Don't bike without a tail light
2011 Purple Swim
By spokesman | August 9, 2011
Although this is a biking related blog, in the past year I have begun to do triathlons. Swimming is my weakest area so this weekend, I participated in the Purple Swim. It is an open water swim in the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore. There were two distance options - 1 mile or 2 miles. Since the two swims were held sequentially, a swimmer could do both distances for a total of 3 miles. The 1 mile distance was enough for me.
This is the fourth year that the event has been held. It has grown from 5 swimmers in the first year to over 200 swimmers this year. The event was founded and organized by Tim Beatty to honor the memory of his father who was an avid swimmer. The purpose of the swim is to raise awareness and money to help fight pancreatic cancer. The video below has an interview with Tim and his mother that provides more details on the history of the swim.
Overall the swim was very well organized. A few more buoys along the course would have been helpful especially to me. The combination of my nearsightedness, foggy googles and choppy water sent me a bit off course. The organizers said that they would look into adding some more buoys next year. The kayakers did a great job keeping swimmers on the route and providing any help when needed. After the swim there was a big BBQ and musical entertainment. The event was held at Rocky Point Beach, where the facilities include a bath house with showers and real bathrooms (not porta-potties). The park is a nice place to hang out and many of the swimmers (and friends & family) stayed after the swim.
I highly recommend this event to anyone who wants to get some open water practice. It is a well run event and a good cause. Pancreatic cancer is fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and has one of the lowest survival rates among all major cancers. Although the swim is over, it isn’t to late to donate. See the Purple Swim website for details.
I didn’t know Bud Beatty, but I’m sure he would be proud of the event that bears his name.
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Topics: Flotsam | No Comments »
A Change Of Heart On Capital Bikeshare
By spokesman | August 4, 2011
When Capital Bikeshare was initially announced, I was against it. The program is partially funded with transportation funds from the government. At the time, I thought that the money could be better spent on other bike related projects such as dedicated bike lanes and paths. I believed that if more lanes/paths were available, people would be more encouraged to ride. I thought that it was access to safe routes and not access to bicycles that was limiting the use of bicycles. As an example, the Capital Crescent Trail has enabled many people to commute by bicycle. Without that path, many of those daily bike commuters would never ride bikes to work.
While bike paths/lanes would encourage more commuters, I can’t argue with the success of the Capital Bikeshare program. The 114 stations and 1100 bikes have become very popular. There are more than 14,000 annual members and have been 40,000 daily members. The system passed the milestone of 500,000 rides and will surpass 1,000,000 in a few months. Many non-bikers have given it a try and have become regular users. It has provided a new segment of the public transportation system to augment Metro trains and buses. The increased number of bicyclists make bicycling safer for all bicyclists as drivers become used to seeing more bikes on the road. Many of the users of the system will also become advocates for other biking infrastructure such as the dedicate bike lanes and paths that I would like to see.
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Topics: Washington DC | 1 Comment »
Contador Punches, Armstrong Shoves
By spokesman | July 24, 2011
During stage 19 of the 2011 Tour De France , Alberto Contador punched a spectator that was heckling him. This reminded me of an incident in the 2009 Tour Of California, when Lance Armstrong pushed a spectator into a snowbank.
Alberto Contador Punching Spectator (Photo AFP)
Lance Armstrong Shoving Syringe Man
In both cases, the spectators were heckling the athletes about doping - Contador’s heckler was dressed in scrubs and carrying prop bags of blood and Armstrong’s heckler was carrying a large prop syringe. I was happy to see both hecklers get it - although Lance did a better job because syringeman wound up on the ground.
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Topics: Lance Armstrong, Professional Racing | 2 Comments »
Washington DC Triathlon Bike Route
By spokesman | June 21, 2011
The 2nd Washington D.C Triathlon took place this past Sunday. Although the U.S Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda got all of the media attention, the DC Tri was the true athletic event in town. There were both Sprint and International Distance races. The bike route for the Sprint was one lap of the 20 kilometer course and the Olympic Distance was two laps of the course. The bike route gave riders the opportunity to ride on many roads that are usually not bike accessible. It was a great course. I have been a cyclist for years but only recently became a triathlete. I was originally motivated to start doing triathlons for the opportunity to ride on bike courses such the ones used in the DC Triathlon and the Nations Triathlon.
Ray Maker, who finished 3rd overall and first in his age group, posted a detailed race report and a video of the bike route on his Rainmaker blog. He had a video camera mounted on his bike and he compressed the video to four minutes.
Ray participated in the Sprint race which was started after the Olympic distance race. He passed a large number of the Olympic distance riders in his video. Interestingly no one passed him. I did the Olympic distance and based on my time, I calculated that he passed me on the bike course. I haven’t been able to find myself in the video yet, but I know I’m there.
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Topics: Washington DC | No Comments »
LeBron Loses
By spokesman | June 14, 2011
LeBron James, (aka King James) along with his team lost the NBA Championship last night. In the post game press conference he said
“All the people that were rooting for me to fail, at the end of the day, tomorrow they have to wake up and have the same life that (they had) before they woke up today,” James replied. “They got the same personal problems they had today. And I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things I want to do.”
He is as mature as ever. When LeBron made the decision to leave Cleveland for Miami, I wrote a post on why LeBron James Couldn’t Be A Cyclist based on his lack of teamwork. Although individuals win bike races, it is much more of a team sport than most people realize. It was a lack of teamwork that led to the Miami loss last night. LeBron will win his championship one day. He may even grow up a bit. Now I need to get back to the same problems that I had before I woke up today.
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Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »