The Great Solar Eclipse of 2017 crossed the continent, from Oregon to South Carolina, and gave millions of people the chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring events in the natural world.

But you had to be within the "path of totality", a narrow band across the earth's surface several thousand miles long but only about 70 miles wide. Outside that band you would only see a partial eclipse, not a total eclipse.

And there is no such thing as a "partial total eclipse", despite the impression blogs and the news media might give. I honestly think that's why so many people misunderstand the utter beauty of the spectacle; they may have seen a partial eclipse in the past that was total somewhere else, and even though they weren't in the path the news kept gushing about it being a total eclipse, so they assume they must have seen a total eclipse and just didn't find it all that impressive.


Posted by Dan 08/29/2017, revised 09/06/2017

I admit I was at first a little apprehensive about an obstacle race. I mean, I guess it always sounded fun in theory, kind of like when the office coworker you hardly know suggests a play date for your dogs.

"Yeah! That sounds fun, we should do that sometime ... " But the truth is, I don't like being constantly interrupted when I run. I get irritated when I have to maneuver around casual walkers monopolizing the whole width of the trail, or slow my pace to duck under a low hanging tree branch.

This one was Brad's idea. Although he doesn't much care for running, he was willing to forgive the Urbanathlon for serving up 11 miles of it, since there would be plenty of obstacles and strength challenges to keep him entertained. I, on the other hand, was less confident about my abilities to navigate through an obstructed race course.

Once upon a playground, I was master of the monkey bars, and a habitual climber of fences and trees (usually in my fanciest dresses, much to my parents' bewilderment).

But those days have long since passed, and I have now developed an irrational fear of heights, or perhaps more specifically, a fear of gravity. My adult attempts at reliving my grade school glory on the jungle gym have been thwarted by a disturbing awareness that I could easily dislocate a shoulder or throw out my back with the most basic of acrobatics.

Most of my training leading up to this event was simply focused on all-around functional strength, and a fairly traditional gym regimen, despite Brad's insistence that I learn to do 30 consecutive pull-ups, so that I could be strong like him.

In the final week before the race, we devised a practice course at a local playground -- a training circuit that included running, pull-ups, monkey bars, stair climb repeats, army crawling under the swing set, and of course hurdling over the 5 foot fence surrounding the playground (rather than walking through the gate like normal people).

This dress rehearsal was a huge confidence builder for me, and it turned out to be a lot more fun than I expected. I finally got my groove back on the monkey bars, zipping back and forth effortlessly. I definitely need more monkey bars in my life.

Race day I was pumped and ready. I knew I could manage all the obstacles, and I figured the running in between would be my chance to rest.


Posted by Kimberly 11/25/2015

After packing some camping gear on his bicycle and hitching a ride to British Columbia, Nik spent part of this summer riding his bicycle from Canada to California.

Nik still lives in Santa Cruz, where he spends time playing beach volleyball and going to school at Cabrillo College.
Posted by Dan 08/15/2007

I have always been a goal-setter. Generally, when I set out to do something or to make something happen, it happens. Apparently this has been a part of my character since I was a wee lass. While I don't have a clear memory of my early years, my parents tell of a time when I was 5 years old and decided that I wanted to learn how to do 3 things: tie my shoes, whistle, and snap my fingers. I had set my deadline for the end of the week... or maybe by my birthday. I'm not quite sure, I think it depends on who's telling the story. Nevertheless, a self-imposed target date was established and was, needless to say, met with great success.

This same voracity for making desired events come to fruition is what has brought me, finalmente, to Latin America. I've been wanting to experience life and culture in this part of the world for years, and now here I am. And now that I am here, my new mission has made itself very apparent: Aprender español! I have never taken a Spanish class, and I often feel I could've sacrificed one of my useless years of French class to take a Spanish course. But such is life.

I have never had something that is so entirely the focus of every day, every interaction, every moment, as learning the Spanish language is for me now. That has become my goal, and the force of my desire to make it happen drives my self-education every day. I want to understand what my soccer teammates are telling me, I want to read Spanish novels, I want to express my opinions to those around me, I want to write fluidly about my day in a language other than my native one, I want to eavesdrop on phone conversations in the grocery store. I want to have a fully-functional grasp on this language. I want to not be an imcompetent gringa with only blank stares to offer to those who speak at me.

At the university (Universidad de San Francisco, Quito), I am enrolled in an intermediate Spanish class. Yes. Intermediate. There weren't enough students enrolled for a beginner course, so I enrolled for the intermediate level to see if I could catch up. I figured a course above my head was better than none at all, and I had faith in my determination to catch up. Well, I just turned in my first 2-page essay en español! Haha. Yep. I wrote a two-page analysis of a Spanish movie that we had to watch. And let me tell you... it took me forever to write! I'm sure the pages will have red pen all over them when I get the paper back from la profesora, but that's what I need. I'm excited to be thrown into such a challenge, and even though the learning process is slow and I still struggle to understand the simplest requests from people, I can feel improvement every day and that's what keeps me powering on.

The thing about this mission of mine is that it has no "Finish" line. I could work to improve my Spanish indefinitely. But I do have somewhat of a timeline, in that I plan on living here in Quito until about May, and I would like to have a confident conversational grasp of the language by the time I leave my current set-up. It is highly likely that I will continue traveling around Latin America after May, and if this is going to be the case, I would really like to feel comfortable living on my own devices in the language of the people around me.

So onward I go with this mission of mine, and while the progress often feels minuscule, it is progress nevertheless.

Cada día, un poco más.
Posted by Whitney 02/05/2011, revised 02/05/2011