Lake Hodges Trail Fest 10-24-2015

October 24, 2015

All photos have been posted. Check out our GALLERY to see your awesomeness!

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Diva Dash San Diego 1-21-2012

January 10, 2012

Shez Photography took the photographs for the SHAPE Diva Dash on the morning of Janurary 21, 2012. If you have arrived at this page looking for your photos then you are in the right place. As soon as the photos are posted you will find the link to the gallery here in this post.

(Update 22JAN2012) Thanks to everybody who braved the rain and showed up to race. We have thousands of great shots and will be posting them shortly.

(Update24JAN2012) The majority of the photos have been posted. Check out the GALLERY to see your race photos and keep coming back to see more as we continue to upload.

IVHS Dog Walk 2011

June 2, 2011

A couple of weeks ago Bryan and I, along with our dog Maxx participated in the 10th Annual IVHS Dog Walk. Once again we joined Team Natasha who were the biggest fundraisers of the event. Our team, led by my friend Sarah’s daughter Natasha, has been growing larger every year and this year was no exception. We were lucky to have our friends Chris and Lori, along with their labs Celeste and Angelina, fund raise and walk with us as well as some of their family and friends. We brought Pearl to last year’s walk so we decided to let Maxx join us this time around. He is normally snappy around other dogs but he did fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed himself. He also enjoyed his breakfast sausage and birthday cupcake. Even though our team was bigger than last year the number of people attending the event has grown smaller. This is unfortunate since this is a great cause and a really fun event for dog owners and their families. So next year be sure to check out this awesome dog walk!

Chris with Angelina and Bryan with Maxx

Team Natasha

Lori with Celeste

Mark and Isabella with The Wizard and Aisha

Maxx eating a birthday cupcake

Pasadena Marathon Bike Tour 2011

May 22, 2011

As the first of the three alarms I set for myself the night before started beeping, I immediately knew I was going to need coffee and a lot of it. It was 5AM and I was standing in a dark hotel room trying to force my eyes to open. Why do they have to have these events so early in the morning? As I readied myself by dressing and downing a full cup of coffee, Jamie asked if I was going to wear a jacket. “Probably not” was my reply as I looked out the front door just in case. “Ok, yes” was my new answer as I saw it was softly raining. My hotel room was two and a half blocks from the start but I still needed about 5 minutes between getting my bike out of the car and riding down there. I finally get my biking shoes on and head to the car. I had patched the inner tubes on both tires the day before and when I left the bike the night before, both were holding pressure. Both were flat now though. I quickly put 100 PSI in both and hoped for the best. I clipped in and rode down the slick roads to the road block and proceeded to join the group just as the ride began.

If you have ever been in a bike tour, you will know that these things start more with a whimper then with a roar. In other words, more often then not you end up walking your bike across the start because of the traffic and lack of width at the starting line. This day was no exception and it was fine because by the starting line, my front tire had gone from 100 PSI to 1 PSI. I rode anyways carefully around the first corner and to the first clearing of grass on the side of the road. I then proceeded to change my flat inner tube. This let every last person in the pack pass me while I worked to change the tube as quickly as possible. Fortunately the rear held pressure because I only had one tube.

I know I should carry CO2 but I don’t so I could only put about 40 PSI in the front tire. This I did and then I was off. The course was flat with a few slight inclines and then a pretty quick decline to a narrow right hand more than ninety degree turn. I was actually glad I was still back in the thin crowd at this point of the ride. Some more incline and I took a small break. By this time I had passed some riders on the uphills but I wanted to make sure my body had plenty of fuel so I stopped to eat some Honey Stinger Energy Chews. This was one of the best ideas of my life because this fueled me for a long time.

Next the course headed toward the Rose Bowl where it had a large out and back section. This is also where the half marathon runners would split from the full length course. Now bike riders like to ride on the right side of the road for some reason even if the cones tell them otherwise. This led to some confusion but nothing major. Besides the course confusion, this is also where I happened to be when the skies opened up and a torrent of water fell on top of me and the other riders. It had been raining up to this point already but now it was a downpour and to make matters worse, bikes kick up a lot of spray straight up the riders backside. To make matters even worse, my glasses started fogging.

All of these things happened, but I rode on. At least my inner tubes didn’t give me any more headaches. I was up with the main pack by now and passing a good amount of riders on both the uphills and downhills. The second half of the course had some nice big dips in it but it also has some of the straightest and widest streets. This allowed me to pass a lot of people. Some people I passed multiple times because they started cutting the course. I don’t know why you would do that but that is their choice. I chose to ride the whole length and put up with the torrential downpour. Another thing that happened to me is I had to belch a lot. This brought up the smell of the beer I had consumed the day before from Lucky Baldwins. This is the Pub within walking distance of the hotel we stayed in.

The rain slackened slightly before I finally rolled across the finish. Jamie was there to take my photo and I got my finishers medal. Jamie took a few more shots while I was wet and covered in road grime. I proceeded to head back to my room and take a nice hot shower before driving home. It was a fun ride but next year hopefully it does not rain and my tires stay inflated.

Blackthorn's Dry Apple Cider and Fuller's London Pride

 

Lucky Baldwins assortment of beers

 

Kasteel

 

Even with Live View mode on the waiter couldn't get a good photo

 

Marathon Start

 

Crossing the finish

 

Soaking wet

 

Bike Tour Complete

Cal Poly Pomona Sunday Horse Show

May 4, 2011

I must say that I feel like a bad person. I went to Cal Poly Pomona for nearly three years, my major was Equine Science and I was on the IHSA horse show team for crying out loud.  Despite all that up until this past Sunday I had never seen the horse show that the WK Kellogg Arabian Horse Center puts on the first Sunday of every month from October to May. It’s sad really, even after I left Cal Poly, a few years after Bryan graduated, we continued to live in Pomona so we could have gone anytime. We actually tried once but when we got there the show was canceled due to rain that had fallen days before. So now it’s a lot more inconvenient to make the drive but I finally planned to go. This particular show was the last of the season which won’t start up again until October. Because this is an Arabian horse farm all the horses in the show were Arabians performing various disciplines and wearing various tacks. They had Arabians in native costume, saddle seat, English, hunter, side saddle and Western. Each tack showed the versatility of the Arab breed in some form whether it be as trail horse, a jumper or pleasure horse. One Arabian mare was even taught to do tricks! For the finale of the show they brought out a mare and her foal, a plucky little chestnut colt. The horse center is a breeding farm for Arabians and many babies have been born in the past few months. The show was very entertaining and it was nice to finally see it and also do one of my other favorite things that Cal Poly has to offer; go to the Farm Store!

To see more photos from the horse show check out the GALLERY. You can also click on the images below to see the larger version.

Cars and Coffee Irvine

March 13, 2011

Hello friends and Facebook fans. Jamie and I are finally posting more photo goodness. We purchased another camera which still has not arrived yet and I will be reviewing it once we have it in our hands. We also have events coming in the next month so look for more frequent updates.

Yesterday Jamie and I somehow dragged ourselves out of bed at a much too early hour for a Saturday and went to the weekly Cars and Coffee™ Irvine event. This gathering is a spectacle of car performance and history that anybody who loves cars will enjoy. The best part of this weekly gathering is that it is free to attend (you don’t even pay for parking) and the only thing being sold is coffee.

On any given Saturday, you will find at least five decades of automobile history covered in addition to seeing multiple supercars and at least a few race cars. Yesterday also got a special visit by the new McLaren MP4-12C. When we arrived, there was a crowd around this car and when we left, there was still a crowd around this car. Another car that carries the supercar status is the Saleen S7. Yes, an example of one of these cars was present as well. My favorite car out of those present would have to be the Lotus Evora because it is a Lotus with back seats.

Along with the production supercars and historical automobiles were of course professionally modified cars as well. Hennessey had about four or five vehicles present including a Camaro and a Ford GT.

Jamie took a lot of photos and you can find full resolution versions of all the photos shown here and more at the GALLERY.

Ford GT40

Saleen S7 Twin Turbo

Lotus Evora

Lotus Exige

Chevy Bel Air

Morgan AeroMax

McLaren MP4-12C

Lotus Evora

Ferrari and Nissan GTR

Lamborghini Countach

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