Toby Guillette

It’s been a huge week with lots of events, updates and news. Check it out!


A pic from the trail at Lake Hodges in Escondido, CA


My friend, Natalie Spilger, is an amazing athlete and founder of GreenLaces, a non-profit that asks athletes to make promises to the planet and show their commitment by wearing green laces in their sporting shoes. Check out her video:



Last week I fulfilled my promise (#134) and recycled my old running shoes at Road Runner Sports. They use old shoes and turn them into the material used for playground surfaces. Please make your promise to the planet, support GreenLaces and our environment.



On Thursday I was out east in the Lake Morena area for a Performance Bicycles mountain bike photo shoot. I got to model some apparel and a 29er while riding singletrack trails. They shot photos of me and a two other athletes spraying through puddles, bombing around turns and launching off jumps. I hope they send me some proofs to share because the couple shots they showed me came out great.



After the shoot, I stopped by the Alpine Beer Company and picked up a growler of their Duet IPA -- a tasty reward for a “challenging” afternoon of getting paid to play ;)



Then I headed straight to the Triathlon Club of San Diego (TCSD) monthly meeting where Bob Babbitt from Competitor Radio interviewed the defending Ironman Champion, Craig Alexander, and runner up, Chris Lieto. I met up with Trevor and the rest of the SkinFit team during the interview. I’m stoked to be a part of the SkinFit SoCal racing team this season and also excited they are a new TCSD sponsor.



On Saturday morning, I marked the beautiful Sun Strides Foundation Lake Hodges 5K course and then raced.





I was able to cruise in at 18:24 (5:57 pace), good for 8th place overall and 1st in my age group! 



After a much needed nap, I had a fun Skype call with my nieces, who are getting noticeably bigger. Then I headed over to the Endurance Sports Awards (ESAs) with a great group from the Active Network.

The ESAs are one of my favorite industry events and this year was no exception. I was like a kid in a candy store, rubbing shoulders with the top endurance athletes all night. My favorite parts are the athlete highlight videos they show before the athletes go on stage to accept their award. So inspirational!



I woke up on Sunday and went out to ride my mountain bike at Mission Trails and preview the Xterra Mission Gorge 15K course I was supposed to race this Sunday with Brandon, Beth, Tawnee and Tatiana. The trails were really torn up from the recent rains and with rain in the forecast for this weekend, they postponed the event. Oh and carrying my bike up the “steps” on South Fortuna was a blast….



On Monday, the online community that I manage on Active.com was successfully clustered. This means that instead of our data living on one server, we now spread the load between three servers. As a result, we are benefitting from increased speed and stability for our site. It’s something we’ve been working towards for a while now, and I’m stoked our team got a win.

The Monday and Wednesday ActiveX workouts were great. I also hit the climbing gym on Tuesday and Rehab United for a functional agility workout on Thursday. Check out our workouts on the ActiveX Facebook fan page.

I got a call from my brother who said he got the “go-ahead” from his better half to enter the NYC Marathon lottery, so I entered too. It would be really cool to do another race with my bro. It was this time last year we both ran the Sedona Marathon.

And it was this time two years ago that I got hit by a car while riding my bike home from the office. The damage I took to my shoulder prevented me from racing triathlon in 2009 and made my season running specific. After hours of painful rehabilitation I can confidently say I’m back to 100% strength and mobility, and have made the decision not to press charges. A huge weight has been lifted from my mind.

Another huge stress reliever this week was finding a new place to move into at the end of the month. I originally wanted to live along the coast in Del Mar, but my climbing buddy has a place available in his house in Mira Mesa. The house is great and it will be make for a smooth transition. I’m excited to living right next to Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve and to have the option to commute via mountain bike or trail running to my office!

So this weekend I start packing and getting organized for the move. Have a great weekend! ~T