http://keturah.morejohn.com/ favorite photos and other stuff...! en Copyright 2008 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:24:47 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss if you're looking for my blog archives, look at the menu on the left. no entries are being currently posted. thanks for visiting! http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/09/an_interim_in_blog_entries.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/09/an_interim_in_blog_entries.html Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:24:47 -0800 The ascent 8:33 AM • to Rodeo Valley Aid Station (1st aid station) in the early morning fog! •on SCA Trail - awesome trail- along a foggy, windy ridge! bye, Pa! We went through Tennessee Valley, Muir Beach and Pantoll Aid Stations before hitting Bolinas... an indescribably tough 6.5 miles from Pantoll to Bolinas, and another 6.5 back... just 15 left after Pantoll, I kept thinking. 2:21 PM Bolinas Aid Station • farthest point out • mile 28.8 • feeling dead tired but still ready to get back on the trail! Wrapping ice in my bandana - thankful for any ice they would spare us- since they had almost nothing left. Heading out into the heat! Bye again to Pa. Didn't expect to see him again and again like a course photographer following us along the first couple miles back along Bolinas! the orange tint shows exactly how we felt in running in the heat of the day we're tired, don't we look like it? a lot more hills to go... and Scott ahead of us has at this point about 70 miles to go (doing the 100). look closely a long ways until... (22 hilly, long miles more until...) the finish! patiently waiting... can't thank you enough! all praise be to God - He really sustained us and filled us with joy! ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/07/10_days_to_go_headlands_hundre.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/07/10_days_to_go_headlands_hundre.html running Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:21:41 -0800 ESL! here are some websites I recommend: English Pronunciation: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Pronunciation/ http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/english.htm http://www.accentmaster.com/articles/Tips.htm American English Slang and Pronunciation: http://fonetiks.org/ http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8995/relaxed.html http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/phono.html Word Lists: http://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/wordlists.html For Children or Adults- Help with English: http://www.foniks.org/index.html http://www.starfall.com/ Conversation Practice: http://iteslj.org/questions/ Listening Practice & Self-Check: http://assoc.pagespro-orange.fr/une.education.pour.demain/rodsex/hotel3/01.htm http://www.cityu.edu.hk/elc/quiz/rcli.htm http://ressources-cla.univ-fcomte.fr/english/sites/dictations.htm International Phonetic Alphabet: http://www.orbilat.com/General_References/Phonetics/International_Phonetic_Alphabet.html http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/english.htm http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/vowels/contents.html ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/07/excellent_esl_websites.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/07/excellent_esl_websites.html friends Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:00:29 -0800 the plungers ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/06/the_plunge.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/06/the_plunge.html Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:33:58 -0800 ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/06/goodbye_international_friends.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/06/goodbye_international_friends.html friends grace alive! Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:59:22 -0800 a la misma vez ... momentos tristes y felices ... ¡No podían parar de abrazarme ni querían dejarme salir! ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/06/ciao_estudiantes_mios.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/06/ciao_estudiantes_mios.html Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:48:53 -0800 ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/05/world_cup_1.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/05/world_cup_1.html Thu, 22 May 2008 19:44:42 -0800 global grace friends set out from Davis for a dayhike in the Marin Headlands just North of the San Francisco Bay. We started our hike at Rodeo Beach and went up to the ridge right after the first intersection with the Coastal Trail. After having lunch, some of us decided to explore the other side of the beach as well. Here are some photos that mark our adventures: ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/05/a_hike_in_the_marin_headlands.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/05/a_hike_in_the_marin_headlands.html grace alive! nature running Tue, 13 May 2008 20:59:22 -0800 Lagoon Valley Park, Vacaville, California date: Friday, May 9 I sunk in the mud! We met an excellent trailrunner and ran a whole bunch of awesome singletrack trails we'd never been on!!! No more fireroad loops for a long time... we would have never discovered these singletracks on our own ... thanks, David! :) It was a blast! Dave's message to other marathoners/ultrarunners - a nice comment on our run, I thought! Hey fellow stampede, runners, Last friday I was out for a run at the lagoon and met two Fantastic runners from Davis out splashing in the mud on our trails. Kate and Keturah Morejohn are from Davis and were visiting our trails with their Camera in hand. We had a great time and I was in my glory showing off our training areas to some new friends. I have shared some other trail runs with Kate in the past but never got to meet her and her daughter. When I came across the two of them Keturah was standing in about 12 inches of mud. Laughing there heads off I knew from the first moment I met them that they were my kind of runners. Lovers of the trail and nature. We continued up to the far tower and explored most of the trails in the park. Great fun. I have attached a link to Keturah's blog so that you can view pictures of our great trails. Dave ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/05/vacaville_adventures.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/05/vacaville_adventures.html running Tue, 13 May 2008 16:50:40 -0800 Certainly life is not made of roses and chocolate, especially for those who choose to run endurance trail runs and ultras, but somehow, life seems more precious and sweet to those who can appreciate it by the pain we choose to endure for some awesome and very-rewarding trail runs. This was the first race when I realized to a fuller degree that it's not about GETTING to the next aid station, although that was on my mind for most of the run. Really what makes a trail run is so much more than that - it's an experience that's impossible to adequately describe to someone who hasn't experienced it. Isn't this gorgeous? MOUNT DIABLO MARATHON - 7,950 feet elevation gain- this trail took us to Eagle Peak, the Summit, Rock City and beyond, BACK to the Summit, UP UP UP to North Peak and up the technical slope to Mount Olympia, and down. Still, that doesn't describe it adequately... what can I say... it was 8 hours 53 minutes of running that were absolutely indescribable. Rolling green hills seen far below us, wildflowers and California poppies all around us, huge peaks and immense boulders, and technical slopes that were either too gravely or too steep to run down at any good pace. The course consisted in lots of uphill, as we expected, and possibly the hardest part was not the climbing but the heat. The steepness of the course and the mileage of extremely technical trail that was hard to maneuver without skidding down uncontrollably also contributed to the difficulty in the last segment of the course. It was steep enought to get me to use both hands and feet and sit all the way down just to get down portions of the trail! Here's a picture from last year at the 25k Diablo Race in June 2007. April 12, 2008 PHOTOS: The start/finish aid station at 6:30 am: Jasper Halekas & Scott Dunlap in a serious pre-race conversation :) Counting down to the start. Some cheery faces. Apparently not too worried about all those thousands of feet we're about to climb! As I was pulling out the iphone and taking a quick snapshot back at the runners who stayed in line on the singletrack, someone shouted in a joking manner, "Hey, get out of the way, I'm trying to break my PR!" putting some smiles on the faces of those who understood how that wasn't too easy to do in the crowded first mile or so of the race climbing the first hill: see the switchback above: Having past Eagle Peak, Juniper Campground and the Summit, we headed for Rock City, which was more beautiful than I imagined! And farther, too! I asked at the summit if it was a mile and a half from there and they said it was (I had mistakenly thought the summit was mile 9.5 instead of 7.5), but it turned out to be 4.2 miles away... though disappointed about the distance, it ended up being a very rewarding experience seeing the other side of the mountain, so different than the side I'd seen before! This side was greener and the trails were different. At one point there were very few trees, and just open grasslands and wide reddish firetrails. From there the trail turned to a sandy yellow color, and lead into a foresty region like this: Haven mistakenly thought Rock City was named for some gravelly rocks we encountered on the trails a few miles before we arrived there, I soon found out the real source of its name! look at this rock! I really meant to take pictures at Rock City aid station and other aid stations, but my mind was preoccupied with changing socks and drinking some cold chocolate milk from our dropbag, mmm! Having reached Rock City, we were told to continue for 3/4 of a mile and turn around to come back. How smart it would have been to give myself a rest and take my Gregory Pack off! But good training to keep it on, I kept telling myself, once I had realized I should have taken it off. From there we returned to the Summit along the Lower Juniper Trail to Juniper Campground, grabbed some food and got some precious ice in our bottles (thanks to the aid station crew!) and then the Upper Juniper Trail to the Summit. From Mt. Diablo Summit we could look across to where we were heading - North Peak & Mount Olympia. A not-so-hot snapshot at the summit. Not too happy to be there again! As if we hadn't climbed enough :) we had to climb the stairs up the observation deck, squeezing around tourists and getting a glimpse of the next peak we were heading to! Down the Observation Deck stairs. Here we lost some time due to confusion about the trail markings. The Summit marked mile 18 and as we headed to the next peak, all that was on my mind was getting past mile 21, since from there I knew it would be all downhill. Little did I know how technical and steep the downhill trail would be. At mile 20, heading up the steepest one-mile fireroad I've ever climbed, called North Peak Road. Not looking too hot, but wanted a picture taken anyways. A memorable moment... I guess... A view from North Peak of Mount Olympia. I think I took this picture with the intention of showing how VERY technical the trail was! The Zippe Trail certainly did NOT live up to its name. Although it wasn't a good downhill trail for speed, the technical challenge was a lot of fun. Some rockslides and fallen trees nearly kept us from continuing forward... it was the wilderness like I've never been in before... you could stop moving for one second, all would be quiet, and you could feel totally isolated and lost... Trying to capture how hard this trail was! Thankful I wasn't a 50-miler taking it down in the dark! Finally! Having traversed the last four miles of trail that was too steep or too gravelly to run on (for all but the top runners!), the last mile and a half was a pleasant singletrack downhill through Oak forests. Right after. Time was 8:53. AND NOW ANNOUNCING: Eric Skaden& Graham Cooper! Tied for 1st place in the 50 mile! Came in JUST after we did having run 50 miles, not 26! resting in the grass before driving home and taking pictures since I couldn't sleep... Three Saturdays previous was the Pirate's Cove 8k, 20k, 30k and 50k with Pacific Coast Trail Runs in the Marin Headlands just this side of San Francisco. The 30k course, though gorgeous, is somehow super tough for me, maybe because I just don't know it well enough. That whole race I didn't have a single mental high moment - it was all down, down, down for me- but, don't get me wrong, lots of uphills! I've never had a race like that before... maybe it helps to have a mental outline of each portion of the race, which I didn't have here. Breaking past the misery of a two-mile stretch uphill and an empty Camelbak, I noticed wildflowers blooming on every side, and awesome views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco skyline all around (this was on Conzelman Trail). The runners were friendly - there we met Annie & Mike - who also participated with us in the Mount Diablo Marathon this past Saturday, April 12. going up from pirate's cove sooyeon and I had some fun on the beach afterwards... ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/04/spring_trails_and_tired_feet.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2008/04/spring_trails_and_tired_feet.html running Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:39:09 -0800 happy Christmas & new year! here are some thoughts... from a hymn: my times are in Thy hand, my God, I wish them there, my life, my friends, my all I leave entirely to Thy care. and nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to Thee, e'en tho' it be a cross that raiseth me. still all my song shall be, nearer my God to Thee, nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee... though like a wanderer, the sun gone down, darkness be over me, my rest a stone, yet in my dreams I'd be, nearer my God to Thee... so let the way appear, steps unto heaven, all that Thou sendest me, in mercy given, angels to beckon me, nearer my God to Thee... and lead kindly Light, amid th'encircling gloom lead Thou me on! the night is dark, and I am far from home, lead Thou me on! keep Thou my feet, I do not ask to see the distant scene, one step enough for me. I was not ever thus nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on. I loved to choose and see my path but now lead Thou me on! I loved the garish day, and spite of fears, pride ruled my will, remember not past years. so long Thy power hath blessed me sure it still will lead me on, o'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent till the night is gone. and with the morn, those angel faces smile, which I have loved long since and lost awhile. Phil. 3:13-14 "... one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining on toward what is ahead, I press on to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." SOME FACTS ABOUT OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874-1917) taken from Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God by David McCasland. -his parents were saved by hearing Charles Haddon Spurgeon speak. -speaking of Oswald Chambers, someone said, "He was full of the Holy Ghost and that was the secret of his happy service. He was absolutely free from worry, living what he liked to call 'a restlessly restful life.'" -had a "childlike confidence in God" -one of his early prayers: "O Lord, drench us with humility" -Oswald wanted to know of the Holy Ghost and his power, but knew little of it. Was he holding something back from God? He wrote to Chrissie saying he felt compelled by God to go solitary, for the time being, and shut himself up alone to God and his studies. 'I hear the imperative command of my own inner soul', he told her, 'cut every tie and wait.' Shall I obey or disobey? ... it was what he sensed as a definite call of God. That gave them courage, but didn't lessen the pain for either of them. Oswald had renounced his ambitions in art and had now cut the cords of his relationship with Chrissie. If there was anything else he loved ahead of God, he was ready to place it on the altar as well. But the power and presence of God did not come after his renouncements. He became more aware of his own sinfulness than before... Oswald continued his cheerful outward appearance while one by one his hopes and dreams were being put to death. Some he laid willingly on the altar while others seemed to be snatched from him by the hand of God. In either case, the pain of heartbreak and loss felt the same. The most severe was the end of his long relationship with Chrissie.... The decision came from Oswald as a cross-bearing sacrifice he felt compelled to make in order to follow Christ completely. -one of his favorite songs was O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go. an excerpt from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest that I read this morning: YESTERDAY DEC. 31 in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers Isaiah 52:12 "The God of Israel will be your rereward." (in NIV the whole verse says, "But you will not leave in hast or go in flight, for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard") Security from Yesterday. "God requireth that which is past." At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present. Security for Tomorrow. "For the LORD will go before you." This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our rereward (rear guard). God's hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for the conscience. Security for Today. "For ye shall not go out with haste." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ. Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him. Marks of Welsh Revival: (from welshrevival.com) 1- confession of all known sin 2- deal with & get rid of anything "doubtful" in your life 3- be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly 4- confess Christ publicly These seem to be healthy marks of a Christian who is heeding God's call, whether in the midst of a revival or not.]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/12/thoughts_for_the_new_year.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/12/thoughts_for_the_new_year.html books Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:32:39 -0800 QUAD DIPSEA 2007 4 x 671 stairs (plus tons of stairs no one said anything about at the other end of the course!) climb: 9,276' descent: 9,276' Mill Valley to Stinson Beach and back x2 Unlike some of the runners who planned to run the Quad Dispea last Saturday, I had no trouble at all finding motivation to run this race, probably because I hadn't experienced it yet. BUT I hadn't registered. I had decided to run it just a day or two after the date that registration closed. So .... I waited.... at 7:00 am the registration opened at Old Mill Park in Mill Valley, and the kind volunteers agreed to late another "crazy Davis person" in the race. (Last year two other Davis runners asked to sign up race-day morning.) Hardly believing that they told me I'm running the whole 28.4 (not just the 14.2 that I got permission to run unofficially if I wasn't allowed to register), I shivered and kept off my feet, munching down a not-so-tasty Butterfinger (an extra large Butterfinger is not so easy to eat after eating a triple breakfast that morning to carbo-load just in case), before shedding the layers and lining up for the race. I was surprised at the whistley sound that came from the RD's megaphone that signaled the start of the race- but too bad- no time to think about it! I was shoulder-to-shoulder with top ultrarunners - names that I recognized from Ultrarunning - who patiently scrambled up the first flight of steps in the tightly packed crowd of 247 runners. Later, these runners would say encouraging words and others would inspire me to keep at it as they whizzed by in a flurry in the opposite direction. The race was not nearly as emotional as I thought it would be. The first three flights of stairs were pretty exciting, but after I lost my breath and got some pounding from the paved roads, I wondered if this was really a trailrun after all, and don't want to think about the fact that I'd only gone a mile or two so far. The GHTM had its strong ups and downs, but this did not. Even at the halfway point, I couldn't get myself to be very excited ... maybe because I didn't exactly feel like running all the way BACK to Stinson Beach! And around mile 26, we said, "Well, we've about done a marathon", but by that point I was thinking, "So what! I just want to be done!" It was great to see my brother cheering us on at 1.5 miles from the finish ... and I wondered how his legs could move so fast, like they usually do, when mine felt like lead. And it was great to hear my sister-in-law cheering us on- but I couldn't look up till I got past all those steps!- thank you :) An experienced QD runner stated on his blog that the first leg is easy, the second is pretty easy, the third is HARD and the fourth is the HARDEST. I believe it now, except I'd contest that the third and fourth legs came pretty close to a tie for being the hardest. I can't adequately describe the beauty and pain of every mile - just look at Krissy's or Steve's blogs for great reports on the race! Thanks, Steve, for making me feel better when you said that you felt the morning after the race the same or worse as you felt after one of your 100-milers. I'm thankful to GOD to have participated in this race ... my first ultra... ... a run that makes me so sore that I wonder why I did it... I felt privileged to run it with so many elite ultrarunners - I won't name them because almost all 247 of the runners fall into this category (minus a few, like me). Something I found out: ultrarunners have some of the BEST things to say when they're really hurting on the trail. On third lap towards Stinson Beach someone said, "We need an elevator right now, huh?" and the runner going up the stairs towards Mill Valley replied "We need a freakin' helicopter!" ... which made everyone around these two runners laugh as they hid the screaming pain in their quads. Thanks to Carl Anderson at Aid Station 3 who so sincerely cared for me, making sure I got enough electrolytes, water and food. Thanks also to the RD, John Medinger, and to all the volunteers who were so awesome and must have really been wanting to run the race with us, but were instead filling our bottles and feeding us with m&m's, bananas, watermelon and other yummy stuff. And thank you, papa, for filling our bottles at mile 14, and to mama, for everything. ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/11/quadriceps_or_quadruple_the_qu.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/11/quadriceps_or_quadruple_the_qu.html nature Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:07:38 -0800 the first flower to grow and bloom that has been planted by my mother!]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/10/late_summer_beauty.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/10/late_summer_beauty.html nature Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:04:08 -0800 more to come...]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/07/pretty_scenes_of_summer.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/07/pretty_scenes_of_summer.html nature Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:27:55 -0800 ]]> http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/07/happy_fourth_of_july_from_bets.html http://keturah.morejohn.com/2007/07/happy_fourth_of_july_from_bets.html Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:26:31 -0800