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This time I won’t write a brief recap of the year, however, during the last couple of days I’ve been reflecting on the bunch of things that happened.

Just like every other year, 2011 was packed with a lot of good things: travel, races, mountains, family, new and old friends, work, concerts, training… the list could be long. But it also had some very rough moments: losses, angst, illness, depression…

All of this forced me to practice and try to learn a lot of things, among others: detachment, meditation, tolerance, compassion, forgiveness, humility. This definitely wasn’t planned but the way some events happened didn’t left room for standing still, actions had to be taken.

There’s still plenty to work on for the next year and onwards, but some of the resolutions I’ve made include: put less or none expectations on people, let go of people who I no longer feel identified with, make peace with different pending subjects, reconnect with my inner self, worry less and enjoy more…

It wouldn’t be fair to say that this year was bad because, in fact, it wasn’t. It was just really tough, in every possible way, good and bad. I’m grateful with it because it left me with a lot of things to work on and improve, but also because it’s gone now. I’m pretty sure this was just the beginning of a better and much saner way of life.

2012, bring it on!

Many years ago, the course for the Skymarathon Iztaccíhuatl followed the normal mountaineering route up to the summit of the mountain. That lasted for only a year or two, because the logistics of having some sort of checkpoint at 5,230 meters were too difficult, but also due to many safety reasons for the amount of runners participating.

For this year, I decided to run the original skymarathon course (alone, while the rest of my folks raced the shorter/safer/easier course), honoring my mountaineering skills and finally reaching Iztaccíhuatl’s summit for the unique time in the year (at any of the multiple times I went there for training/climbing along the year, the weather was always crap).

I logged a time of 3:53:17, for the first 13.5 km and 1,627 meters of climb from Paso de Cortés to the summit. When subtracting the 1:07:33 that I made from Paso de Cortés to La Joya, it would make 2:45:44, a new PR from La Joya to the summit via a non-technical route (which I’m pretty sure I can break down a little more…). In total, I finished the whole 27 km roundtrip from Paso de Cortés to the summit and back in 6:21:09, feeling great and chatting with lots of friends along the way.

For sure it was a great way to round up a fantastic year of running and racing. I’m already looking forward to a couple of big projects for 2012, including getting back into regular climbing

The rest of the photos are here or in the slideshow below:

Yeah, what a better way for closing up a stacked year of concerts than attending a gig by the great and brutal Cannibal Corpse?

This was at a festival dubbed The Night Of The Living Dead, and there were 2 other bands (who really sucked ass by-the-way, excuse my French…): The Black Dahlia Murder and Suicide Silence. Honestly, I don’t know why a legendary death metal band such as Cannibal Corpse would line up with those other 2 emo-kiddie acts, but that was an awful combination for all the old farts (like us) attending the gig…

Anyhow, while those bands did their thing, we simply stayed away, drinking beers and having fun of all the skinny kids “moshing” at the front of the stage. Then, when the time came up, we simply jumped into the front rows and beat them up while headbanging at the fat and growling tunes of George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher & company. A tight but full-of-energy setlist, which left no room for taking a single breath. Pure brutality… \m/

Octavio and I attended another great concert last night. This time it was the turn for Dream Theater, who are already veterans at Mexican stages. The opening act was done by Andy McKee, a fingerstyle guitarist that I haven’t heard before but who immediately caught me with his playing. It’s always amazing to see the countless things a good musician is able to do on such a simple instrument as a classical guitar…

Then came the turn for the now legendary Dream Theater, who executed to perfection every single note in their setlist. For me, the highlight was their performance of The Ytse Jam, probably the song that I like the most from them since it was one of the very first technical tunes I learned to play in the electric guitar and because it’s purely instrumental. It was the first time for me to attend one of their gigs (I actually don’t like their vocal style, just their music), and I was very satisfied with the show.

Had a super fun Sunday running from the town of San Rafael up to Chalchoapan hut in Iztaccíhuatl, at the race now dubbed Izta 4000 (formerly El Doblete). It was my first race after a couple of months of recovery and all I can say is that I really felt good.

A was a little slow at the start due to the usual “runner jam” at the almost vertical pipe section at the very beginning of the course, but after that I passed people at a steady pace. I covered the almost 2000 meters of vertical ascent (in 12 km) in about 3 hours 15 minutes, then did my best to not completely burn my quads on the fast descent.

In total, I bested my time from the previous year by 1 hour and 21 minutes, logging a total of 5:17:26 for the roundtrip. Yeah, I’m back in the game

Rest of the photos are here or in the slideshow below: