2009 Eighth Annual Forks of Cheat Forest Triathlon

Selfishly, needing a motivator for exercise in summer several years ago, I decided to host a triathlon in our neighborhood. At the time, it was, "raise up the flag, and see if anybody salutes!". Well, some athletic neighbors joined in. The next year, some students joined in. This year, some faculty joined in. I added 'teams' this year to encourage participation. It worked!

Now, it's no longer a selfish thing I do (although, it still serves the function); it's something I look forward to doing as a way of contributing to our community's emphasis on healthy living in harmony with the environment. Hey, that's a pretty good slogan...hmmm. Maybe I'll bring it up at our neighborhood visioning meeting next week.

This year's event was greeted by a cool morning (low 60's) and cloudy skies. It was chilly before and after the event, but the weather was perfect for swimming, running, and biking. I had probably prepared for this triathlon less than any in recent years. I had done some running, but virtually no biking (and no bike tuneup) and only one swim. I was surprised that the swim went as well as it did; I managed to do the crawl all the way across, which is a sign that I'm not in too bad shape. During the run I felt a bit sluggish...never did put on my earphones in the interest of time, but I might have run faster with the inspiration of Porcupine Tree. On the bike ride, I don't think I was quite as fast as last year, but I didn't feel too bad. Until, Dick and Jane Lambie came flying by me on a steep uphill with their tandem bike. Impressive.

My only personal achievement I guess was coming in 2 minutes ahead of Lynne Ryan, a bona fide triathlete, who has participated in 7 events this summer and won a number of them in her age class. She was fast! But I was slower than last year by a bit. I need to work on my transition both coming out of the water and getting on the bike - they were painfully slow this year.

Special thanks to Charlie Kramer for driving bikes over to the dam in his truck and to Caitlin McGraw for managing the swim portion, as well as timing the whole event. You guys were indispenable!

Now, my motivator for staying in shape will be....SKI SEASON!!!!

Brothers and Sisters - Sept. 6 and 7

On our traditional trip to the U. S. Open over Labor Day this weekend. Ann, Kate and I drove up in the new Prius (averaging 53 and 55 mpg on the 2 complete tanks of gas! woohoo!). Trev took the bus up from DC for $19. Ian and Ming are still honeymooning somewhere in the world, if they haven't been eaten by a hippo.

I'll make this a short entry so I can get back to work. The weather was gorgeous this weekend - not too hot, though the sec. 127 seats Ann acquired for us were facing the sun and we sweltered a bit anyway. I guess I'm in charge of seat selection next yr. Trevor's unbelievable seats on Labor Day were great fun - staring right at the server from courtside. At that angle and distance you REALLY get a feel for the speed and power of the pros.

Two fun matches were watching one set of the Bryan brothers playing doubles and later, the Williams' sisters playing doubles in the evening. Both won their matches. Both looked like they were having a lot of fun out there. Here are a couple of pictures from those matches that captured nice moments I thought.

ADDENDUM: THE WILLIAMS SISTERS PHOTO HAS BEEN REMOVED. I CANNOT ABIDE HAVING SERENA WILLIAMS' IMAGE ON THIS BLOG. SHE IS A BLIGHT ON THE SPORT, AN EMBARRASSMENT TO VENUS, AND SHOULD BE BANNED FOR LIFE. SHE ALSO NEEDS SERIOUS PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING.

Aug. 21 etc. - mopping up

A few last thoughts on the Australia portion of this trip.

1. If you go to Australia, you must go for more than 4 days; OK I was there for 8 days, but half of that was conference. Nevertheless, even with only four days to explore and educate myself about Australia, it was worth it, despite the 35 hr trip back, one leg of which I was seated next to a crazy person (no, not Sara). Try going for at least a month. Maybe 2 if you want to check out Tasmania and New Zealand!

2. I always tell people "You must go to Alaska sometime in your lifetime". Well, I might have to add another A list destination to that with an "...and Australia" on that. It's a super-cool country. I'd recommend reading Bill Bryson's "In a sunburned country" before you go - it's spot on in its descriptions, and hilarious to boot.

The pictures above show another Wendy recommendation: going down to the wharf district for sunset-watching and a drink by the piers. She implied we would see something special. Little did we know it would be a ca. 10 foot fish eating scraps under our noses by the shore. It was 'George the Grouper'. Now, Australians call them Gropers...I think on purpose. I told one of our reef guides the next day that that name might have other connotations in North America and he just smiled. Anyway, both George and the sunset were amazing, and all the tourists seemed quite happy despite the outrageous price of the wine.

Aug. 21 - Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary

Saltwater crocodile - this thing could eat you, easily...

Sara enjoyed the feeling of this wallabee's paw on her paw

Sara got a kick out of feeding the kangaroo too...well, fortunately she did not get a real kick out of it.

Jim feeds a 'roo'

A nail tail kangaroo

This was the only black stork that had ever nested in captivity!

These ducks just looked happy

I thought these lorikeets were gorgeous

Lorikeet

OK, the chronology is reversed here. Sorry. But when I downloaded these pics, I thought I'd like to share a few. We stayed in a 2 BR apartment in Port Douglas (apartment renting is de rigueur here in Oz) called 'By the Sea' apartments with some new owners who are really trying hard to do a nice job. The head greeter/owner was Wendy, and she made one after another excellent recommendation for our stay in Port Douglas. So, if you're ever going to Port Douglas, I highly recommend By the Sea apartments - 50 yds from a 4 mile beach and a short stroll from the main drag of Macrossan St. where all the restaurant/shop/galleries action is. In other words, perfect location for your stay in Port Douglas. You might even wake up to a kookaburra singing outside, as I did one morning. But I digress.

Wendy's first recommendation when we arrived on Friday was that we zip on down to the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary. Now that sounded like a bunch of caged animals in a zoo to me, but it was a bit better than that, and it provided an opportunity to get a closeup look at some Australia birds and marsupials and reptiles. So here are a few pictures of what we saw there - and despite my reservations about zoos generally, I would have to recommend a stop at this place as a good starting point for learning about Australian zoology.