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

At the end of a pretty strong race season locally this year, it was time to raise the stakes and line up against elite athletes from across the country, at the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships in Burlington, Vermont.

I've competed at Nationals in prior years, so I've gotten past the sheer intimidation of showing up at the kind of race where the average bike is worth about $3,000...
But there's definitely a different vibe at an event where everyone is out to win.

Most of the races I participate in have a surprisingly diverse cross-section of the population. Kids can do it. Grandma can do it. Ex-smokers, former couch potatoes, cancer survivors will all finish victorious. People who loathe running, people who "can't swim," people who flunked high school P.E. will tackle the challenge. People with only one leg will be out there too. Indeed, it's the unconventional candidates that get the most attention...and the longest applause at the finish line. To me this is something essential to the spirit of triathlon – the idea that there's more than one way to "win."
I love the adventurous and celebratory atmosphere, the wacky motivational posters along the course ("Swim, Bike, Run, BEER!"), the herd of friends & family all wearing festive matching shirts that say "Team ANNE!" and the occasional participant galloping by in a leopard print Speedo with "Single" written down his calf in permanent marker.

One might think that throwing together 1500 men and women who've all grown accustomed to being The Winner could get ugly...

But I was grateful to find the same camaraderie and courtesy amongst the women at Nationals that is typical of local races back home (minus some of the goofiness). The atmosphere in the Transition Area early in the morning was neighborly and buzzing with excitement. The women sharing my rack swapped transition tips, complimented one other's bikes (which is akin to being complimented on the cuteness of your puppy or the brilliance of your toddler), and wished each other luck on the way out. I was thrilled to see so many friends and familiar faces from Chicago and Madison. As my wave gathered at the start together, splashing and bobbing next to the boat dock waiting for the final countdown, I heard laughter and joking, a few women calling out, "sorry in advance if I accidentally kick anyone!"

The bike course was very crowded, but I was so focused that I barely remember any of the Burlington scenery swirling past and I was a little surprised to find myself back downtown so soon! I could tell my race was going well when I reached T2 and found the Transition Area mostly empty. A solitary bike dangled from the rack here or there, but the rest of them were still behind me.

The run started with what the race organizers referred to as "a significant hill," a phrase obviously meant to let us down gently - don't expect any 10K PRs on this course! Within that context, I suppose I can consider it "a significant achievement" that my 10K time was only one second behind my fastest-ever 10K (which was on a flat course, naturally).
I ran hard. I ran like it was my last race of the season, and even though it hurts to run your fastest, I felt lucky just to have the ability to run fast - painful but exhilarating.
It was impossible to know how many women were ahead of me, but with the goal of breaking my own 10K record (hill or no hill!) I had my own motivation to keep digging in.

Halfway through the run, I was passed by someone in my division, a local from Madison! She slipped me a few words of encouragement, and then pushed ahead. Instead of feeling frustrated at being outrun, I was grateful to have such close competition at this race. It makes the race more meaningful, and gives clarity to the goals still to come.

I finished strong and ended up with 5th place in my age group, which earned me a spot on the Nationals podium during the awards ceremony! When I talked to my coach after the race, she said, "5th place! Did you bring a dress?"

Why yes, yes I did. Obviously, my podium dress and my acceptance speech were ready... *just in case*

Well, Ok. There wasn't actually a speech. But my finish also qualified me for the 2012 World Championships in New Zealand, so there will certainly be more adventures to come!

Posted by kim 10/02/2011, revised 10/02/2011

Nik completed his final race for the Cal Poly cycling team, the Wheelmen. The Western Collegiate Cycling Conference's final race of the 2011 Mountain Bike season was hosted by Cal-Berkeley at the Bailey Bike Park course.


Nik racing down the slalom course at Bailey Bike Park


Posted by Dan 11/14/2011

I suppose it's been too long since I've updated you all on my life. I don't have anything in particular to focus on, so I guess I'll do another bullet-point-posting... those seem to be the most reader-friendly anyway. I've really settled into life here, and I've truly been having an incredible time! I don't feel like any minute has gone by that hasn't been spent exactly the way it was meant to be spent. The problem is... most of my minutes apparently weren't meant to be spent on schoolwork. Well, let me rephrase that: The "problem" is most of my minutes weren't meant to be spent on schoolwork.

Anyway, yeah. Here's a summary of what my minutes were meant to be spent on:

• sitting in the sun or in the grass under leafy trees on campus, listening to great music on my headphones or chatting/ playing cards/ generally relaxing with friends that wander by; a lot of my minutes were meant to be spent doing exactly this... and it never gets old!
  
  
• group dinners on Sundays; for the past 3 Sundays, my roommates and I have gotten group dinners together, usually around 10-12 people. So far, we've had a sushi dinner night, a breakfast-for-dinner night (pancakes, eggs, and bacon all done outside on our flat-top BBQ!), and finger-food night. It's always good fun.
  
  
• playing beach volleyball on Friday nights with my 4's team, the Flogging Mollies (my roommate/teammate Scott was wearing a Flogging Mollies shirt when we had to submit our team name); we're really starting to come together as a team, and it's a lot of fun - I look forward to it all week.
  
  
• playing ultimate frisbee; my Monday-night team, Second Skin, is also really coming together to play well together (when we had to choose team colors, we chose 'skins,' which ended up working out really nicely, 'cause even at night, it's still really hot here). I still don't really know the rules, but I run and I throw and I catch, and it seems to working out alright. I'm still getting used to it being a non-contact sport, though. Apparently you're not supposed to body-check your defender in this game.
  
  
• brewing beer. Scott and I got fed up with high prices for bad beer, so we started making our own. Our first batch won't be ready for another 2 weeks, but I'm excited to be able to have quality beer around again! Well, we'll see how quality the beer-by-beginners actually is. Dave! Neil! What am I going to do without your expertise??
  
  
• laughing at silly things like the fact that the word "expertise" looks like something you do to be expertly in shape.
  
  
• laying out in my hammock on the back patio, enjoying the minutes that were definitely not meant to be spent doing schoolwork.
  
  
• drinking all the PG Tips tea that Mom and Dad sent me. At the rate I'm going, I'm actually going to drink all of that tea in the time I'm here, easy! (they sent me 2 boxes of 80 bags) Many of my minutes are actually spent brushing my teeth, too, for fear of the stains resulting from so much black tea intake.
  
  
• going on cool field trips for my Indigenous Australians class. A local Aboriginal elder named Rusty took us out for a day all around the area, sharing with us some of the incredible vast sea of knowledge they have about the land. It was really cool to learn about the uses/dangers of any plant around us, to learn how to read animal tracks (type of animal, gender, age, purpose of their movement... so much to be interpreted from such a seemingly simple thing!), to hear stories of tradition, myth, origin, culture, to visit a burial ground where I could feel the presence of generations and generations of Aboriginal culture, to see cave paintings right in front of my eyes that were painted there by a hand that moved across the rock thousands of years ago... yeah. There were some pretty cool minutes spent doing this stuff.
  
  
• watching Australia's "Biggest Loser" with all the roommates. This is the time that we all take a break from whatever we're doing (or not doing, in my case), and come together in the living room to watch people lose weight while we scarf down pizza or ice cream or cookies.
  
  
• ...then there's a couple minutes here and there where I throw an assignment together. Those minutes usually come immediately before the minutes that were meant to be spent handing in said assignment.
  
  

All in all, it's a glorious life. A girl can get used to this.

Me with Rusty, a local Aboriginal elder. I would love to have 5% of the knowledge that he has about the land!

Posted by Whitney 04/23/2008, revised 04/23/2008