2006? Ummmm.

I love the week after Christmas for the absolute glut of “year in review” articles and shows. My favorite so far is ESPN.com’s Page 2 tribute to all of the stupid sports stories of the year, including two sidebars: “The Year in Tyson” and “The Year in Canseco.” Funny. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hruby/061226&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

2006…Let’s see…what happened in 2006? Not much, really. Errrrr. Oh, except one or two MASSIVE changes. Ugh. Yours truly focused on running training, did some sailing, rode a bike, swam some laps…I avoided major surgery, major illness, major tragedy. In all, not bad. As the year winds down, I’m largely better off than I was at the end of 2005.

Of course, 2006 also sucked. Most of you know why. 2007 HAS to be better, right? Right!?!?

Here, in no particular order, are some of the carefully selected highlights of 2006. Stay tuned for the lowlights in the coming days.

• The Seattle Half Marathon. My longest race to date, and one I wasn’t particularly in shape for. Cold, rainy, miserable, but still faster than my target.
• The San Juan Islands. Aside from one really horrific (and rather important) weekend at Rosario on Orcas Island, the San Juan cruising with the kids was unbelievable. Warm, windy, and uncrowded. Turns out that high gas prices can keep a lot of would-be anchorage assholes home.
• The A3. Seriously, this car kicks ass. There isn’t anything I don’t like about it.
• San Diego.
• Vancouver.
• James Blunt’s “Back to Bedlam” and the Everett concert from the subsequent tour. Dude has talent. And? He can write.
• John Mayer’s “Continuum”. Sure it’s an uneven album, but really? I’ve worn the thing out.
• Fall Series Racing. The “Lion” finished second in class after a series of high wind races. Love high wind on the Lion. With the blade flying we kick ass. Even for a bunch of incompetent fools.
• Cap’n Ron’s “accidental” registration for the 2007 Vancouver Marathon. He swears he meant to sign up for the half. Right…
• Talladega Nights. “Dear sweet infant baby Jesus…”
• The 305.
• The Castle.
• The Fuji.
• Philadelphia. Not the city so much as the trip. Thanks RPD and Al B.
• Joshua Tree. Once you get past the ground fall, the broken foot, the airline disasters, the sketchy climbing, and the loopy pain killer and beer fog I was in, it was a great trip to the desert. Time to go back!
• There are more. Scan the archives of the old blog here to see some of them…