Grant McKenzie

About a month ago I signed up with a few coworkers from CH2M Hill for the LiveStrong Foundation’s LiveStrong Challenge (to raise awareness/funds for the fight against Cancer). One of the 4 events is a 70 mile bicycle ride in Portland, OR. Actually it starts from the Nike World Headquarters based in Beaverton, OR… beautiful company campus! Anyways, the ride was today!

To rewind a bit, Roger and I drove down to Beaverton on Saturday afternoon and arrived in time to pick up our registration packages. Having some time to kill, we decided to drive the route by car to measure level of effort, hills etc. From there we hit up dinner and crashed at the Comfort Inn. Sunday morning, we were up at 5 am and met with a few other CH2M Hill employees at the Starbucks just down the street from Nike. It was great to meet everyone, as most of the CH participants were from the Portland office.

Around 7:15am we corralled ourselves into the starting chute, and around 8am we took to the street. At 2pm, 6 hours later, we crossed the finish line, tired - but alive, back at the Nike Headquarters. Of those 6 hours, we calculated that approximately 4.5 hours were spent riding… the remainder taken up by Water/Powerbar stops, fixing flats and photo ops. According to the GPS, it worked out to an average riding speed of 15.3 miles/hour… all in all, I was pretty impressed with our pace.

It was a gorgeous day for a ride and the weather really held out for us. The event was superbly organized and the volunteers were exceptional. Thanks to everyone that made this day what it was and I really look forwarda to riding the event next year.

After a few hectic weeks of travel (Minneapolis, Montreal, Calgary & Denver), it was a nice change to spend some time back in Seattle. On Saturday I joined the Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club on Alki beach for the Annual Seattle Grind, a 9 mile OC6 Outrigger race. While the men’s team didn’t do as well as we had hoped, I had a great time and look forward to future regattas.

Sunday, a few of us tackled Mount Si. I had heard it was a right-of-passage for any Washington hiker and it did prove to be pretty enjoyable. 8 mile hike round-trip, not overly difficult, but enough to get the blood pumping. I am excited to see what other hiking opportunities Washington state has to offer.

This weekend brings with it my 10 year high school reunion (feeling old) followed by a flight to Rome (OSGeo Hacking Event) on Sunday. I’ll try and keep this blog updated with my travels.

We have had incredible weather the last two days (Friday & Saturday) here in Seattle. I woke up this morning around 10 am, saw the temperature in the mid 70s and decided to go for a ride (cycle). I couldn’t have asked for a better cycling day. I ended up climbing over the top of Capitol Hill, through Fremont and Ballard, over the Locks, through Discovery Park, down through Elliott Bay Park, downtown and back up to Capitol Hill. In all, just over 30km. I’ve attached my route and some photos.


Gas Works Park

Gas Works Park

The Ballard Locks

The Ballard Locks

The City & Mt Rainier from Elliott Bay Park
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In other news, Margaret, Sparky & I drove down to Salem Oregon to catch the Jimmy Eat World & Paramore show at the Salem Armory. Incredible Show. Great company. In all, a great time!

I successfully completed my third bicycle commute from Seattle/Capitol Hill (Home) to Bellevue (Work) and back today. While it was incredibly tiring, this third ride was significantly easier than the first. I brought along my GPS to check the distance. Round trip that works out to 32 km. I’ve started off slow, commuting once a week, but look forward to bumping it up to twice a week starting next Tuesday.

Some stats

Duration: 01:04:48.45
Distance: 18.00 km
Speed avg: 16.7 km/h
Speed max: 41.1 km/h
Pace avg: 3:36 min/km
Pace max: 1:27 min/km

Just a quick list of concerts I hope to attend in the coming months… Always interested in company if any of these tickle your fancy.

March 21 - Houston Calls @ El Corazon
March 28 - Saves the Day, Armor for Sleep, Set your Goals & Metro Station @ Neumos
March 31 - The Starting Line @ El Corazon
April 10 - Jimmy Eat World & Paramore @ The Armory in Salem OR
May 5 - Dream Theater in Seattle
May 6 - Dream Theater in Vancouver
May 8 - Kate Nash in Vancouver
May 9 - Kate Nash in Seattle
May 21 - City & Colour @ The Orpheum
May 24-26 - Sasquatch Festival @ The Gorge (George)
May 29 - Killswitch Engage @ The Croation Cultural Center
July 25-27 - Pemberton Music Festival in Pemberton

I caught the Matthew Good solo acoustic show a couple of nights ago here in Seattle. He played a small show at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard. Really good to see him play live again. It brought up so many memories of watching him play when I was a kid. I figured I started listen to him about 10 years ago (just before Underdogs). He has changed a lot and I can’t say I’m a huge fan of his new material… but would swear his voice has gotten better with age. He seems a lot more depressed though… and that concerns me a little. Continues to be someone I look up to in the industry.

If you are like me and have a difficult time sorting through the political BS in an attempt to align yourself with a US presidential candidate, check out this site:

Select a Candidate 2008

Does a decent (I said decent, not fantastic) job of laying out the key political issues and deciding whom you are most aligned… through a 14 question survey. A good starting point for researching.