys and everything tight and take a big step inside the elevator so nothing falls down that crack.
16. Regardless of motive or technique, I really enjoy making people happy. Photography, comedy, or doing whatever I can just to get a smile, laugh or know that I made someone’s day. Maybe that’s why I do a lot of free photo gigs just because I know it helps someone else out and makes them happy. I did stand up and improv for years and never made a cent from it. I don’t expect anything at all from it. Not attention, money, fame, sushi or anything else. I figure maybe somewhere down the road, someone will do something nice for me, no strings attached.
16½. I'm not big on rules, and thus the extra things. Rules like trespassing, speeding and things like that are great guidelines, but as long as you're not harming or inconviencing anyone, game on.
I guess I do have a lot to say. Just have to wait another year for me to open up.
Happy New Year everyone. Be safe tonight. Tomorrow is a new day and a different year.
ps. Does anyone have the slightest clue why this photo of Emo Disco J got 9,400 hits yesterday??
Children's Day was on a Saturday - so we celebrated on a Friday at the Kindergarten with activities and games for parents and their preschoolers. Wheelbarrow races - with actual wheelbarrows! A lot of fun had by all.
Apr 12 103/366
Monthly Scavenger Hunt - April '08
Multicoloured
I have made the executive decisions that:
a) my new raindow striped toe socks totally kick arse!
and
b) impulse buys are awesome!
Added bonus is that both the scavenger hunt lists I'm working on for this month have "multicoloured" on them, so two birds with the one stone.
I don't even want to think of how many times I had to lie down, get up, crouch down to check the shot on the camera, stand up, lie down, get up, and so on and so forth before I got the three shots I was really happy with, (tried a couple of different locations and a couple of different coloured backgrounds as well). As a result of my billions of situps and squats, I daresay I'll be suffering a certain amount of muscle pain tomorrow!
I tried tweaking the contrast so the backgrounds were completely white, but it just didn't look right, and they didn't look right with the backgrounds greyscaled either.
Each individual shot can be found in my photostream.
Frazzled? No energy? No spark?
Just do the swimming pool thing:
Run down. Swim 10 times back and forth. Dry in sun. Do 4 sets of 15 push ups. Mix in sets of situps. Relax. Swim 5 more times. Dry in sun. If time read a magazine in the shade. Shower.
Only takes about 20 minutes and you feel revived and fresh.
...lucky me I can see the swimming pool from my desk!
Raleigh Rusty Old Push Bike in need of some TLC.............. imagetaker1.photoshelter.com/gallery-list
well you know in one month she is gonna look sexy i dont see how but you go girl with them 24 situps a day
030131-N-8209D-001
San Diego, Calif. (January 31, 2003 ) -- Members of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Class 244 await instructions as they prepare to execute pull-ups as part of their morning exercise routine.
US Navy Photo by Photographer's Mate Third Class John DeCoursey
Continuing the sporting theme, we were recently commissioned to shoot a bank of imagery to be used for Greens Health & Fitness for their up coming ad campaigns.
Shot on the new Hasselblad H4D50.
Project 365 ~ Round II
Okay..So Ash and I are doing another project 365 together. Some days may be themed together like today.
Eye of the Tiger...getting ready for the big year! Warming up!
Self Portrait by Ray Man or The Photographer - or originally "Was photography more fun then". All possible titles for "Book Titles" a Rocester and Uttoxeter Competition.
795. 1/3 "Unique"
What does unique mean to you? How is your dog unique? Take a picture today that makes us think "unique" in some way!
Spanky is certainly unique! He runs faster than any dog I've ever seen! He swims!!! He's a snuggle bug and a couch potato. At 3, he still maintains some of his puppy behavior - he shreds my tissues - he steals my things and runs around the house so I can chase him.
He puts his behind down in the freezing snow and sticks his tongue out at me while begging for me to throw the ball........Yep, Spanky sure is unique !!!!!!
Miracle in Moab: The stunning rescue of Danelle Ballengee
www.summitdaily.com/article/20061222/NEWS/61222011&Se...
Her body shattered by a 60-foot fall, stranded in a remote redrock canyon with virtually no hope for help, one of the world’s premier athletes stared at death for 52 hours, and defied it.
BY DEVON O'NEIL
summit daily news
Summit County, CO Colorado
December 22, 2006
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Friday, Dec. 15, 1:30 p.m. Five miles outside Moab, Utah.
Everything about the afternoon signals gloom. A low, gray sky hangs overhead, and the mid-December temperatures already have begun their plummet toward nightfall. Within a few hours the light will be gone, the mercury will fall into the 20s and the barren backcountry that surrounds this Western outdoors mecca will become about as inhabitable as hell.
John Marshall, the officer in charge of the 12 Grand County Search and Rescue members milling about the Amasa Back trailhead, assesses the situation with a sobering calmness. He and his team are here to figure out how and why Danelle Ballengee, one of the world’s premier adventure sports athletes and a part-time Moab resident (her primary home is in Dillon), vanished two days prior. Detective Craig Shumway of the Moab Police Department located Ballengee’s truck nearby while casing the area about an hour earlier, but all signs have indicated that if Ballengee is indeed somewhere out in canyon country, she would have been there for more than two days now. As much as they are taught to treat this like a rescue mission, the rescuers know enough about their territory to understand they have likely come to recover a body, not to bring someone home alive.
Marshall is putting the finishing touches on his team’s assignments when a fellow rescue team member approaches him near the trailhead, where the search party has convened. “I’m going to be leaving soon, John — do you have a body bag with you? If not, I have one in the truck.”
Marshall, who in situations like these prepares for the worst but hopes for the best, has not brought a body bag. His face stern but solemn, he relents. “You should probably leave it with me.”
This situation is particularly unnerving for him. A few months earlier, he had served as a local backcountry expert and medical representative at the world-renowned Primal Quest Utah expedition adventure race. He treated Ballengee a number of times during the 10-day competition, seeing up close the toughness and will that has defined her career as a professional athlete. He watched her stumble in from a horribly underestimated 46-mile torture march through 105-degree desert heat, a dehydrated mess because she went the last four hours without water. He saw her press on through the competition despite her feet being rubbed entirely raw by the piranha-like Utah sand. For him to admit now that she is probably dead, well, it doesn’t sit well.
As the men and women ready themselves to trudge out into the cold, vast emptiness, a dog wanders out from the trail. They stop. It matches the description of Ballengee’s dog: long, reddish-brown coat, medium build. Marshall calls the dog but it doesn’t come.
Animal Control officers, knowing it has probably not eaten for two days, try in vain to lure it with food. For whatever reason, it does not want to be caught. The simple fact that the dog is here alone, however, says enough to Marshall. “Most dogs won’t leave their master as long as their master has a pulse,” he said. “To see that dog was a truly saddening sight.”
***
On the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 13 — the day she disappeared — Danelle Ballengee made a few phone calls, sent a few e-mails, then, after a quick stop at Burger King for a chicken sandwich, french fries and coffee — she is famous on the adventure racing circuit for her love of junk food — she drove out of town for a run. It had been a year since she’d done the popular Amasa Back route, one of her favorites.
If all went well, she’d be back at her truck in an hour and 45 minutes. She locked her cell phone inside, along with her wallet, and tucked a water bottle in the fanny pack around her waist. Dressed in baggy running pants, a fleece hat and three upper layers — a silk base, a polypropilene shirt and a thin fleece jacket — Ballengee set off down the trail with her dog, an athletic 3-year-old mutt named Taz.
She began on the Amasa Back, a technical track through the desert that in the warmer months is well-used by runners and mountain bikers. But Ballengee, 35, who spends about a third of her year in Moab, has developed her own loop over the years, and only part of it utilizes the actual Amasa Back Trail. The rest of her roughly 8-mile circuit consists of obscure Jeep roads known only to locals, and a few stretches that are not on any map because they are not really trails, but rather ways to connect the rest of the loop.
About an hour into her run, she arrived at one such unmapped section and began scrambling up the side of a perilous slope. Toward the top, however, Ballengee put her foot down and it did not grip. She believes it was a patch of black ice that she never saw. One of the rescue team members who retraced her steps five days later says it was probably wet, frozen lichen ironed on the rock like a camouflaged leech.
All in one motion she slipped and began tumbling down the hill like a rag doll, unable to stop the fall. She smashed into one rock ledge, bounced off, then hit another. After the second ledge — about 40 feet into the fall — the slope steepened into a near-vertical wall. Ballengee’s momentum carried her over the edge, and she freefell the equivalent of a two-story building.
Remarkably, she landed square on her feet, but the drop was too much for her slight frame to absorb. Her pelvis shattered, breaking in four places, cracking in others and, in one spot, splintering into too many pieces to count. She crumpled to the ground in excruciating pain.
Right away she knew her injuries were severe, but the adrenaline was pumping. You have to get out of here — NOW, her brain said. She rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up to her knees. She began to crawl. One leg moved fine but the other might as well have been a piece of wood, so she picked it up with her hands and placed it six painstaking inches ahead. For five hours she dragged herself like a wounded dog through the canyon, its walls towering hundreds of feet above her. A quarter mile was all she gained. Finally, upon reaching a puddle of snowmelt, the adrenaline long ago used up, her body beginning to swell from massive internal bleeding, the air now dark and well below freezing, she collapsed onto her back. Taz snuggled up to his owner, and they lay there together that first night, in pain and in fear.
***
“To be a good adventure racer,” a former pro once said, “you basically have to be hard to kill.” The suffering comes in many forms: pain, natural elements, hunger, thirst and self-imposed sleep deprivation. The best ones learn how to exist on the brink for days, even when their bodies beg for mercy.
Lying on the cold rock in the middle of nowhere, Ballengee did just that, developing a routine that kept her alive. Small things, like wiggling her fingers with her hands inside her pants to preserve the warmth. Like tapping her toes on the ground because it was the only way to delay the inevitable onset of frostbite. She even did little “head situps” — lifting her head toward her knees hour after hour after hour, nonstop, to keep her core warm. About the only thing she had going for her was the lack of precipitation; if it were snowing, she would be at a far greater risk of exposure.
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Taz, Ballengee's 3-year-old dog, helped save his owner's life.
Special to the Daily
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When she’d finished the half-bottle of water that remained from her run, she turned to the murky snowmelt in the 2-inch-deep puddle. As much as she yearned to quench her ever-growing thirst, however, she knew better. If she drank more than her body absolutely needed, she would pee it out. Still unable to shift her body position, she would pee on herself, and the urine eventually would freeze on her clothes and skin, driving down her core temperature and making it more likely that she freeze to death. So she sipped a little here, a little there, scooping it up with her water bottle cap.
Two more items in her fanny pack helped keep her alive. First, she’d carried a pair of raspberry-flavored energy gels — her only food. She ate one on the first morning and the other on the second, each time planning to gain strength from the gel and attempt to crawl out of the canyon. Each time she failed without moving an inch. She also brought a plastic shower cap, common among adventure racers who do much of their training in the backcountry because the plastic prevents the loss of body heat.
When the sun came up on the second day, Ballengee began to scream for help and didn’t stop for 10 hours. A number of times she thought she heard voices or an ATV getting near, but nobody appeared. There was only the silent horror of her impending death.
As Taz became increasingly unnerved by his owner’s state — the rescue group’s dog handler would later say Taz was the most distressed dog she had ever seen — he stopped cuddling with Ballengee and began leaving for 30 minutes at a time. She just lay there and prayed, eventually becoming overwhelmed by her greatest fear: that she would never get to say goodbye to her family.
Why didn’t I tell them how much I love them? Why didn’t I tell my friends how special they are and how much I learn from them? Why didn’t I?
***
Dorothy Rossignol is a 76-year-old Moab treasure, a creature of habit who happens to be Danelle Ballengee’s neighbor. Ballengee never leaves town before she has said goodbye to her friend next door; nor does she leave without drawing her blinds and shutting down her house. So when Rossignol noticed that Ballengee’s lights remained on for a second day and that she could still see her computer on the coffee table through the open window, she grew worried.
She called Ballengee’s parents in Evergreen and learned that they, too, had been trying to reach Danelle, and had gotten suspicious. Her parents requested a welfare check from the Moab police, who arrived late Thursday afternoon and checked the house for signs of foul play, but found nothing. Nevertheless, they put out a multistate bulletin for Ballengee’s vehicle that night.
The following morning, with the vehicle still missing and some time on his hands, Detective Shumway decided to check the local trailheads. He started on the north end of town near the airport and worked his way south. After coming up empty at more than a half-dozen parking areas, he arrived at the Amasa Back lot, a little ways down from the trailhead itself. No truck. He drove to the trailhead and found nothing there, either. Then, acting on a hunch — and the innate backcountry knowledge that comes from having spent his entire life in Moab — Shumway drove another few hundred yards to a secret spot around the corner where you can park next to an old campsite. Bingo. Ballengee’s truck was there, kayak on top and mountain bike locked in the camper — but no sign of the missing woman.
***
The page comes through to Grand County Search and Rescue at 1:04 p.m., 49 hours since Ballengee shattered her pelvis. Although they get paged only a couple times a month this time of year, many of the team members heard the chatter on their scanners the night before, so they know a local woman and her truck are missing. Within 10 minutes they have assembled at the rescue shed downtown, eager to know what is going on.
Marshall, a local guide and EMT who was randomly assigned the officer-in-charge (OIC) responsibility for this week, sends some of his team directly to the trailhead with their assignments. He decides the rest when he arrives. Knowing Ballengee’s background — she is a three-time Primal Quest winner and four-time Pikes Peak Marathon champ — and feeling confident that she probably would not be out for a simple hike on the main trail, Marshall has Melissa Fletcher take off running up a gnarly stretch of singletrack nearby. She is to be met farther down the trail by a pair of Polaris Ranger ATVs, one of which is driven by Bego Gerhart, 60, an Eagle Scout with a hulking build and bushy beard, who has been rescuing people since he was a teen.
That’s when Marshall and the rest of the search party see Taz. In a seemingly conscious effort, the dog eludes their attempts to capture him for just long enough that the humans catch on: This must be Ballengee’s dog. He’s our best clue right now. Let him run.
Initially, Taz leads them away from the trailhead, back toward town. Weird, the rescuers think. But they follow. And Taz sees them. Shortly thereafter he turns around, “like once he knew he had attracted enough attention, it was time to go back into the canyon,” rescue group member Rex Tanner says. The dog darts through the assembled search party and out toward the canyons. Marshall radios ahead to his two Rangers: “Whatever you do, don’t try to catch the dog. Follow it.”
Within minutes Gerhart comes face to face with Taz. The dog takes off over a rise then down to an older Jeep track with Gerhart in pursuit on foot. Eventually Taz runs up into a canyon too fast for Gerhart to follow, but the bushy rescuer doesn’t need to. Trained by the U.S. Marshal’s office as a desert tracker, Gerhart has spotted three prints in the soft dirt: a 2-day-old set of dog prints, a fresh set of dog prints, and a set of shoe prints “that certainly looked like they could be a female runner,” he says. All three prints are headed in the same direction.
He hurries back to his Ranger and burns down the canyon, following the tracks. A few minutes later, at 3:38 p.m., he comes upon a stunning sight. Ballengee is alive, lying on her back crying as Taz lies next to her, his snout on her chest.
“I’m glad to see you,” she says calmly, as tears stream down her face.
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Seen here training on the shore of Dillon Reservoir, Danelle Ballengee was running a trail about 5 miles southwest of Moab, Utah, when she fell into an unnamed canyon last Wednesday.
Summit Daily file photo/Brad Odekirk
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“I’m glad to see you, too,” the relieved rescuer replies, “and I’m glad you can tell me you’re glad to see me.”
He wraps her in a down bag, gives her a pair of warm gloves, then radios to Marshall that he has found her, and that they’re going to need the CareFlight chopper from St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction to evacuate Ballengee A.S.A.P.
He remains by her side for nearly 45 minutes before another rescuer arrives on scene. “I expected to find someone much more severe,” he says later of her mental state. “She was fully lucid, which was stunning.”
Ballengee is rushed to St. Mary’s where her family and friends meet her. She has lost an extraordinary amount of blood to internal bleeding and her pelvic damage is extreme, doctors find. They tell her that most people with her injuries do not live longer than 24 hours. She lasted 52 on a cold rock in the middle of nowhere.
***
It has been less than a week since Danelle Ballengee’s rescue made national headlines. On Tuesday she underwent a risky six-hour surgery, in which doctors successfully reconstructed her pelvis with a titanium plate and a number of pins and screws. Her frostbitten feet are beginning to return to their normal color, and on Friday she appeared on NBC’s Today show from her hospital bed. It was the first time she’d seen Taz since the rescue.
She will likely spend at least two months in a wheelchair, though the doctors believe she will not only regain her ability to run, but also to compete. This pleases her in a big way, like a fish finding out it can swim again.
Reflecting on the living hell she endured, she offers a simple explanation. “I wasn’t ready to die.”
Many of the rescuers still have not gotten over what happened last Friday — the “Christmas miracle” that they saw for themselves. Gerhart calls it the “No. 1 stunner” of the hundreds of rescues he has been involved with during his career.
“I knew I was dealing with a really tough cookie,” says Marshall, drawing yet again on his Primal Quest memories. “However, the temperatures don’t play mercy on anybody.” Indeed, Ballengee’s survival came less than a month after two men froze to death near Moab in separate one-night incidents. Both men were wearing much warmer clothes and one was at a lower elevation than Ballengee, who was found at about 4,800 feet.
Marshall, like the other rescuers and particularly Ballengee herself, does not believe she would have survived another night in the canyon. Which is why he is so moved by this incident. “Sometimes you find ’em and they’re dead or just dealing with the worst day of their life,” he said. “And some people wonder why we do it, why we give up all of our time and do it all for nothing. This is why. This is the type of rescue that refuels us to do the type of things we do. So, we thank her for being alive.”
When it was all over, after the helicopter had taken off and the rescuers had retreated back to the trailhead, the question came to pass: What should be done with Taz tonight? The kennel was an option but nobody wanted that, least of all Marshall, so he scooped up the pooped pup and took him home. Taz hobbled into the house, headed straight for the carpet and dropped to the floor like he’d been tranquilized. It was 7:30 p.m.
The next morning, it snowed.
Devon O’Neil can be contacted at doneil@summitdaily.com, or (970) 668-4633.
To aid in Danelle Ballengee’s recovery, you can mail checks to a fund in her name at FirstBank, P.O. Box 347, Silverthorne, CO, 80498, or you can drop them off at any FirstBank branch.
Dog comes to racer's rescue
By Brian Metzler
Special to ESPNOutdoors.com — December 22, 2006
Two-time adventure racing world champion Danelle Ballengee has her dog and a search and rescue team to thank for saving her life after she spent two nights in sub-freezing weather near Moab, Utah, last week.
Ballengee, 35, of Dillon, Colo., has competed in adventure races in the wilds of Canada, Mexico, Sweden, China, Argentina, Fiji and Morocco. But it was a relaxing two-hour trail run with her dog that nearly did her in.
(Photo: Pam Mindard)
Taz, a 3-year-old German shepherd/golden retriever mix, helped a search and rescue team find Danelle Ballengee on Dec. 15 after she fell while trail running near Moab, Utah.She started what she thought would be a casual 10-mile run from the Amasa Back trailhead south of Moab around noon on Dec. 13. Temperatures were in the low 40s and she was wearing light running pants, two lightweight running shirts, a lightweight fleece top and sunglasses. She also carried her iPod and a small hydration pack.
Midway through the run, Ballengee slipped on a patch of black ice near Hurrah Pass and tumbled about 60 feet down three successive rock faces, each of which was 10 to 25 feet below the next. After crashing to the bottom of a rocky canyon, she knew she wasn't paralyzed but was in too much pain to stand.
Although dazed and in severe pain, she managed to crawl about a quarter mile on her hands and knees over the next five hours before darkness set in. During the night, she did sit-ups and kept her upper body moving to keep warm. She drank snowmelt from a puddle when the water in her pack ran out and ate two packets of raspberry energy gels that she carried on the run.
A Grand County (Utah) search and rescue team on all-terrain vehicles found her at about 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 15 after her dog, Taz, a 3-year-old German shepherd/golden retriever mix, led rescuers on a five-mile journey to her. Ballengee had spent 52 hours in the wilderness in temperatures that ranged from the low 20s at night to the mid-40s during the day.
On the first night in the cold, Taz slept with his head on Ballengee's stomach, but during the second night he was hesitant to get near her.
"The first night I couldn't really cuddle with him because I had to stay on my back, but he cuddled next to me and helped keep me warm," she said. "But the second night he either got mad or he got a plan in his head. Either way, I just can't wait to give him a big hug. He definitely helped save my life. I don't know if I would have made it out there another night."
Ballengee said she wasn't sure when Taz left because he was gone for a while and returned a couple of times.
After shivering throughout the first night, Ballengee said she was glad to feel the warmth of the sun but frustrated that she had not been found. She said several prayers, even though she says she's not religious. She said she thought about Aron Ralston, the Colorado adventure athlete who cut off his right arm with a pocket knife after getting stuck under a large boulder in southeastern Utah in 2003.
"I did think about him because I read his book," Ballengee said. "I thought about my family and my friends and everything I do, and I just kept saying to myself, 'I can't die. I'm not ready to die.' But it would have been so easy to relax and curl up and die."
(Photo courtesy Danelle Ballengee
Danelle Ballengee is one of the top trail runners in the U.S. She's a four-time winner of the Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado and set a record running a marathon up and down a 17,500-foot volcano in Mexico. Ballengee, a professional athlete and personal trainer, owns a second home in Moab and spends a lot of time running, cycling, climbing and paddling in the area, sometimes with friends but often just with Taz. When she hadn't been seen for more than 24 hours, Dorothy Rossignol, a Moab neighbor and friend, called her parents in Evergreen, Colo., on the afternoon of Dec. 14.
Knowing her penchant for wild training sessions, Ballengee's parents were hesitant to react hastily. They called her close friends, but when no one knew of her whereabouts, they called the Moab police.
"With all of the things Danelle does, we didn't really want to bother people and make a big deal of it if she was just out training. But we just had a gut feeling that we needed to do something, and thank God we did," her mother, Peggy Ballengee, said. "We've told her before to be safe and leave a note about where she's going or go with someone, but that's not always possible. Sometimes she can't find someone to train with because she might be going out for a 30-mile run, then a 100-mile ride. Those are the things she does. That's her job."
Police initially searched Ballengee's Moab house for signs of foul play and notified authorities in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona about her missing vehicle. They also searched the Colorado River and nearby lakes at the advice of her parents, who thought she might have been kayaking.
Moab police found Ballengee's pickup truck at the Amasa Back trailhead at 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 15. The search and rescue team was organized and a volunteer pilot began searching from the sky.
As the search team gathered at the trailhead, a dog matching the description of Taz was spotted by police a couple of miles down Kane Creek Road. It was heading toward town but suddenly changed directions when authorities tried to apprehend it.
"We were going to try to identify the dog, but the dog basically didn't want to be caught and instead turned around and headed back toward the trail," said Curt Brewer, chief deputy of the Grand County Sheriff's Office. "When that happened, the search crew decided to follow the dog. And the dog took our rescue personnel right to her. I think we would have eventually found her, because we were in the right location, but the dog saved us some time."
The rescue team made verbal contact with Ballengee at 3:38 p.m. and reached the accident site shortly thereafter. A helicopter airlifted her to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., where doctors determined she had broken her pelvis in four places and suffered severe frostbite on her feet. She was bleeding internally and had numerous cuts and bruises on her hands and knees.
Ballengee was flown to Denver the next day and had surgery Tuesday to insert a titanium plate and titanium pins into her pelvis and sacrum.
Doctors have told her it is unlikely she will lose any toes, but it could be two to six months before she can walk again.
"We just feel so fortunate that she's alive," Peggy Ballengee said, while fighting back tears. "We're glad she's not paralyzed. I know she's in pain, but I told her it's better to feel the pain than to feel no pain."
(Photo courtesy Danelle Ballengee)
During an adventure race in 2000 in Borneo, Danelle Ballengee had the unfortunate situation of having a leech attach to one of her eyes. It led to a corneal ulcer that left her blind for three days. As an adventure athlete, Ballengee has already experienced her share of physical adversity and injuries. Adventure racing is an endurance sport in which coed teams of three athletes mountain bike, paddle, hike, climb, run and navigate through the wilderness in events that last from three hours to seven days.
During an adventure race in 2000 in Borneo, a leech attached to one of Ballengee's eyes. That led to a corneal ulcer that left her blind for three days.
In 2005, she tore a ligament in her right ankle. But instead of taking time off to recover, she completed several adventure races ranging in length from six hours to six days. Last summer in the Primal Quest Expedition Race in Moab, Ballengee's feet blistered so badly from trekking across hot desert terrain that, at times, she could barely stand. But she somehow managed to finish the race with her teammates, albeit dropping from first to ninth place.
"She's tough as nails," said Dave Mackey, a friend and adventure racing teammate. "She's a pretty strong, independent person. But she got lucky in this case that she was found."
Ballengee's athletic resume looks like something you'd see on the back of a Wheaties box. She's a four-time winner of the Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado. She once finished 13th in the Hawaii Ironman. In 2000, she set a women's record by hiking up and down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks in 14 days, 14 hours and 49 minutes.
(Photo courtesy Danelle Ballengee)
In adventure races, which can last from three hours to seven days, coed teams of three athletes navigate through the wilderness on bikes, kayaks and on foot.She helped Team Nike win two adventure racing world championships in 2004, one in Argentina and another in Canada. Last March, she placed eighth at the Winter Triathlon World Championship in Sjusjoen, Norway, an event that included mountain biking, skate skiing and running on snow.
And she's earned six U.S. athlete of the year awards in four different endurance sports: adventure racing, duathlon, mountain running and triathlon. But it was her most loyal companion and not so much her athletic prowess that saved her life.
"It's an amazing story of survival," said Mike Kloser, a former adventure racing teammate from Vail, Colo. "Her dog really wound up being her saving grace. I know her parents have since said it, but it's a lesson learned to tell people where you're going."
Ballengee said she has run the loop on Hurrah Pass several times. Most of it is on Jeep roads, but a small section of it is on a rugged single-track trail that requires a bit of hand-over-hand scrambling.
"I knew it was icy and I was being very careful, but my foot just slipped," she said. "The next thing I knew I was just sliding and there was no way to stop until I hit the bottom.
"I'm just happy to be alive. It was a horrible accident, but a fortunate turn of events saved my life. My dog is so awesome. He has no idea how important he is. He deserves a big reward – like a big steak."
Brian Metzler is the founding editor of Trail Runner magazine and the author of "Running Colorado's Front Range" (2003, Mountain Sports Press).
Airmen prepare for chin-ups during an Army pre-Ranger physical assessment, Aug. 5, 2015, at Aviano Air Base, Italy. The assessment included a 5-mile run, pushups, situps and chin-ups. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Evelyn Chavez)
I strained my knee a little while jogging this week. I was on a roll too! I did walk briskly this evening but it wasnt the same. I suppose I have to let it heal a while now.
Yes, I double tie my sneakers.
Oh and got one of those as seen on TV Iron Gym's for the hubs to do pull ups with. I couldnt do one pull up! BUT it is extra fabulous for doing situps without someone to hold your feet.
U.S. Air Force Airmen prepare for chin ups during an Army pre-Ranger physical assessment, Aug. 5, 2015 at Aviano Air Base, Italy. The assessment included a 5-mile run, pushups, situps and chinups. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Evelyn Chavez/Released)
When I took a Pilates class last year, the exercise I found the hardest was a conventional situp. We did these on our mats, and I couldn't keep my feet on the floor. If I have something to hold my legs down I do far better.
Ashley is quite uninterested.
A soldier assigned to the 8th Military Police Brigade completes a situp as part of the Army Physical Fitness Test during the 8th Military Police Brigade's best warrior competition at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, April 10, 2012. The competition tests the best soldiers and non-commissioned officers across in warrior tasks and military skill. The soldier and non-commissioned officer who win the event move on to the command level competition.
8th Theater Sustainment Command
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Photo by Spc. Marcus Fichtl
Date Taken:04.10.2012
Location:SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, HI, US
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A gym patron follows guidence from her personal trainer
U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Desmond Burgess, an Army Reserve information technology professional assigned to the 200th Military Police Command headquarters, completes a set of push-ups during an Army Physical Fitness Test at Fort Meade, Md., May 14, 2016. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Michel Sauret)
Children's Day was on a Saturday - so we celebrated on a Friday at the Kindergarten with activities and games for parents and their preschoolers. Wheelbarrow races - with actual wheelbarrows! A lot of fun had by all.
Children's Day was on a Saturday - so we celebrated on a Friday at the Kindergarten with activities and games for parents and their preschoolers. Wheelbarrow races - with actual wheelbarrows! A lot of fun had by all.
ORLANDO, Fla. – The 143d Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Best Warrior Competition began in earnest today as 12 Soldiers from the 143d ESC and the 321st Military Intelligence Battalion demonstrated their physical power and mental might to complete a gauntlet of Soldier skills.
Dawn had yet to illuminate the lakes and trees blanketing Camp Blanding, Fla., when the Soldiers endured an Physical Fitness Test directed by Army Reserve drill sergeants from A Company, 2nd Battalion, 485th Infantry Regiment (Initial Entry Training) out of Jacksonville, Fla. After completing pushups, sit-ups and a two-mile run, the competitors had less than hour to eat, clean, change uniforms, don rucksacks and step into a van bound for Camp Blanding’s live fire ranges.
The 143d ESC cadre and A-2/485 drill sergeants managed the ranges that tested the each competitor’s competency with the M4 Carbine, M9 Pistol and M203 Grenade Launcher—all while wearing a gas mask. The Soldiers were then ferried deep into Camp Blanding’s dense forest. The troops applied their land navigation skills to physically locate three distant points on a map using only a compass and protractor.
As the hot, dry day relinquished control to a cold, moonless night, the competitors returned to the field with weapons in hands and night vision goggles over their eyes. Muzzle flashes pierced the darkness as the competitors attempted to eliminate their artificially illuminated targets.
The exhausted yet enthusiastic dozen returned then to their barracks to clean weapons, write an essay and prepare for another grueling day that begins with a 10-mile road march.
Photos by Sgt. John L. Carkeet IV, 143d ESC, and Spc. Aaron Barnes, 321st MI BN
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Ultimate Body Boot camp has partnered with Boot Camp with a Purpose to help raise $1 Million for charities across the country. Ultimate Body Boot Camp, LLC is a results based fitness company that takes the workout outdoors. They are the home to our Scottsdale, AZ Boot Camps with a Purpose. This event raised money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. Richelle Medle and her team hosted a boot camp filled with cardio, muscle, building, and strength training!
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Ultimate Body Boot Camp, LLC is a creative and unique fitness program designed to give you maximum results. UBBC combines cardiovascular exercise with resistance training for an entertaining, motivating, group, outdoor workout. Each hour of boot camp is different, so there is never a dull moment. Although it is group training, each individual is challenged and pushed to a higher level of their fitness potential.
About Susan G. Komen:
Susan G. Komen for the Cure® is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists, we’re working together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure® and the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure®, and generous contributions from our partners, sponsors and fellow supporters, we have become the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.
For more information on Boot Camps with a Purpose and how you can host one of your own, please visit: www.bcwap.org
Modeling photography by Ismael Barrera.
Made Digital background. Exploring digital art and enhancement.
Participants in the Maltz Challenge perform the knees to elbows exercise at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., March 15, 2019. The Maltz Challenge is a timed, team competition that consists of a 400-meter run, 50 pull-ups, 100 yard fireman’s carry, 50 dips, 100 push-ups, 50 knees-to-elbows, 100 sit-ups and another 400-meter run. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Austin J. Prisbrey)
Beverly Hills, CA - Lindsay Lohan continues to clean up her act, spending the day working out at a new gym in Beverly Hills. Lindsay even through on a pair of boxing gloves and gave it all shes got to her personal trainer. She unfortunately did not have the same strength when it came time to do some push ups, Lindsay screamed and pushed her way to a total of 2!
GSI Media June 11, 2010
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