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've spent the last few years delighting in all the hilarious catastrophes that come with triathlon, as there seems to be at least one blooper in every race. Some bizarre unexpected obstacle, or more often than not, strange and silly predicaments I manage to bring upon myself.

I must admit that I am somewhat at a loss for what to say about IRONMAN Boulder. Everything -- and I mean everything -- went right.

A few times leading into IM Texas, I was struck with a sudden panic of "Oh my god what have I done?!" as I remembered I was about to do another Ironman. But leading into IM Boulder, all I felt was excitement, and a perverse thrill as I watched the forecast hurl us towards 90+ degree temps. "Bring it on!" I thought, "The hotter the better!"

I did a lot of preparation for this race, from my nerdy spreadsheet of 10 hours worth of nutrition to my specific goals about pacing, power, and even attitude. I split the race into five parts: the swim, the first lap of the bike, the second lap of the bike, miles 1-18 of the run, and miles 19-26 of the run. I was hoping for success in each of these, but would treat each as its own individual chapter.

I hadn't expected to do the majority of the swim alone, but once the fifteen of us fell into 4 or 5 distinct pace groups, I was lost in the middle, with no one. As the one hour group disappeared into the distance, I had to find a new goal to stay motivated. It didn't take long. "Don't get caught by the age group men!" I swam hard, imagining those fast guys behind closing in on me. I swam myself right into a swim PR at one hour and three minutes, and just as I headed into the T1 change tent I could hear the announcer, "And, here comes our first age group male, finishing up the swim ..."

Yes!!!

Chapter 1, success.

My goals on the bike were also focused less around catching, and more about not getting caught. I knew at least four women were close behind, so my first objective was to make it to mile 15 without getting passed. As a bonus, I promised myself a cookie for every mile past 15 that I could hold off my competition. Thirty three cookies later, I was still well above my pace targets, and feeling great. The course took us around all the farmland routes north of Boulder that I ride regularly, so I was right at home. The absolute consistency of my training with Coach Tim and QT2 Systems had me feeling confident and prepared, so this ride felt routine. By the end of the first lap I had advanced two positions in the field.

Chapter two, success.


Posted by Kimberly 09/20/2018

Bangkok is one of those cities that makes an impression the second you get there. However after you get over the smell and the traffic there actually is some wonderful wonders to be found. We were fortunate enough to be staying with a couchsurfer and he acted as our tour guide while we were in the city. Our first day we made our way by train, boat and taxi to Canchanaburi where there is a train bridge.

Jen got over the wonderful wonders quick.

Posted by nik 09/14/2008, revised 09/21/2008

After tearing ourselves away from the glorious life on Koh Tao, Nik and I made our way up the country to the green hills of northern Thailand. We spent close to a week in the busy-but-friendly city of Chiang Mai, where we met up with the Chiang Mai Hash House Harriers. H3 is a worldwide network of people who like to run and drink beer. I'm not gonna bother trying to explain, because I can't really. But it's a group of fun people, and everyone "chases the hare," running a marked route that has false trails and intersections at which you must find the correct path. And you drink beer. Fun people, running, beer. Yeah, that's a simple little nutshell. So we got to join in on 2 hashes while we were in Chiang Mai, both of them out of town in the beautiful region surrounding the city. Quite an enjoyable way to see that part of Thailand :)

Nik and me, stopping for a quick photo whilst chasing the hare through the hills around Chiang Mai.

After our stint in Chiang Mai, we voyaged further north into the hills to the wonderful, happy little town of Pai. Pai had been previously recommended to us by numerous friends and acquaintances along our journey, by travelers whose opinions we trusted. Sure enough, we found our kind of atmosphere in Pai! It's a small community tucked away in the hills, where the locals are smiley,friendly, helpful, and happy, and the travelers in the community are good travelers - they are travelists.

Posted by Whitney 10/31/2008, revised 11/09/2008