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

With the end of September comes the annual San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. I've been excited for this race both as a coach and as an athlete.

Out of town friends Meg and Jack were coming up for the race, and it would be Meg's first half marathon. I had been working with Meg on her run training for the past 5 months, and we had seen her long runs go from 2 miles to 11 miles, a thrilling transformation! This would be the culmination of half a year's work, and I looked forward to watching her cross the finish line.

Additionally, I was excited for my own run, since this is a guaranteed PR course. The weather is typically mild, the race well supported, and the route is pancake flat, save for two underpasses. I ran 1:28 at Santa Cruz just a few weeks back, surely I was destined for a 1:25 on this course that featured zero miles of sand running and a significantly shorter pre-race bike ride.

I guess this PR fantasy was rooted in the expectation that I would peak for Santa Cruz ... and then just stay there forever. But this belief undermines the concept of a Fitness Peak. A "peak," meaning you come back down the other side at some point (in my case -- about 30 minutes after completing my "A" Race).

Apparently, the universe determined (quite accurately) that I don't know when the party's over. The off season -- like a good night's sleep -- is healthy and necessary, but left to my own devices I was going to keep adding just one more! one more! one more! race to my schedule

So I got injured.

It happened just after my Santa Cruz finish. I pushed hard at that race, and certainly had a collection of noteworthy aches and pains afterwards. Curiously, the knees were not included in that list. Nor have they ever been during racing or training. However, I sustained a fresh new knee injury while being interviewed for a post-race massage. The therapist asked me to straighten my leg, which I fearlessly complied with, and BAM! Instant knee injury.

What makes this all even more mysterious is that since the traumatic massage interview, I have discovered that I can still bike, climb stairs, jump, barbell squat, dart side-to-side in a game of puppy keep-away, and in fact I can actually jog and run. I can straighten my legs, and I was even interviewed for another massage without incident. There is just one specific movement that my knee refuses to allow:

Running fast.

Unfortunately, this was the single activity I had planned to engage in for Rock 'n' Roll.


Posted by Kimberly 10/04/2015

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

Ok, so my life has been a busy mash of happiness, fun, and adventures. I've done a lot since I last wrote, and I feel it is only appropriate for me to fill you all in. However, if I were to write it all in one entry, the entry would be far too long, and I would never be able to complete it because it's too big of a mountain to face. So instead, I will write several blog entries, covering each thing:

This one, my friends, is about last weekend's folk festival. While Townsville is a renowned red-neck town, there is a hidden hippie culture... and I found them at the Palm Creek Folk Festival!! The festival was last weekend, Fri-Mon, on an eco-tourism area about 40 mins out of town. It's at the base of the the Great Dividing Range mountains, right next to national park. In short: beautiful place.

I went with my good friends Andrew and Hugo, and Hugo's friend Zoe. We went on Saturday evening, and listened to music, ate great food, met great people, had an awesome time camping, and just generally enjoyed the whole atmosphere. It felt so nice to get away and finally see live music again. It was also really nice to see this crowd of people, because this culture is hidden away in Townsville, drowned out my the red-necks driving by in their shiny utes (those car-truck things), honking their horns and yelling out the window at bike-ists. But anyway, yeah, we had a great time and I was so happy to semi-satisfy my yearning for live music. All of the acts were little local bands, but there was some really great music! Let's face it: Live Music is Better.

Me and friend Andrew, enjoying the beauty of our surroundings on Sunday afternoon, with the sounds of folk music coming from the stages behind us.

We stayed until Monday morning, when we hitched back early so that I could get back to town in time to leave for a different camping trip... which is the topic of my next adventure! Read the next story to learn more...

As my camera is broken and I don't have my own pictures from the weekend, I've provided a link to Hugo's photo album of the trip. Unfortunately he doesn't provide captions, so there's no indication of who's who (unless you're logged into Facebook). But there's not much necessary commentary anyway: it was a beautiful location, Andrew's got the dark hair, Hugo the light hair, Zoe's the girl :)

Just an interesting side note: Andrew and Hugo are 2 of the guys that live at the house I Couchsurfed at my very first day in Townsville, before I found a place to live. I mentioned them in one of my very first blog entries - they were the first people I met in Townsville, and they are now some of my closest friends. I just think that's so cool the way that worked out, thought I'd share :)

Photo album - Palm Creek Folk Festival: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2186077&l=33f69&id=61011192
Posted by Whitney 06/15/2008, revised 06/19/2008