I was a bit lazy today. However, I read an opinion piece yesterday and I thought I would just include it in its entirety.1 Life these days is frustrating enough from my lily pad (just trying to score a vaccine appointment for example!) and I can’t even imagine what it must be like for all of these people on the front lines of this COVID war. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We could all use a bit of luck!
Comilla Sasson, MD, PhD is a Kaiser Permanente emergency medicine physician in Colorado and a health disparities researcher. She also works for the American Heart Association, Emergency Cardiovascular Care as the vice president for Science & Innovation.
“I’m tired, you’re tired, we’re all tired — I know. I feel it in my bones. I have been in 8 states caring for thousands of patients with Covid-19. I have worked in coast to coast, north to south, in New York, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, California, and my home state of Colorado. I have treated the rich, poor, White, Black, immigrants, Native Americans, BIPOCs, anyone and everyone who needs care. It’s my job as an emergency medicine physician. When a surge is happening, I pick up, leave my family, and run into the flames.
I am still running. As I write this, I am sitting in the ICU at Kaiser Permanente Ontario Medical Center, in Ontario, California. This hospital is in a community that has been hit hard by the coronavirus. I hopped on a plane from Colorado to help my colleagues here, an ER doctor working in an ICU that has been overwhelmed beyond its typical capacity by Covid-19 patients. Parts of the hospital having to be converted into ICU beds. That’s something I have seen all over the country during my travels.
For those who don’t know, ER doctors don’t normally work in the ICU. There are so many critically ill, complex Covid-19 patients that ICU doctors need help. When my employer asked if any of us would be willing and able to travel to overwhelmed hospitals in other states, a lot of us working ICU and ER jumped up at the chance to volunteer our help. We knew they would do it for us. It’s all hands on deck to help out. So here I am, catching the first flight out, running into the fire.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
But as I chat with my colleagues, I am not alone in how I feel: We are in the midst of a sustained mass casualty event. We worked on adrenaline and goodwill through the first surges because, we thought, if we can just power through it, it will soon be all over. But just as we looked up thinking the end was near, another wave of virus hits and the bodies start to pile up — literally — in our hospitals.
All over the country, these conversations are eerily the same. But I am still not numb to being the last voice a person hears before they go on a ventilator. Or to holding a phone up to a patient because it’s the only way a wife can see her dying husband before he passes since no one else is allowed in the room.
I can’t forget the sound of the monitor beeping when I lose a pulse after having tried to keep someone’s parent alive all day. It doesn’t get any easier for me to call a family and tell their two little girls that Momma isn’t going to come home again. It doesn’t get any less sad when I do my best, but it’s still not enough. I don’t get any less frustrated when I realize that despite every warning I have given to my friends and my family, they are still going to get together and celebrate a birthday party because they are all invincible … until they aren’t.
But now it is one year later. 12 months. 365 days. 525,600 minutes. And it seems like things may be better, like the country is beginning to go back to “normal.” Theme parks opening up. Masks no longer required. Schools reopening and restaurants increasing capacity.
But what happens if the people who are supposed to be there to care for you aren’t there? What happens when the next wave of virus hits, and those of us meant to care for the sick are too exhausted to be there? What if your frontline health care workers are shellshocked, exhausted, and out of adrenaline and goodwill? What happens then?
I will fight on. I will wake up and leave my husband and young children again. I’ll risk my life to help save yours. And I will because I feel compelled to do it. But I am getting tired. My patience is getting thinner when I go outside and see life going back to normal. I see governors ending mask mandates as if the pandemic was over, allowing everything to reopen with no restrictions while I still have friends and colleagues working Covid-19 as travel nurses, doctors, and respiratory therapists in those same states. I start to get frustrated.
I ask myself: Why do I keep doing this? Why am I still here running into the fire? On the front lines? Because I must truly believe, if we all are willing to fight just a little bit harder for a little bit longer that we can beat this together.
But I have to know — and other frontline workers like me — that you are in this fight with us. Wearing your mask. Getting your vaccine. Doing your part. Because every person’s actions matter if we’re going to win this fight.”
The coronavirus continues to make headlines around the world – most of them not good. However, if you look at what’s going on in some parts of this country, you’d think that everything is all rosy. Several states are lifting restrictions and eliminating mask mandates in spite of warnings by virtually of the public health officials. Vaccines are being distributed, albeit somewhat inconsistently across the country. [I know from personal experience here in Montana, there are major differences between the way Yellowstone County (Billings) are doing their vaccinations and Gallatin County (Bozeman) are doing theirs. Yellowstone County has vaccinated over twice as many people to date – go figure] However, if you step back and look at what is going on in the rest of the world, it is not a very pretty picture across all kinds of dimensions. And given the stupidity of Republican governors across the country who are continuing to ignore public health officials, we are likely in for some rocky weeks and months ahead. One just has to look across the pond to what is going on in Europe.
First of all, there has been a major resurgence in a number of countries in Europe. Italy is actually shutting down again.1 A year ago, they were one of the first countries to lockdown their country and they are now entering their third wave of this virus. These resurgences are due primarily to the more contagious variants that have emerged in the past year coupled with a relaxation of public health measures. A third wave is hitting Germany and Hungary. France has the highest level of hospitalizations since November and is considering another lock down.
Health officials in this country are very concerned that we, just like happened in Europe, are letting our guard down to quickly and are going to cause ourselves more pain. One just has to look at what is going on in all of the ‘spring break’ towns. Thousands of people, mostly unmasked, partying up a storm. Air travel is at its highest level since the pandemic started. And the percentage of Americans who have been vaccinated is no where near that required for herd immunity. So, if what is going on in Europe is any indication of things to come – buckle up and keep that mask handy! I wonder how many American lives this round of stupidity will cost?
Of course, the situation in the US hasn’t been complicated by the problems that Europe is having with the Astra-Zeneca vaccine. A number of countries have stopped using the vaccine due to reports of brain hemorrhages and blood clots. 2 Astra-Zeneca has defended their vaccine and said that the number of occurrences of these types of problems was no different than as would be found in an unvaccinated population. For example, Germany reported 7 cases of a rare cerebral thrombosis out of 1.6 million people vaccinated. Many public health officials are arguing that the data just do not support the suspension of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine but, then again, when did facts and data ever triumph in the realm of emotion and politics?
The other major fallout from this issue is that it will give the ‘anti-vaxers’ ammunition to argue against mass vaccines regardless of how safe the vaccine is ultimately determined to be. It’s kind of like the people who refuse to let go of the supposed connection between vaccinations and autism, which has been widely debunked in many, many studies. Nonetheless, it will add a serious complication to the Covid waves currently sweeping Europe.
Brazil is also seeing a huge resurgence of the virus. They are another country that ignored public health guidance and a new much more contagious variant is sweeping the country. Additionally, they are in desperate need of vaccines. This is where the geo-politics of the pandemic get really interesting. Brazil is embarking on an effort to build one of the world’s largest 5G networks. The Trump administration put a lot of pressure on Brazil to not use Huawei, China’s telecommunications giant, as part of this plan. And Brazil had agreed. Huawei was essentially shut out. And then two things happened, the pandemic hit and Trump left office.
It just so happens that China is manufacturing millions of doses of its vaccine and is willing to export those to other countries. “Beijing’s ability to mass-produce vaccines and ship them to countries in the developing world — while rich countries, including the United States, are hoarding many millions of doses for themselves — has offered a diplomatic and public relations opening that China has readily seized”.3 I described in an earlier post how China is playing a masterful game of ‘Go’ on the global game board and this is yet another example. Now, in a sudden change of heart, Brazil has invited Huawei to be part of their 5G network and, in exchange, they are getting millions of doses of vaccine from China. The fact is, China is currently exporting vaccines to 22 different countries and that list is likely to expand.
If our European friends can’t solve the Astra-Zeneca problem in short order I wonder if they might turn to China as another vaccine source. It’s highly unlikely they will be able to turn to the US. A few years ago, the world would have turned to the United States when there was a world-wide crisis like this. Since we are now so far behind the power curve and are playing catch up, it looks like the world is turning elsewhere. After all, the US has more cases and more deaths from COVID than any other country in the world – why the hell would anyone listen to us? China, on the other hand, has the virus fairly well under control and is in a position to be able to export millions of doses of vaccine to other countries.
There is no doubt that this pandemic has altered the entire global political landscape. The Trump administration began this effort which resulted in the US ceding its leadership role on the world stage. Unless the Biden administration can rapidly rebuild our international alliances and standing, China will continue to capitalize on every opening we give them. China is not necessarily winning the global game of ‘Go’ – it’s just that the US is losing due to the lack of its ability to implement a long-term strategic vision hampered even more by the internal polarization of our political landscape.
I read an interesting article in The Atlantic over the weekend, “No, Really Are We Rome?” with the subtitle, “The sack of the Capitol was thwarted. But history suggests that corrosive change can be hard to see while it’s happening.” I would argue this country is in far more danger than most of us would like to admit. But, what the hell, it’s spring break – party on!
Montana’s march to the right continues. There was an article in the paper this morning entitled, “Governor backs religious freedom legislation.” “The proposal has been cheered by supporters as a fortification of religious rights in court while opponents it could give discrimination legal footing in the state.”1 The governor, who is a deeply religious conservative, voiced his support of this legislation through the Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras, who went on to say, “Gov. Gianforte emphasizes this is not a license to discriminate against the LBGT. They are hired as employees across the state. It is not a license for lodging facilities or private employers to discriminate.”1
These words ring pretty hollow given that the legislature has already passed two bills restricting the rights of the LBGT community. In addition, this bill was opposed by the Americans Indian Caucus as well. They sent a letter to the legislature based upon their long history of being the subjects of discrimination. Anyone who thinks this legislation will not provide a license to discriminate based upon ‘religious beliefs,’ is deluding themselves. There have already been several cases that have worked their way threw various state courts and even up to the US Supreme Court. For example:
“In a hotly anticipated decision, the Washington Supreme Court ruled against a florist who was fined for not providing services for a gay couple’s wedding.
The court had previously heard the case, State of Washington v. Arlene’s Flowers, ruling that Barronelle Stutzman and her store, Arlene’s Flowers, violated the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) for refusing to make floral arrangements for a gay couple in 2013. Stutzman claimed that she was only acting in accordance with her religious beliefs. The U.S. Supreme Court asked the state high court to take another look at whether it violated her religious rights by not being neutral to her religion when making its decision.2”
While most of these cases so far have involved various vendors and companies refusing to serve gays and lesbians, it is only a matter of time before some group will claim the right to not serve blacks, or Mexicans, or who knows, based upon some obscure ‘religious belief.’ Legislation like that being proposed in the Montana legislature sets a very dangerous precedent.
Ironically, I read a Letter to the Editor in the Chronicle last week and felt compelled to respond. My response was published in the paper this morning – the same day that this article on the Governor’s support for this religious freedom legislation appeared. My letter:
“I read Kody Van Dyke’s letter in the Sunday Chronicle with both amusement and frustration. The one thing I agree with is the statement that people should think for themselves and respect others’ right to do the same. Where we differ is when legislators enact legislation that forcibly imposes their views on personal decisions upon others. The author lists several examples areas where people disagree: transgender issues, abortion, election integrity, and tax cuts. Transgender people should have the same rights that Van Dyke wants for everyone – to be able to express their own opinions (and their sexuality) and live their lives without government influence. When legislators pass laws to infringe upon those rights, particularly if those laws have no basis in scientific and medical fact, they are not allowing ‘people to think for themselves.’ Similarly, I have a completely different view of the abortion issue than the author, but the legislature has seen fit to completely discount my personal views and impose their beliefs upon me and many, many other people. What happened to my ability to ‘think for myself’ and make those personal decisions based upon my personal beliefs? If the author chooses to not associate with transgender people or they choose not to have an abortion – great. I respect that. However, it’s obvious the author believes that the right to think for oneself is a one-way street. I and other like-minded people are not allowed the luxury to think for ourselves and make those decisions. Debates on election integrity and tax cuts are policy issues that should be debated. But issues like transgender rights and access to abortion are deeply-held personal beliefs and people should be able to make those decisions by thinking for themselves. “Anything less is authoritarianism and we know where that leads.””
I am still unable to get my head around the fact that the same Republicans who are pushing this type of legislation are the same people who espouse ‘smaller government’, ‘less regulation’, ‘personal responsibility’ and ‘individual rights’. I think the term for this is ‘cognitive dissonance.’ It makes absolutely no logical sense.
So, come on up to Montana where you will have a license to discriminate based upon your religious beliefs but you don’t need a license to carry a concealed weapon!
Since this blog is titled ‘bikingwithmike.com’ and was originally started to chronicle my bicycle adventures, I decided to actually post something about one of my bicycle adventures that I wrote 30 years ago. It is quite lengthy so feel free to skip today. I just wanted to post this somewhere so I have an electronic copy of this since I only have a paper copy now. It is part of my ongoing effort to purge my files and reduce the amount of ‘stuff’ I’m carrying around so I am more flexible and mobile in the future. And the fact is, I was just tired of writing about politics today so I decided to do this instead. Stay safe out there. (And forgive some of the formatting as I had to scan it into a pdf and then convert to a word file so it is still a work in progress).
The IRONMAN
“Slaying the Monster”
The IRONMAN triathlon in Hawaii was first run in 1978 by fifteen people. It was done pretty much as a dare and credit is usually given to Commander John Collins (now retired) of the U. S. Navy for dreaming up this idea.
At that time, there were three separate endurance events that took place at different times on the island of Oahu. These were the 2.4-mile rough water swim which took place off of Waikiki Beach, the “Round the Island” bike ride (112 miles) and the Honolulu marathon (26.2 miles). Commander Collins came up with the idea to try to do them all in one day.
The first race was very informal. The fifteen people just got together and did it. There was no prize money and the trophies were homemade. The next year, however, Commander Collins found that there were a few more people who were interested in attempting this new challenge. At that point, most everyone thought these people were all insane.
The event continued to grow and in 1980 it was first covered by ABC Wide World of Sports. During this whole time the sport of triathlon was quietly growing but it wasn’t until the 1982 Ironman race that the sport of triathlon was really put on the map. During the race that year, a young lady by the name of Julie Moss collapsed just yards from, the finish line. The ABC cameras were rolling as she valiantly tried to crawl the last few yards. America was held spell—bound as this gutsy woman, who had lost control of all of her bodily functions, was trying to crawl the last few feet of a race. It was very dramatic and it was that race that made the Ironman world famous.
As the sport of triathlon continued to grow, more and more people aspired to what was then the ultimate triathlon challenge — to run the Ironman in Hawaii. Even though there are now a few longer races, the Ironman in Hawaii is still considered the most prestigious triathlon in the world. The race began to get so big that it was moved to its current home in Kailua—Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii since there were far fewer traffic problems to deal with.
As more and more people from around the world tried to enter the Ironman, a system of qualifying races was developed and a limitation set on the number of entries. The last few years has seen the race peak at almost 1,400 entries.
Since the Ironman in Hawaii had proven so successful and so popular, “Ironman ‘l distance races have been established in other countries. These include Japan, Germany, New Zealand, and Canada. These races are now qualifying races for the World Championship Race in Kailua—Kona that is held every October.
I had watched the Ironman race on Wide World of Sports for several years. I was fascinated by it and in my usual way told Francine, “I ‘d like to try that someday. ” (She hears that a lot!)
Finally, in 1988 1 entered my first triathlon. It was an Olympic distance event – 1.5 K (0.9 mile) swim, 40 K (25 mile) bike and 10 K (6.2 mile) run — nothing on the scale of an Ironman race. I didn’t finish. I got dehydrated during the bike ride, got very bad leg cramps and had to stop and pull out of the race. So much for my introduction to triathlons.
Fortunately, later in the year I ran in another triathlon in San Diego and finished. 1 felt great! I had fun! This was a good sport! I didn’t run any races in 1989 and then decided that I ‘d start again in 1990.
During the first couple of months of 1990 1 sent away for an application to the Ironman in Hawaii (without telling Francine!). I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t really do anything with it at that time, I got the application in February and read it over.
In order to get into the Ironman, you have to qualify in one of the designated races, or they have a lottery for 150 of the race slots. In order to qualify, you usually have to come in first or second in your age group. I knew that would be close to impossible for me given the amount of time I had to train so I knew if I was to get in, I ‘d have to get in through the lottery,
The entry fee for the race was $225. However, if you don’t get picked in the lottery, they refund most of your money so you don’t really lose much. After thinking it over for a while I decided, “What the hell I “, and mailed in my application. 1 figured there wasn’t much chance of getting picked so it was all kind of done for fun. I still hadn’t told Francine.
The literature that accompanied the application said that lottery winners would be notified around the first of May. 1 went on about my life secure in the knowledge that I wouldn’t get picked and I could at least say that I ‘d applied to the Ironman.
Around the first of May, I returned from a trip to Los Angeles, collected the mail, and went up to the apartment. Francine was at school and wouldn’t be home for a while. I was thumbing through the mail when I saw a letter from the Ironman Race. The letter was very thin so I figured it was a form letter stating that I hadn’t been picked in the lottery.
I opened the letter and I ‘m sure my mouth dropped open. There were only three sentences.
Congratulations!
You were selected in the 1990 lottery.
Full details will be mailed to you in late May.
What now! I poured myself a nice stiff scotch and sat down on the couch. I was excited and afraid all at the same time.
I was still sitting on the couch when Francine returned home later that evening. I showed her the letter. She looked at me and said, “Does this mean we get to go to Hawaii?” She wanted to go to Hawaii. I wanted to do the Ironman race and it looked like we were both going to get our wishes.
Once I got over the initial shock, I decided I ‘d better lay out a training schedule and get serious. I told Francine that she might not see me much until after the race. She told me to do whatever I had to do. She’s great! (I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that doing this race would be impossible without the support of your spouse or ‘significant other’.)
I decided that I would continue to swim three mornings a week before going to work and then I would alternate between running and riding my bike after work. In addition, I decided I ‘d use Saturday for a long run and Sunday for a long bike ride.
At the beginning of the year, I had made a resolution to run at least one event a month, i.e., an organized race like a 10K, a bike ride or some swimming event. Consequently, I had been swimming, running and riding to some degree up to that point so it wasn’t like I was starting from “square 1.
I laid out a schedule that looked somewhat like the
following:
Morning
Evening
Monday
Swim
(1,500 – 4,000 Yds)
Run (6 miles)
Tuesday
Bike (30 — 40 miles)
Wednesday
Swim
(1,500 – 4,000 yds)
Run (6 miles)
Thursday
Bike (30 — 40 miles)
Friday
Swim
(1,500 – 4,000 yds)
Run (6 miles)
Saturday
Run (8 — 15 miles)
Sunday
Bike (50 — 100 miles)
This all seemed fine and good but there were many weeks that I didn’t quite make this schedule for various and sundry reasons. There were times I was travel ling. There were other times when I was hurt. And there were other times when I was just plain tired.
On the mornings I went swimming, particularly as my yardage increased beyond 3, 000 yards, I would have to get up at 5 a.m. in order to get to the pool, do my swimming and get to work by 8 a.m. Then I t d leave work at 5 p.m., rush home, change into my running or biking gear and take off. Every evening I ‘d get done somewhere between 7 and 7:30 p.m. By the time I got done showering, I ‘d end up eating dinner sometime around 8 p.m.
I attempted to keep a journal throughout my training. The following excerpt is fairly representative of how the summer went. “It’s been almost two months since I first found out that I was selected in the lottery for this year’s Ironman race in Hawaii. The reality has begun to sink in as I have made hotel and airplane reservations.
I vacillate between feelings of excitement and fear. My biggest fear is that I will not finish the race — that I will not be mentally tough enough to do it. If I become physically disabled that’s one thing, but if I just mentally give up at some point — that will be the worst.
At times I don’t feel like I ‘m pushing myself hard enough,
i.e., I should be running further, biking further and swimming more yards. completing this race will be far more of a mental challenge than a physical one.
In training, I find that overcoming the inertia to get out the door is harder than actually doing the training. Once I ‘m on my bike or on my way to the pool, I usually have a pretty good workout. However, so often I just want to rest. I just want it to go away.
I guess the relentlessness of the pressure is the worst thing. I get done riding my bike a hard 35 miles after work one evening, come home, shower, eat and vegetate for a couple of hours, all the while thinking that I have to get up at 5:00 a.m. so I can go the pool and swim 2,500 – 3,000 yards. And then there’s running tomorrow night, and on it goes. That’s the hardest part.
On Sunday I rode up to Mt. Hamilton (60-mile round trip, 4, 000 ft. of climbing) and had a pretty good ride. I have decided that I should do the ride twice in one day as part of my training. Right now it seems so intimidating. My legs already hurt. Things to look forward to!
Just before I left for a business trip to Germany the first week of August, I developed a sharp pain in my left knee. I ran a couple of times while in Germany but the pain didn’t really go away. It finally got to the point that I stopped running altogether in the middle of August. It didn’tseem to bother me when I rode my bike but it hurt like hell when I ran.
My knee seemed to be better around the first of September so
I started cranking out the miles again. I just decided to run really easy and see how it went. At about this same time I decided to take every Monday off so that I could concentrate more on training. This went well for the first couple weeks of September and then I caught a terrible cold. It took me a couple of weeks to finally shake it and by then it was time to leave for Hawaii. I knew I was in trouble! During that whole two week period I had gone swimming once, bicycling once and running once.
Saturday morning, September 29th, Jim Sealy knocked on our door at 6:20 a.m. and the “Sealy express” hit the road to San Francisco International Airport at about 10 minutes to seven.
The bicycle box that I bought from American Airlines was huge. This necessitated all of us sitting in the front seat of the station wagon. All the while Francine and I were speculating on how we were going to get this monster box from the Kona Airport to the hotel in our “compact” rental car. Ah, the joys of travel ling.
The trip was relatively uneventful and, although it took two trips to the Kona Airport, we did get all of the luggage and the monster bike box to the hotel. We were staying at the host hotel, the King Kamehameha. The hotel was 0K but our room had a view looking right onto the roof. Oh, well!
Arriving in Kona had really begun to make everything very real. There were “Ironman”signs everywhere. This was no longer just a dream. Francine could see that I was having serious misgivings about all of this and gave me a present that she had brought along with her. She had an engraved plaque made with the words “No Balls — No Blue Chips”. An old friend of ours who had spent several years in the Navy in submarines used to say that. He said when they used to play poker the blue chips were always the most expensive and so it basically says if you ‘re not willing to take the risk, you won I t reap the rewards! Francine told me to look at it every day before the race.
9/29
“It’s night now (the view looks better!) and I feel much better. I wasn’t really psyched this afternoon but now that my bike is together, I’m beginning to get more into it.
Tomorrow I plan to go swimming and try a 50-mile bike ride in the afternoon. We t 11 see.
I ‘ve included a sketch of the course just to give some idea as to what this is all about. The swim is the first leg of this odyssey and probably the easiest (if you call swimming 2.4 miles in the ocean easy!)
The swim start is just off of a little beach to one side of Kailua Pier (which was, conveniently, right next to our hotel). The beach is very small and when the tide is in, like it was on race day, there is no dry sand. The actual start is about 30 yards offshore and is marked off by a banner that runs from the sea wall on one side to the pier on the other. The water at that point is over one’s head so the people who want to be in front must tread water until the start cannon goes off.
The swim course is essentially a rectangle which is just short of 1.2 miles on its long sides and 100 yards on the short side. The long sides are marked by bright orange buoys every two hundred yards. The corners where you turn are marked by two large boats that are anchored in position.
The bike course starts at Kailua Pier and once out of the transition area you immediately begin a two block long climb up to Queen Kaahumanu (“Queen K”) Highway where you make a left turn heading out of town. There are only a few scattered buildings and very little vegetation between here and the airport which is about 7 miles away. The terrain is gently rolling with no significant uphills or downhills.. This are is generally a bit windy and in evening. this wind reverses and blows (rom the mountains. From the Waikoloa area to Hawi. you will be biking into the legendary mumuku winds which blow 5-35 mph and in to 55 mph. After. turning around at Hawi. you will usually have these winds at your back to Kawaihae and then side winds again along HWY. 1
Once past the airport, things get pretty bleak. Between the airport and the small town of Kawaihae, about 25 miles away there is nothing but lava fields. Along each side of the road you can see nothing but black lava. Again, the terrain is rolling hills.
The course turns at Kawaihae and begins a 19-mile climb to the turnaround at the small town of Hawi. There is a little more vegetation throughout this stretch but is consists mainly of grass and scrubby trees. It looks more like the Southwestern United States than what you’d expect to see in Hawaii.
The climbing through here is not particularly steep. The maximum grade is 6% but the real killer is the wind. The last seven miles into Hawi is right into the wind and if the tradewinds are blowing, which they usually are, it can make life pretty miserable.
The bike course turnaround is right on the edge of Hawi and, at that point, you are going downhill and the wind is at your back. Heaven!
The course retraces the route back across the lava fields to Kona and then proceeds about six miles along the ocean front on Alii Drive, through a residential neighborhood to the Kona Surf Resort Hotel.
The run course begins in the parking lot of the Kona Surf and immediately begins with a climb up a fairly steep hill for about a quarter of a mile. The course then goes down a fairly steep hill for about half a mile and then turns around and goes back up the same hill.
The run course then proceeds back along the ocean front on Alii Drive to Kona. The course winds through Kona and then heads back out of town on Queen K. Highway towards the airport.
9/30
I got up about 7:15 a.m. and got ready to go for a morning swim. Francine got up and got ready for a little jog and off we went.
About five or six miles from town the course turns down a road to the Natural Energy Lab. This little detour is two miles down and two miles back. The course then returns to Kona on Queen K. highway. The finish line is on Alii Drive just a few yards from where it all begins in the morning with the swim.
There were already other athletes at the beach so there was not much danger in swimming alone. The water was warm. I waded in, donned my blue Bud Light swim cap (a souvenir from the Oxnard race), put on my goggles coated with “Cat Crap” anti—fogging solution (this is for real folks!) and off I went.
I decided that since I hadn’t been swimming for a while I t d just swim out 20—25 minutes and return. The water was warm and clear (and salty!). I was really neat to swim along and see the fish swimming below. The water was about 20 in most places. All in all, it was quite enjoyable and I felt pretty good.
We I re off to breakfast now. And then this afternoon, I going to go for a fifty-mile bike ride (that ought to be interesting).
Interesting is definitely the right word. God, what hell! Riding out across the lava fields is really a bitch. Hot! Windy! Nothing! I decided to ride out 1 1/2 hours and then turn around. It turns out that it was about a 63-mile round trip. Did it in just over 3 1/2 hours. Boy was I feeling poorly towards the end. I was running out of water so I t m hoping race day will be better since there will be aid stations every five miles on the bike course.
I was actually thinking at one point that if I could just get to the airport (about 7 miles from town!) that I could call Francine and she could come and get me. Then it dawned on me that I didn’t have any money with which to make a call! (I could beg! — I was sorely tempted!)
About three or four miles from the airport, Dave’s Bike shop had a stand set up with several big buckets of Gatorade. Yea! Hope! There were a couple of people stopped there including one lady who appeared to be in her late fifties. One of the other riders asked her how many miles she was putting in that day, she replied, “Oh, about 75—80. ” So much for my dose of humility for the day. Just for the record I passed her on the way back to Kona. (I guess that’s kind of like bragging about beating up on your Mom!)
When I finally got to the airport, it started to rain and it rained pretty hard all the way back to town. It felt wonderful I It’s like the gods looked down on my poor wretched body and took pity on me. It was so refreshing my pace picked up; ray spirits picked up and I just pedaled on into town.
I wrote at that point, ‘1 1 have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into, but it’s going to be painful!
It’s surprising how fast one recovers, I got back to the room, slurped about half a bottle of Gatorade, ate a banana and started to feel human, I took a shower, drank a Miller lite, ate some oatmeal cookies and the bike ride didn’t seem like such a big deal.
We lolled around the room for a couple of hours. Around 5:30 p.m., the rain stopped and we went down to the hotel restaurant, the Moby Dick, for dinner. There was a guy sitting at the table next to us with a T—shirt that said “El Salvador Triathlon, We’d already heard other people from Denmark, Germany, England and Australia. It was still unbelievable that I was a part of this.
10/1
“Got up for my morning swim. Felt pretty good! Swam for about 30 minutes out and was not too far from the turnaround buoy so I think an hour and 1/2 swim is doable.
We went to breakfast back at the Banana Hut cafe (or something like that!) Stuffed ourselves. We then took off for the Kona Coffee Mill and the City of Refuge for the only real sight—seeing’ we did the whole trip.
On the way back, Francine dropped me off at the Kona Surf so I could run the first part of the course. The run was OK but it sure is going to be a long run. The heat makes a real difference. Back in San Jose I could take off and run 8 – 10 miles with no problem at all. This run in Kona was only about
7.5 miles and by the time I got home I was shot.
10/2
For whatever reason, I feel more confident tonight. Who knows why? Tomorrow I plan to ride out to Hawi, the turnaround point, and have Francine come out and pick me up. Should be interesting
The ride out to Hawi wasn’t going too bad until I got about 33 miles from Kailua at Kawaihae. That’s the beginning of the nineteen mile stretch to Hawi. The terrain is either flat or uphill; there doesn’t seem to be a lot of downhills in this part. The hills aren’t really all that steep (maximum of 6%). They’re mainly an irritant. The worst part was the wind and the heat. almost
During this part of the ride, the winds are blowing head on. Combined with the heat and the hills, no matter how small, it was pretty demoralizing.
Francine caught up with me about five miles from Hawi. She stopped to give me some new water bottles which was good since I was almost out. I rested for a couple of minutes while we talked and then she took off for Hawi to wait for me. It was hard to see her drive away since I was pretty hot and tired and would have preferred to just get in the car. In any case, off she went.
The last five miles were terrible. I was having a real attitude problem. The wind was blowing pretty good and it seemed as if I was crawling up the hill. There were times I even thought about just pulling off the road and waiting until Francine came looking for me. What a weanie! Anyway, I finally did get to Hawi and the car.
From that point on, the bike ride had me very intimidated. I had gone for two rides since getting to Hawaii, each roughly half the distance l t d have to go in the race, and at the end of both rides I was shot. I really and truly didn’t think I could make it at that point.
And to pour salt in the wound, on the way home we passed several people who had ridden out to Hawi and were riding back home. They were riding almost the entire bike course for practice while I merely rode half of it and was shot. I began thinking that I was definitely in over my head.
That evening we went to a restaurant that was having a special Triathlete “All You Can Eat Buffet”. The food was OK but it was like a shark feeding frenzy. A lot of the athletes showed up and the amount of food consumed was amazing.
10/3
‘t I went out for my morning swim this morning and felt pretty good. I swam for almost 1 1/4 hours and felt pretty reasonable when I got out of the water. I didn’t feel nauseous at all which is really my biggest fear.
Today was a run day so at about 1 o t clock I had Francine take me out to the airport so I could run over the last 7 miles of the course (back to town). She dropped me off and headed back to the hotel.
It was hot, hot and hot as I took off for town. I was carrying a water bottle and figured I ‘d just take it easy. About a mile from town, I ran out of water and I ran out of gas (figuratively). I walked the last mile back to the hotel.
I knew I t d probably be doing quite a bit of walking if I made it to the marathon so I thought l t d see how long it took me to walk a mile. I clocked it at 13 minutes. t‘
At that point it’s probably a good thing that I walked because I figured out that if I could average 13 minutes a mile then I could finish the run in 5 and 1/2 hours. That convinced roe that if I could just get through the bike ride, there was a chance of getting to the finish line. I figured then that the bike ride would be the key.
Thursday was a rest day. My training had ended. I had decided not to do anything Thursday and Friday except rest. At this point, at least, I began to feel calmer. It was out of my hands — there was nothing more I could do. I told myself that I would just start the race and go as far as I could.
We relaxed most of the day. That evening there was a mandatory pre—race meeting and carbo—loading party. It was held outside on the hotel grounds and was slated to start at 6:30.
People started showing up at about 5:30 so by the time we got there, most of the “good” seats near the stage had been taken. The food, however, was good and we had a nice time. We met some nice people and had an enjoyable evening.
The bikes had to be checked in at the swim bike transition area on Kailua Pier Friday. My assigned time was between 11:00 and 2:00 but I got out there about 10:45 so I didn’t have to stand in a long line later.
Each bike was given a quick safety check and, once approved, was taken away and put in a numbered rack. We were all told to deflate the tires somewhat so they didn’t burst while sitting in the hot afternoon sun. We knew that we would be able to come by in the morning and pump up the tires to their normal pressure.
Once the bike was checked in, I knew it was too late to not do the race. My attitude at that point was still, 1 8 11 start and just go as far as I can.
We spent the remainder of Friday trying to relax and just wandering around Kailua. At about 5:30 we headed out to find some pasta, the pre—race food preferred by endurance athletes because of its high carbohydrate content. (It’s a good excuse for eating a lot!)
We found a nice little place but because we were not the only ones with this idea, it took us about 40 minutes to get a table. It was worth the wait. The food was excellent. Then it was back to the hotel to do one last gear check and try to get some sleep — ha!
On the morning of the race, I got up at 4:45 a.m. after not having slept very well — surprise! I got into ray swim suit, put on my sweats and headed down to the bike transition area to pump up my tires and get my body marked.
I checked in and they marked my arms and legs with my number, 545, and marked the back of my left calf with the letter “E” to denote my age group. From there I headed over to the bike racks, pump in hand, so I could pump up my tires.
I did this and headed back up to the room to roust Francine. Since our room was right next to the race start, I didn’t have to worry about such things as standing in line for the Port—a— Potties since I could just run up to the room.
I was actually not too nervous at this point, although I do remember snapping at Francine a couple of times. I tried to stay calm and, in all honesty, was simply planning to just start the race and go until it appeared as if I made a credible showing and then quit. Then, I thought, I could simply go back to the hotel, clean up and join Francine to take pictures.
We headed down to the race area and wandered around a little. 1 made a couple more trips upstairs to the john and then it was time to move to the starting area. Security was such that only race officials, press members, volunteers and contestants could enter the immediate area. I gave Francine a kiss and off I went, not having the faintest idea what lay before me.
As all of the contestants crowded onto the small beach and into the water, the countdown began. “Ten minutes t til race time”, the announcer would bellow over the loud speaker. They began herding all of the contestants in the water back of the starting banner.
I moved toward the back since I had no desire to be in the midst of 1400 people flailing about in the water when the starting cannon went off. My plan was to wait a few seconds after the start and then take off. I figured a minute or two was not going to make any difference in my time.
They were having trouble herding all of the front swimmers behind the start line and so 7 a.m., the official start time, came and went and we hadn’t started yet. Then all of a sudden, and without any notice, the cannon fired and the race was off.
I stood there for about 30 40 seconds while the large majority of swimmers took off like grunion. The water was churning and was mass of white froth, and flailing arms and legs. Mind you, I was not the only person who held back. There were a number of us who had decided that swimming should not be a contact sport.
As I began to swim, I. kept trying to tell myself to just relax, take it easy and enjoy the ride. Right! After the first two to three hundred yards, things had thinned out a little and, while there were still a lot of people around, there was more than enough room to swim.
The water was not as clear as it had been, partially due to the large number of people churning up the water and partially due to the waves that seemed to be a bit larger than during my practice swims.
As I churned along, I would look up occasionally to make sure I was heading reasonably straight and to see if I could see the boat that marked the first turn. The orange buoys that were anchored every two hundred yards definitely made navigating much easier. The large number of swimmers helped also. The idea was that as long as you were swimming in the general direction that everyone else was going, you couldn’t be too far off.
I saw the boat approaching and began aiming for the corner, I swam right between the anchor line and the hull of the boat — no sense swimming any further than you have to. There were lots of people on the boat and they were all yelling and cheering.
At about this same time it seemed to get a little choppier. I could feel myself being tossed up and down a bit and I kept hoping that I wouldn’t get seasick. I swam the hundred or so yards to the second boat (filled with more cheering people) and made the turn for ‘home’.
By this time my mouth tasted like salt and I could feel the unpleasant feel of saltwater in my stomach. No matter how much you try there is just no way that you can keep from swallowing some amount of salt water. Even though the waves were tossing us around a little and I had ingested my share of salt water, I still felt pretty reasonable and was confident I ‘d make it back with no problem.
There were still lots of people around which made me glad since I didn’t really relish the idea of being the last one out of the water.
The end of the swim course is set up so it kind of funnels all of the swimmers up to the ramp on the pier. At that point there are race officials that are helping everyone out of the water and up the ramp. I don’t care how good you are, after 2 e 4 miles of swimming, you ‘re still a little wobbly when you first hit land.
At the top of the ramp, I gave my timing tag to the official (it had been tied to the drawstring on my swimsuit with a rubber band) and proceeded to the freshwater showers. I grabbed a hose and hosed myself down with cold, fresh water. It felt wonderful and was kind of a shot in the arm. As I emerged from the showers and jogged through the next station, another one of the volunteers handed me the bag containing my biking clothes.
The changing room was a beehive of activity — and a mess! I found a bench, toweled off, changed into my biking shorts and jersey, grabbed a glass of Gatorade and a glass of water, and headed out the door to my bike.
The bike racks were staffed with volunteers and as soon as you emerged from the dressing room, they would yell out your number and by the time you got to your bike, someone had it out of the rack and waiting for you. I slapped on my shoes (thank goodness for Velcro fasteners) and got on my bike. I heard the reassuring “click” as my cleats popped into place and I was off!
The street out of the transition area was crowded with people who were all cheering and yelling. I didn’t see Francine although she said later that she saw me. I really didn’t feel too bad as I started up Palani Drive and the two block long climb up to Queen K. Highway. The street was lined with people all the way to the top who were all yelling and cheering. That always helps.
As I made the turn onto Queen K. Highway, I was really dreading the next leg of the race. The temperature was still reasonable since it was only about 8 a.m. I told myself to just relax, settle down and take it easy. I kept trying to tell myself that I wasn’t here to win — just to finish (but, if truth be known, at that point in time I still didn’t think I’d really finish!)
I settled into a reasonable rhythm and began to shake off the effects of the swim. I felt pretty good as I passed the airport and headed out onto the lava fields. Only 105 miles to go! There were a lot of cyclers ahead of me and there were a lot behind me so I didn’t feel too badly.
Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere it seemed as if someone switched on the wind. On my training rides on both the Sunday and Tuesday before the race, the ride out to Kawaihae had been easy. Today, the wind was really making us work. The heat had begun to increase and the wind was coming right at us. It was pretty demoralizing.
The aid stations were like little oases that sprouted out of the lava every five miles. They were set up extremely well and the volunteers did an absolutely fantastic job. Each aid station was stretched out over several hundred yards. As you approached there was a place alongside the road where you could toss empty water bottles. As you proceeded along there were some people with new bottles containing cold water. They would simply hold them out and as you rode by you would grab for them kind of like going for the brass ring on the merry—go—round.
After the water, there were people with bottles of Gatorade, then people with bottles of Coke (yuck!) • After the ‘liquid people’ there would be the ‘food people’. People would have bananas, orange slices, cookies and at some stations “PowerBars”. And then, in my mind, there were the most important people, the “Sponge people” • These people would have cold sponges that you could grab as you rode by. I would take these sponges and squeeze them on the back of my neck. They were generally ice cold and it was like a jolt of energy after the heat and wind had beaten you down.
As the heat and wind continued to beat on me, I began to think of where along the bike course I would quit. The rides that I had had on Sunday and Tuesday were still in my mind and I just didn’t know how I was going to do this. I kept asking myself how far I had to go to make it at least look respectable. I kept rationalizing quitting by telling myself that even the pros had quit at one time or another. A couple of years ago, Kirsten Hansen, one of the top females, had quit the bike after sixty miles.
I was really dreading the climb to the turnaround at Hawi (52.5 miles) and kind of toyed with the idea of quitting at the aid station at Kawaihai, just before the climb begins. Kawaihae came and I was still going. (79 miles to go).
I passed through Kawaihae and began the 19-mile climb to Hawi. Mind you, it’s not nineteen miles of solid climbing but there’s definitely more uphill than downhill. The hills are not killer steep but some of them do require some good old fashioned out—of—the—saddle, stand—up—on—the—pedals climbing.
I still had not seen the leaders coming the other way which I had been expecting for the last hour or so. That, at least was a little encouraging. I had been over this stretch of road on Tuesday so I knew the last seven miles would be the worst. 1 road from mile marker to mile marker. Some of them came easy, some of them came hard,
At about 12 to 15 miles from Hawi I finally saw the leaders along with the press vehicles coming down the hill the other way. At this point, they were about 25 to 30 miles ahead of me — no big surprise! From the time the leader raced by, there was a fairly steady stream of bikers strung out all the way back to me and beyond.
I finally got to the mile marker that indicated there were seven miles left to go to Hawi. The wind was coming right at us and was really blowing. I kept thinking that I would just pull the plug at Hawi. That would at least be respectable. I kept going. At times I felt like I was in one of those dreams when you’re trying to move quickly and you can
I started to see buildings and knew I only had a mile or so to go to the turnaround. It flattened out a little, and although the wind was still blowing head on, I began to feel a little better. I approached the “Special Foods” section and they handed me my bag containing my two PowerBars. I stuffed them into the back of my jersey, tossed the bag to the side and kept on going.
A couple of minutes later I got to the turnaround. Somehow the thought of quitting disappeared and I just made the obligatory U—turn and was headed back to Kona. I grabbed a full bottle of water, a full bottle of Gatorade and a banana at the aid station there and I was on my way. (60 miles to go)
The wind was now at my back and I was going downhill. Heaven! I figured I could at least make it back to Kawaihai. After all, it was mostly level or downhill and the wind would be behind me. It was like free miles. I inhaled the banana, grabbed one of the PowerBars from the back pocket of my jersey and ripped open the wrapper. At this point I was pedal ling easily, letting gravity and the wind do their thing, while I concentrated on eating.
I finished eating and picked up the pace. It was wonderful. I was heading down the hill at around 30 miles per hour and it took very little energy. If it were only downhill all the way home.
As I was coming down the hill there were still a lot of bikers coming up the hill. It made me feel good to know that I was not last. During this time, I began to think that I could make it back to the bike—run transition area. I knew that from Kawaihae I had about 39 — 40 miles to go. I had ridden over that part of the course and knew that even if I rode very slowly, I still had time to make it back before the bike cut—off time of 5:30 p.m.
I rode through Kawaihae and headed back across the lava fields. It had not clouded over at all and the temperature had climbed substantially since morning. It was hot! I didn’t know how hot but I knew it was hot. Every time I came to an aid station it was heaven. I wanted to nominate the It sponge people” for sainthood. I kept looking forward to my cold sponge every five miles.
Right after one of the aid stations about five or ten miles from Kawaihae, the wind seemed to be at our backs. I thought how nice it was going to be to have a tail wind going back. After all, it made sense. We had a head wind going out, we should have a tail wind coming back. Wrong!
Just about the time I was rejoicing, the wind seemed to shift and started beating on us again. It was again demoralizing but by then I knew I was going to complete the bike ride. Kailua was only about 22 miles away, which meant the airport was only 15 miles away. Piece of cake! My watch told me I had plenty of time.
If I could get back to Kailua, I knew I had another six or seven miles to go to the transition area at the Kona Surf hotel but that really didn’t matter. I knew I could do that. I began to think about the run. Should I do the run? Or should I just pack it in after the bike? I really thought at that point that I t d just stop after the bike. After all, I ‘d come a lot further than I was going to originally.
I decided that I could live with that. Everyone knew that I hadn’t been able to run much because of my hurt knee and the cold I ‘d gotten two weeks before the race. The plan was set.
The mile markers came and went. I rode from sponge to sponge. I passed the airport. 14 miles to go. I saw the media helicopter following the lead runners down around the run turnaround at the Natural Energy Research Lab. Surprise thought they’d already be back up on Queen K. Highway.
Buildings began to appear and then I made the turn into Kailua. I could see our hotel! The course passed within one block of the hotel. Why couldn’t I just ride over there, take a shower, and go sit by the. pool and drink a beer. What a great idea. I kept riding.
There were people scattered all along the route back to the Kona Surf Hotel. They were enthusiastically cheering for both the runners going the other way and for those of us still on the bikes heading down the home stretch.
The bike course is 112 miles long and at about 111 miles there is a hill that is about a quarter of a mile long and fairly steep. The hill approaches and you rise out of the saddle to begin the climb. Ouch! You I re legs are saying, “What a rude place to put a hill — even a little hill.” The people at the top of the hill are yelling to all the cyclists that go by, l‘ You ‘ve got it. You ‘re just about there. That’s the last hill!
At the top of the hill, you sit back down on the seat, content in the fact that you have, in fact, made it through the bike course. For me, my biggest fear was now behind me.
I turned down the drive to the Kona Surf. It’s a steep hill so I just coasted down and was trying to decide if I was going to run or not. I rode into the transition area and slowed down. I turned my left foot out to get my cleat to release from the pedal. Pop! (At least now I wouldn’t fall over!) My left foot hit the ground and I popped my right foot free at about the same time as one of the volunteers grabbed my bike. I swung my leg over the cross bar and stood on solid ground for the first time in 6 hours and 59 minutes
The volunteer took my bike and directed me to they had the bag containing my running clothes. I headed over to the changing tent. Somehow, I didn’t think about quitting. I just put on my running clothes, smeared some sun block on my very sunburnt arms, took a drink of water and headed out the door. I tossed the bag containing my bike gear into the proper pile and began walking towards the transition exit.
There was an aid station right there and so I grabbed a couple of cookies, a slice of orange and a glass of water. 1 munched and walked the twenty or thirty yards to the exit. 1 tossed the cup and began to jog slowly. My legs were not to amused by all of this. They were stiff and tired and weren’t particularly interested in running.
The road out of the Kona Surf consists primarily of a fairly steep road about two or three hundred yards long. Great! The legs are trashed and we get to run uphill. I walked as did most of the people emerging from the transition area at about that time.
At the top of the hill, we were awarded with a downhill stretch for about a half mile. I began to jog. Unfortunately, at the bottom, we had to turn around and run (or walk) back up the hill. There was an aid station at the bottom of the hill and I grabbed a glass of water and a cup of ice. I decided to walk back up the hill since my legs still weren’t yet convinced they wanted to do this.
I passed the 1 mile marker on the way up and thought to myself, “Only 25 miles to go”. The sun was still pretty high and the temperature was still pretty hot. At the top of the hill, I decided that I ‘d just take it easy and run when I could and walk when I couldn’t until I got back to Kailua. I thought that maybe I’d just go to the hotel, find Francine, and enjoy the rest of the day. Enough is enough.
I’d run for a mile or so and then walk for a ways. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. When I was walking, I tried to keep a pretty brisk pace. There were aid stations every mile on the run course and once again the “sponge people” were my favorite. The unfortunate part was that my shoes got soaking wet. I would pay for this later on.
The people all along the course were great. It didn’t matter that the winners had already crossed the finish line. It didn’t matter if you were walking or running. If you were in the race, they were cheering for you. A lot of the people had programs listing the names of all of the competitors. They would see you coming, look up your number and then cheer you on by name. You’d be going along and hear, “Great job, Mike. Keep it going. You can do it!
I kept running and walking until I got back to Kailua. It was still light and I realized that I was making reasonable time. Midnight, the cutoff time, was a long way away. My legs were tired, and I was tired and hot, and my feet were beginning to hurt but I was still standing and, all things considered, I didn’t feel too badly.
There came a point when I could have continued down Alii Drive for about three quarters of a mile and gone to the hotel. The course turned to the right to go back up to Queen K. Highway and out into the nothingness between town and the airport. 1 thought about going back to the hotel, but I turned right and continued along the course.
The people in town were lining the streets and cheering us all on. I meandered through town and up the hill to the highway. I passed the nine-mile mark. 17 miles to go. It was twilight. It would soon be dark. There were a lot of people coming the other way. They were almost done. Oh, why couldn’t that be me.
Somewhere along this stretch I began to have a little chat with myself. I knew I had the time to finish. Midnight was still a long way away. I simply had to muster up the will power, I told myself that if I was still on the course at midnight and hadn’t crossed the finish line, that was OK because I tried and failed because I couldn’t push myself fast enough. I told myself that if I didn’t finish because I collapsed or was pulled out of the race for medical reasons, that was OK too. But I told myself, “If you don’t finish the race because you just quit — that’s not OK! ” I guess that’s what kept me going most of the day. I just couldn’t live with quitting.
I just told myself to keep moving forward. I would either get to the finish line in time or I wouldn’t. It was then I knew I wouldn’t quit. It then became a question of time. Would I get done before midnight and before my body gave out or not? 1 plodded on.
Somewhere around the ten- or eleven-mile mark I passed a guy who was hobbling forward with one artificial leg. What an inspiration! I really had a talk with myself after that. 1 basically said, “Mike, you weanie! You I re either going to finish this race or you ‘re going to get carted off in an ambulance. If that guy has enough guts to be out here with one leg you’ve got nothing to bitch about! Shut up and keep moving!
I gave myself a kick in the ass and started running. The temperature had dropped substantially and it really made me feel better. I passed the thirteen-mile mark and realized I was half way done with the marathon. (13 miles to go)
As I approached the fourteen-mile mark it was getting dark. At the aid station someone handed me a fluorescent piece of plastic. I placed it around my neck. It was a race rule that all participants on the course after dark had to wear the fluorescent pieces so they could be more easily seen. We also had to wear reflective tape on the fronts and backs of our shoes.
At mile fifteen, the course turned down the road to the Natural Energy Research Lab. It was two miles down and two miles back. By this time, it was pitch dark. There were no lights on the road of any kind and the moon was obscured behind the clouds. The road was marked with little green fluorescent sticks about every twenty to thirty yards.
It was almost surrealistic. We were following this pitch black path outlined by little green fluorescent sticks off into black nothingness. It is really hard to describe how dark it was. People were only visible because of the fluorescent necklaces they wore.
At mile sixteen, they had another Special Foods station and someone handed me my bag. I had put a PowerBar in it since I didn’t know if I ‘d be able to get any on the course. I ripped it open and ate it as I walked along in the dark. A few minutes later I approached the lights at the aid station for mile seventeen and the run turnaround. It was back to Kailua from here!
Once we turned around, we could see the lights from the houses above Kailua. They were a long way away but at least you could see them. I heard one guy say, t‘ I think 1 8 11 try to run a While, and then I saw his fluorescent necklace bounce off into black nothingness. That seemed like a good idea so I started to run again. It was getting harder and harder to start running time. I could tell I was developing some nasty blisters on my feet and my knees were really getting stiff.
It didn’t seem to take too long to get to mile eighteen. 1 could see the lights from the Queen K. Highway about a mile away and decided that I ‘d walk back up to the highway and then start running again. I had grabbed a PowerBar as I passed mile eighteen and just carried it along as emergency rations. As I walked the mile backed up to the highway, I knew I was going to make it. It wasn’t going to be fast. It might not be pretty, but I knew I was going to finish the Ironman in Kona. A dream that I had had for a long time and had sweated for through the previous few months was actually going to happen,
At that moment as I looked back toward the city and knew ltd make it, I was really overcome with emotion for a minute or so, I felt this surge of elation and tears well up in my eyes. 1 know that must sound weird and it’s really hard to explain. 1 got myself back together and just focused on getting back to the highway.
The nineteen-mile mark came and went. I told myself that I could run to the twenty-mile mark and from there it was a simple little 10K home. I did, in fact, run most of the way to the twenty mile mark. I decided that every time I got to a mile marker, l t d run as far as I could and then walk to the next one.
As I pulled away from the aid station near the twenty-mile mark I fell into step with a man and a woman who were walking along. We got to talking and it was so nice to have some company after 134 miles of being more or less by myself that I just kept walking with them.
We all introduced ourselves Bruce and Elena were both from Canada and had qualified for the Ironman at the Ironman Canada. It made me feel a little better that even though these people had qualified for this race, they were still back with me. In any event we talked and talked and walked along fairly briskly.
I suppose I could have pushed it more from here on in but I no longer felt the need. I knew I ‘d finish and I r d finish well within the 17-hour limit. It was nice to have the company and my feet were really trashed by this time. I felt like I was walking on a bed of coals.
Every time we’d pass a mile marker, we’d let out a little, “All right! ” At the aid station near mile marker twenty-two they were offering cups of hot chicken soup in addition to everything That may sound strange but I tried it and it was great. All three of us walked into the darkness with a cup of chicken soup in one hand and a glass of water in the other.
We passed mile marker twenty-two and Elena remarked that it was good to get by that one since the year before she had had to drop out of the race at mile twenty-two of the run. (4 miles to go)
Bruce’s feet were hurting him too and all of us were complaining about our knees so we tried to keep the conversation going instead of dwelling on our aches. We had all agreed that we’d just walk on in until we hit Alii drive and the final turn for the finish line,
Mile twenty-three came and went as did mile twenty-four. By this time, we could see the lights from town and the hotels. Bruce began to talk about how hungry he was and how he wanted some “real” food like a great big cheeseburger. No more of this Power Bar and banana stuff. We were all laughing and joking as we approached the twenty-five-mile mark on the edge of town. I asked one of the volunteers at the aid station if we were winning. We all had a good chuckle as she laughingly told us that there was nobody ahead of us.
We started down the hill into town and there were still people picnicking along the street cheering on all of the contestants. Our legs didn’t much like walking down the hill and I could feel my blisters burning as my feet slid forward in my running shoes. No matter. We were home. We could hear the crowd at the finish line. We reached the bottom of the hill and turned on to Kuakini Highway.
People were still all along the road cheering and saying, “Congratulations. Good job. We walked a third of a mile or so to Hua 1 alai street. We all shook each other’s hands and congratulated each other, knowing that once we crossed the finish line, we would probably never see each other again.
When we turned onto Hualalai Street we could see Alii Drive and we knew that once we turned on to Alii drive, it was less than a half a mile to the finish line. Bruce walked about twenty more yards and then took off in a slow run. He slowly picked up speed as he turned the corner and vanished. We heard the cheers. He was on his way “home.
I took off next and when I made the turn onto Alii Drive, the pain seemed to disappear like magic. There were hundreds of people along the streets and they were all cheering and yelling. My stride lengthened a little as I got this huge surge of adrenal in. I rounded the bend on Alii and all of a sudden, I could see the finish line. Everything was lit up like daytime. Huge bright lights. The bleachers all along one side were filled with people on their feet clapping and cheering. The other side of the street was lined with people on their feet. I heard them announce my name, “Number 545, Mike Miller from Santa Clara, California! What a rush!
The finish line got closer and it was almost dreamlike. 1 ran under the banner across the finish line. The clock said 14 hours, 22 minutes. I was the 1,097th runner to cross the line. Who cares? I made it. I did it. That’s all I came to do.
Two of the “catchers” working the finish line grabbed me and put my arms around there shoulders just to make sure I could stand. Some faceless lady put a lei around my neck as I was escorted away from the finish line in the good care of my catchers. They asked me if I wanted some water. I did and they got it for me. They asked me if I wanted to go to the medical tent. I felt OK so I said no.
They asked me if I wanted to get my medal and get my picture taken right then. I was still a little rummy and that sound like a good idea so they took rue over to the photo stand. Someone presented me with my medal and they took my picture. They then took me over to get my finisher’s T—shirt. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on and I thought maybe I was supposed to give them my number or something. The lady laughed and said, “No, now we’re going to give you something, as she handed me a bag containing my T—shirts.
The catchers asked me if I wanted to go to the massage tent. I told them that I just wanted to find my wife. At about that time, Francine came running up. She gave me a big hug, sweat and all. She had tears in her eyes. It was one of those ‘magic moments. My catchers left me in Francine’s able hands and walked back to the finish line to help another runner.
Francine took a couple of pictures and then we started for the room. I was really glad, at that point, that we were staying right there at the host hotel I just wanted to go take a shower and get off of my feet. My feet really hurt and I knew that when I took off my shoes it was going to be pretty grim.
I told Francine how much l t d like a beer so she ran into the sundries store in the hotel while I limped toward the elevator.
A minute or so after I got to the room, Francine arrived with my beer. An ice-cold beer. Boy did that taste good! I think we were both stunned that it was all over and that I had actually made it. But it was true, I had the medal, the T—shirts and the blisters to prove it.
I took off my shoes and, as I thought, it was pretty grim. The blue dye on my running shoes was obviously not color—fast. My feet had been swimming around in the wet shoes for hours and the bottoms of my feet were dyed dark blue. The balls of both feet were solid blisters and I also had blisters on my heels and on a couple of my toes. Walking was very painful.
The shower felt good except my feet burned like hell. 1 wasn’t about to fight with the dye on my feet so I emerged from the shower with blue feet. I put on some shorts and my brand-new T—shirt that said “Ironman Finisher”. I, like Bruce earlier, wanted some real’ food. I was hungry. At first, I wasn’t too thrilled about walking anywhere but, room service at the hotel closed at 9 p.m. and it was approaching 10. If I wanted to eat, I ‘d have to walk. Ouch!
We knew that there was a restaurant, “Drysdale s” that was down Alii Drive about a quarter mile or so. I put on some clean socks and another pair of running shoes and off I hobbled.
Needless to say, I walked slowly and with a bit of a limp. 1 didn’t feel too bad, the street was filled with lots of people who walked just like me.
As we walked along Alii Drive, hundreds of people were still out there cheering on the finishers. So, did we as they went by. Lots of the people who had finished earlier were wearing their T— shirts. It was like being a member of an exclusive fraternity. People you never saw before in your life would say, ” Congratulations, ” or “Good job.
We made it to Drysdale’s and I inhaled a hamburger. Real food! And more cold beer! We just sat there and Francine told me about her day watching the race and I told her about my day running the race. In spite of the pain, I felt so good I couldn’t believe that I ever really thought about quitting. 1 was so happy I hadn’t.
We hobbled back toward the hotel and stopped to cheer on a few of the later finishers. They had the music cranked up and had a real party going at the finish line. We stuck around for a little while but my legs finally gave out. I know Francine wanted to stay until midnight, but I finally got to the point where I had to get off of my feet and legs.
I crawled into bed back at the hotel and just laid there, I was so tired and so pumped up I couldn’t sleep. I must have gone over the whole race in my mind. I didn’t sleep very well that night, but, what the hell, I didn’t have much to do the next day except start to heal.
The Day After
We woke up fairly early the next day. As I got out of bed, I
could tell I was going to be none to agile. My knees were stiff, my thighs were stiff and sore and the bottoms of my feet hurt like hell when I stepped on them.
It took a while to get ready to go but we finally made it and we headed for breakfast with me all decked out in my ‘finishers T—shirt. They were supposed to have a nice Sunday brunch at the hotel so we headed down there.
The brunch was one of the most impressive I’ve ever been to. There was more food than you could eat in days. But we felt obligated to see how much damage we could do. There were several other triathletes eating there that morning so I imagine we all made a serious dent in the food supply.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves eating and sipping champagne! We talked about how much we wanted to stay instead of having to pack to go home. And we talked of the race and what a great experience it had been. Here we were, my legs still hurt, my feet still hurt, and we were talking about returning the following year.
It’s hard to explain why one would want to do this all over again. So, I won l t. Suffice it to say that we clinked our glasses of champagne and vowed we would return someday to once again challenge the ocean, the lava fields, and the winds of Kona.
I am sure that I can break twelve hours next time. Although time doesn’t really matter. The day after the race we ran into a British guy that we t d met at the Carbo—Loading Dinner on Thursday night. Francine had seen him come across the finish line at a little over 10 hours, an excellent time. He walked up to me, shook my hand and said, [1]8 1 saw you come across the finish line. Congratulations! Good j 0b, I knew then that the really important thing was simply to finish. Time really didn’t matter. Some people were faster than others, but if you got across that finish line, you had earned the respect of everyone else in the race, not to mention a certain sense of respect for yourself.
“That is one of the amazing things about endurance sports they instill a tremendous sense of self—confidence in those who partake in them. It doesn’t matter how you do, only that you strive for and achieve some sense of control over your body, your mind, your destiny and the monster under the bed. t‘ I
A Final Note
As we were waiting outside the hotel to leave for the airport a couple days after the race, Francine began talking to a lady whose husband had also done the race. He was, like me, picked in the lottery and had never done a race like this before. They were talking about how nervous and intimidated we were before the race. The other lady said that the morning of the race, her husband was sitting in their room crying, afraid he would be dragged from the water, unable to finish. That may sound ridiculous, but I can understand. It was nice to know that I was not the only one who had stood at the starting line filled with self—doubt and lots of questions.
The conditions for the race this year were the worst they t d been since 1983. The winds were stronger and the temperature was hotter than at most of the previous races. But even so, the biggest obstacle by far was ‘the monster — the fear and self— doubt that lurks in the mind.
In the end, the man had finished the race. We had both slain the monster.
In a previous post I talked about how China is looking to outflank the US in virtually every area in a political version of the game ‘Go’. They swooped in and filled the trade vacuum left when Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership by implementing their own version, RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) and getting 15 Pacific nations to join including US allies Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia. I have talked about how they have implemented and are continuing to expand rail service between China and Europe. In addition, they are investing billions of dollars in Africa. This is all part of a typical ‘Go’ strategy and now the landscape has gotten even more complex.
China and Russia announced that they have signed a memorandum of agreement to collaborate on lunar missions. This could entail establishing a research station in orbit around or on the surface of the moon. China has been precluded from participating in US missions to the International Space Station because US law prohibits NASA from cooperating with Beijing. So, China has been very aggressive about advancing their own space program and here we are.
“The joint announcement by China and Russia on Tuesday has the potential to scramble the geopolitics of space exploration, once again setting up competing programs and goals for the scientific and, potentially, commercial exploitation of the moon. This time, though, the main players will be the United States and China, with Russia as a supporting player.
In recent years, China has made huge advances in space exploration, putting its own astronauts in orbit and sending probes to the moon and to Mars. It has effectively drafted Russia as a partner in missions that it has already planned, outpacing a Russian program that has stalled in recent years.”1
“China pledged to keep the joint project with Russia “open to all interested countries and international partners,” as the statement put it, but it seemed all but certain to exclude the United States and its allies in space exploration”.1
It should be patently apparent to everyone given all of the above that the long-term survival of the United States is 100 percent dependent upon building strong international relationships and alliances. A policy of ‘going it alone’ will lead to the ultimate demise of the United States. It might not even take a war to make that happen. The US will just become irrelevant on the world stage.
China is aggressively playing their game of ‘Go’ and, unfortunately, the Biden administration is inheriting a geo-political mess where we are now having to play ‘catch up.’ It is not a comfortable position to be in. I have included some excerpts from an article in the NY Times about the challenges we face now that we are in another space race – on top of all of the other international political challenges we face.
“Beijing is intent on dominating the democratized space age. It is building ground-based lasers that can zap spacecraft and rehearsing cyberattacks meant to sever the Pentagon from its orbital fleets.
Seven years ago, Washington seized on a new strategy for strengthening the United States military’s hand in a potential space war. The plan evolved during the Obama and Trump administrations and, it is expected to intensify under President Biden.2
The five takeaways identified in this article regarding the Chinese space program are:
China is rushing to dominate space with powerful new weapons
Cyberattacks emerged as a cheaper way to take out U.S. space fleets
Washington is bolstering space entrepreneurs to thwart Beijing
The Trump administration sought an offensive edge
The Biden administration aims for orbital resilience
While I agree with all of the above, I would add the need for greater international cooperation between the US and the European Space Agency and NATO. With China and Russia teaming up for the new space race, the US is going to have to meet this challenge head on and an ‘America first’ policy just won’t cut it. Congress has to have the courage and foresight to allocate sufficient funding to counter this threat. And the American public needs to understand that this is a very real threat and any money allocated to counter this threat by developing a very robust space capability via trips to the moon, Mars and beyond is not ‘wasted’ money but an investment in the very survival of this country.
I read a letter to the editor in the Bozeman Chronicle this morning that is a perfect example of how polarized this nation is, in large part due to the spin put on stories by conservative media. Keep in my mind that Fox News ‘news programming’ has shrunk significantly over the last four years and been replaced by ‘opinion’ programming. Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson and others do not purport to be journalists nor does Fox News represent them as such. They are ‘entertainment and opinion’ programs and, as such, they can pretty much say anything they want. Although, Fox News sobered up a bit after the events of January 6th when they got slapped with a defamation lawsuit from Dominion, one of the companies that manufactures voting machines. And, oh by the way, Lou Dobbs lost his job for the exact same reason. Unfortunately, a lot of people believe that the information being broadcast by these opinion programs is, in fact, news. The letter I read this morning seems to be an example of that. It states:
“My Liberal fellow citizens seem to be still obsessed with former President Trump. Perhaps it’s because the former president accomplished so much.
The action that affected me most was fixing the VA. I have never been so happy with the level of care and the communication from the VA. Additionally, Trump repaired our military, formed the Space Force, opened a dialogue with North Korea, sponsored Middle East peace with Israel, executed Operation Warp Speed, conducted historic prison reform, put intense pressure on China and Iran, built hundreds of miles of border wall, oil and gas independence for the first time in 70 years and, prior to the pandemic, had the US economy humming on all cylinders. Most liberals do not know any of this because it is not covered on the ‘Legacy’ Media.”
So, let’s go through this piece by piece. I would agree that things seemed to have improved in the VA so that is a good thing. I’m not sure what ‘Trump repaired the military’ means. There were stories that were propagated on Fox and other conservative media that when Trump came into office the military had ‘no bullets’, etc. All of those stories were completely debunked. In addition, he pulled troops out of Syria and abandoned our Kurdish allies against the recommendations of the senior military leadership. He ordered pulling our troops out of Germany, against the advice of the military leadership, solely because he was mad at Angela Merkel. He did form the Space Force and that is a good think.
He “opened dialogue with North Korea”. The only thing this accomplished was to give Kim Jong-Un an elevated platform on the world stage. The US received nothing from this effort and recent intelligence reports indicate that North Korea’s nuclear program is moving full steam ahead.
He “sponsored Middle East peace with Israel”. He did move the US Embassy to Jerusalem – amid much controversy. However, the Palestinian issue is still festering and not resolved. In fact, it has probably worsened because the Trump administration policies essentially killed anything resembling a ‘two state’ solution that would give the Palestinians their own homeland. The other countries that have ‘made nice’ with Israel appeared to have done so with the incentive of receiving advanced weapon systems from the US – against the wishes of Congress.
He “executed Operation Warp Speed”. That is true. However, there was essentially no plan for national distribution of the vaccines. If you develop a vaccine but have no plan as to how to get that into people’s arms, it cannot be considered a success. As anyone who works in the defense industry understands, 80 percent of the cost of a system is in the tail end – the logistics, maintenance and support. If you ignore that part of the problem, you basically end up with a very expensive paperweight.
Historic prison reform did take place under Trump but the fact is, the US still incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. There is nothing in the actions from the Trump administration to address this issue or the whole ‘prison for profit’ system that only contributes to the mass incarceration in this country.
He “put intense pressure on China and Iran”. As I have stated in previous posts, the US consumer and farmers paid for Trump’s trade war with China. China’s economy started recovering before ours and is percolating along just fine. As far as Iran, they have resumed their nuclear program so Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement did nothing but accelerate their march toward developing a nuclear weapon.
He “built hundreds of miles of border wall.” That is just patently false. There were some sections of the wall that were repaired but the amount of new wall that was built is minimal. Secondly, the money for the wall was taken from already Congressionally allocated military funding and was sure as hell not paid for my Mexico.
The US was pretty much energy independent but given the repeal of many existing environmental regulations, you have to wonder at what cost. The repeal of these regulations and the withdrawal from the Paris Accords, demonstrated that the Trump administration was doing nothing to address the existential crisis of climate change. It demonstrates a huge lack of irresponsibly and disregard for future generations.
And when the author talks about the economy humming along on all cylinders, I guess he forgets the part of the Trump administration that resulted in a skyrocketing national debt even before the pandemic hit. Or the fact that the Trump administration policies contributed significantly to the wealth disparity already affecting this country. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer and the middle class continued to shrink. That hardly seems like sound economic policy to me.
The letter that I read this morning is just another example of why I am less than optimistic about the future of this country. I just don’t see how we can overcome this polarization. And now, we have Trump on the loose again, continuing to spew falsehoods and plot revenge against any who opposed him. And when you add in to this mix, a Republican party that is hell bent to oppose any and all legislation proposed by the Biden administration no matter how popular, it is just a recipe for many more years of turmoil.
For me, I just received the latest copy of my subscription to “International Living,” so I guess I’ll sit down with a cup of coffee and let my mind do a little wandering. Stay safe out there.
As I wait to join the great ‘vaccine scramble’, I got to thinking about the state of COVID these days as I read more and more articles about states (like Montana) lifting mask mandates and allowing bars and restaurants to operate at full capacity. The bottom line is, I think we’ve all gotten numb or jaded or both. The coronavirus case count and death toll used to be daily fare in prime-time newscasts. There are still occasional mentions but not with the urgency or frequency that we had become used to. Now that the number of cases in the US has surpassed 29 million and the death toll has passed 530,000 people I guess, in some respects, the numbers have become almost meaningless. You would think that we are out of the woods as far as the pandemic is concerned. That would probably be a mistake.
It’s true that vaccinations are picking up steam and case counts are dropping in some areas. However, there are other forces at work that could throw a monkey wrench in all of this. In a previous post, I talked about the simple probabilities associated with virus replication and the creation of variants. Basically, the more times a virus replicates, i.e., the more cases there are, the higher the probability that a variant will emerge. When a variant emerges, there is no guarantee that a vaccine that works against one variant will work as effectively against another variant. Which is why every year when you get a flu shot, it is not 100% effective.
We are already aware of variants of the COVID virus. There is the UK variant. There is the South African variant. There is the Brazilian variant. And now, there appears to be a new variant that is ‘home grown’ right here in Oregon.1 And this particular variant has health professionals concerned. It appears to have traits similar to the UK variant which makes it more contagious. And it appears to have traits similar to the South African variant which makes it more resistant to existing vaccines. Wonderful.
The UK variant, designated B.1.1.7, is in the United States and is spreading rapidly. It is more contagious and more deadly than the original ‘vanilla’ COVID virus and is expected to account for most infections in the US in a few weeks. And this just as many states are easing restrictions and people are gathering in large groups. The thing that many people don’t seem to understand is that one of the keys to getting this monster under control is to stop it or slow it from spreading. If we have a vaccine and a variant develops that is resistant to that vaccine, we are right back where we started.
I came across a study that someone at Princeton conducted looking at the number of COVID cases broken down by red states vs blue states for 2020. The analysis clearly showed that red states had a higher per capita case rate and the death rate in the red states was also higher although not as dramatic as the number of cases. This is clearly the result of Republican governors not abiding by CDC guidelines. And now, here we go again.
We were first stuck in a situation with a president who dismissed the severity of the pandemic. And then we had a bunch of governors who were slow to implement CDC public guidelines designed to slow the spread to the virus. The result – 530,000 fatalities – many which didn’t have to happen. And now we are on the verge of creating the perfect recipe for propagating highly contagious variants of this virus because once again, Republican governors are ignoring CDC public guidelines and easing restrictions.
Given the highly contagious nature of the B.1.1.7 variant now in the US, it is virtually a 100% probability that the case load will spike upward in the next few weeks. More than likely, the death rate will increase as well. And if this new home-grown variant identified in Oregon takes root and begins to spread widely, who knows what will happen.
Sure, we’re all tired of COVID. We all would like to return to some semblance of normalcy. Virtually all public health officials have said if we can just hang on for another couple of months and continue to wear masks, practice social distancing and allow time to get more people vaccinated we will be in a far better place. Unfortunately, the anti-science, Republican governors are making decisions that will set this effort back. As I read in an article yesterday, you don’t declare victory in the third quarter. There is no doubt this virus is going to play hard for all four quarters. It is a formidable foe and it is far too early to declare victory. But, alas, politics and money will once again lead to decisions that continue to put American lives at risk.
I truly hope we don’t become so jaded about the 530,000 people that have already died or those that will die in the future due to these irresponsible decisions that we just view them as expendable and simply ‘the cost of doing business.’
The good news is that the COVID-19 relief bill squeaked through the Senate and will go back to the House this week where it will hopefully pass – again. Then it will be off to Biden’s desk so hopefully the bill will get signed before people’s unemployment benefits run out on March 14th. Nothing like coming down to the wire. But rather than write more about all of the political nonsense continuing to go on in Washington and around the country I thought I would write a little bit about another big event coming up on March 14th. That is the day that Daylight Savings kicks in, so I thought it would be fun to throw out a few little factoids about Daylight Savings as we all get ready to ‘leap ahead.’ (Not that any of us need any more stress in our lives!)
Time zones in the United States were initially introduced in the United States in 1883 as a way to avoid confusion and reduce train crashes due to the fact that local times were often out of sync. At the beginning of WWI, the US designated the Interstate Commerce Commission as the agency responsible for overseeing time zones. This made perfect sense because the ICC was the organization also responsible the railroads. Daylight savings apparently was first started in Germany in World War I as a way to conserve fuel and power by extending daylight hours.1 The United States followed suit and DST was in effect until after the war.
After the war, DST was abolished but states were allowed to make their own decisions as to whether or not to adopt DST. Once again, this led to a patchwork of adopters and non-adopters resulting in more confusion and collisions. The Department of Transportation was founded in 1966 and given jurisdiction over time zones and Daylight Savings. At the time, DST was implemented uniformly across the nation with the exceptions of Arizona and Hawaii. Arizona petitioned for and was granted an exemption primarily because of the hot summer weather in that state.2Interestingly, the Navaho nation continues to observe DST so part of Arizona is on DST and part of Arizona is not. Hawaii isn’t on DST because there are no major transportation issues that are affected by its decision to stay on standard time.
The whole concept has been controversial for a while. Between 2015 and 2019, twenty-nine states introduced legislation to eliminate the clock changes required every March and November either by implementing DST permanently or doing away with it altogether. However, the power to implement or eliminate DST rests with the Department of Transportation. That said, there appears to growing interest in implementing DST permanently. Time will tell – so to speak.
While time zones were initially implemented to avoid train crashes and DST was initially introduced to help the war efforts in WWI and WWII, one of the biggest arguments to eliminate or permanently implement DST now is based upon health reasons.3
Mood and Productivity:
On average, Americans lose 40 minutes of sleep when we set the clocks ahead in the spring. Such sleep disturbances can lead mood disruptions and increased irritability.
Work Place Injuries:
Sleep deprivation can affect motor skills and research shows that it may lead to more workplace injuries, particularly around daylight saving time transitions.
A 2009 study examined data on over 500,000 mining injuries from 1983 to 2006 and found a 5.7 percent increase on the Monday following the time change. What’s more, the injuries were more severe, leading to a 68 percent increase in the number of days of work missed.
Car Crashes
In a study being published in American Economic Journal next month, Smith analyzed vehicle accidents just before and after daylight saving time in the U.S. over a 10-year period. The results showed a 6 percent increase in crashes immediately after people reset their clocks in the spring, which amounted to more than 300 deaths.
Heart Trouble
Changing the clocks ahead an hour can take a toll on your heart. A recent study found that daylight saving time transitions may be tied to an increased risk of a common type of stroke.
Researchers from Finland analyzed over a decade of stroke data and found that the overall rate of ischemic stroke — which accounts for the majority of stroke cases and is caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the brain — was 8 percent higher during the first two days after a daylight-saving time transition.
Cancer patients and people over the age of 65 appeared to be at a higher risk of stroke immediately after the time change, with a 25 percent and 20 percent increased risk, respectively.
A 2014 study published in the journal Open Heart also found that setting clocks ahead one hour in the spring was also associated with higher short-term risk of heart attack.
Diet and appetite
Though not as serious as car crashes or heart trouble, daylight saving time transitions can temporarily wreak havoc on your diet.
Any amount of sleep deprivation can affect the hormone levels in the body, which can lead to changes in appetite, an increase in cravings, and potential overeating.
So, based upon the above information, starting next Monday and for the first few days after DST is in effect, I suggest you 1) do something to make yourself happy and improve your mood, 2) don’t go to work, 3) don’t drive, 4) don’t exert yourself and put undo stress on your heart, and 5) put a lock on the refrigerator so you don’t overeat. And with that, have a great day and stay safe out there!! :0)
With all of the problems facing our country, the Republican party’s ‘cause celebre’ is voter integrity. In spite of the fact that there is little, if any, evidence of voter fraud in the last election, state legislatures around the country are hell bent to pass legislation in the name of ‘voter integrity’ that are really thinly disguised efforts at voter suppression. This begs the question, “If your policies are widely popular, wouldn’t you want to encourage more people to vote?” And, therein lies the crux of the issue. The Republican party is shrinking and their policies, while very popular with their shrinking base, are widely unpopular with the majority of Americans.
Multiple polls have shown that at least two thirds of Americans do not want Roe v. Wade overturned and support continued access to abortion for women.1,2 Roughly two thirds of Americans are in favor of gay marriage.3,4 Some sixty percent of Americans believe gun laws should be more restrictive.5 Even a large percentage of NRA members are in favor of universal background checks to purchase weapons. Universal background checks are supported by 90 percent of Americans.6 More than 60% of Americans favor a tax on the very wealthy, including 54% of Republicans.7,8 Roughly 70 percent of Americans believe climate change is real and human activity is contributing to the warming of the planet.9 These are all policies that, in general, the Republican politicians are adamantly against and yet are popular with a majority of Americans. Does anyone else see a problem here?
It is quite apparent that the Republican party can try to alter some of their policies to be more in line with the majority of Americans in hopes of expanding the party, or they can try to suppress the votes in such a way that it will skew the electorate in their favor so they can win elections and push unpopular policies. The first option makes more long-term sense. The second option might seem attractive in the short term but would seem to be somewhat of a slow death spiral. The way I see it, the Republican party has really painted themselves into a corner.
They don’t feel like they can alter their stance on abortion or gay marriage because that might cost them the support of the religious right. They can’t support a tax on the wealthy because that would be like biting the hand that feeds them. (Such a stance would be extremely unpopular with people like the Koch brothers, for example, who are major Republican donors). They can’t advocate for any kind of gun control laws at all, no matter how popular, because that will cost them the financial support of the NRA. They can’t alter their stance on climate change for fear of alienating the fossil fuel industry and the money they pump into Republican elections. They are even welcoming QAnon supporting members into their party in hopes of being able to cobble together enough of these disparate voting blocs to be able to win elections.
In addition, now that they have gone down the Trumpism rabbit hole, the corner they are in is even smaller. We have all seen what happens to Republicans who dare to disagree with Trump. Once you begin to understand how all of these Republican politicians are essentially trapped into all of these positions that are not widely supported by the majority of Americans, its easy to understand why they are in this mode of trying to pass legislation that will skew voting in future elections in their favor.
The fact is, the demographics of the country are changing. That is a cold hard fact. Nothing the Republican party does will change that. The country is moving forward. There is a new reality sweeping the nation and it has nothing to do with socialism. The Republican party is still thinking America is living, or wants to live, in the era of ‘Father Knows Best’ and ‘Leave it to Beaver’ back in the 1950’s. This failure to deal with reality is not only endangering the entire Republican party but the country as well. The continued insistence to push widely unpopular policies is just contributing to and exacerbating the political divisions. And the massive, and totally uncalled for efforts at voter suppression going on now, will just pour gasoline onto that fire. Sooner or later the Republican party is going to have to deal with reality that their policies are out of date and out of step with the majority of Americans. In the words of Alex Haley, “Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure the reality is going to deal with you.”
I’m not sure why I hit on this topic yesterday but I think it’s because I read yet another account of a speech coming out of the recent CPAC fealty-fest to Trump about how the ‘radical left’ was going to turn this country into a bastion of socialism. This whole ‘socialism’ rant has been a staple of conservative pundits, politicians and Trump acolytes for a long time now. It got me to thinking about agriculture subsidies, which after all, are a form of government aid, although Republicans never address this particular issue. I know this is a very sensitive topic here in Montana, a state which is very Republican and heavily dependent upon agri-business. However, I do think it’s a discussion worth having and provides, if you will, a little ‘food for thought.’
I did a bit of research and found some interesting information. “This week the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) released an updated Farm Income Forecast. In it the USDA projects total net farm income will exceed $102 billion, a nearly 23 percent increase from last year. This significant boost in profitability for farming and ranching businesses is due almost entirely to a massive increase in federal subsidies. Direct government payments in 2020 are forecast to be $37.2 billion, constituting 36.2 percent of net farm income, the highest level since 2001.”1
And these figures do not include the $14 billion in Commodity Credit Corporation funding that was authorized under the CARES act as a result of the pandemic. When you add all of this up, this amounts to over $50 billion in government subsidies to agri-business. And this is over and above other federal disaster programs that benefit agri-business or the $8.5 in Federal crop insurance. And, as you might expect with this much money on the line, agri-business has a very strong lobby and the majority of these benefits tend to accrue to large operations.
The crops that receive the most support are corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and rice. “The top five states receiving subsidies are Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, and Illinois. In 2017, they received 38.5% of the $7.2 billion distributed, per the EWG Farm Subsidy Database”2 All of these states are red states. There are smaller subsidies for some other crops and an array of tax breaks available to farmers and ranchers that are not counted in the above costs.
So, my question is,” Isn’t this type of government aid a type of ‘socialism’ if you think ‘socialism’ is a reliance upon government handouts and aid?” Of course, those taking advantage of this these types of government programs will argue that they are necessary to protect the nation’s food supply. However, “between 1995 and 2019, the top 10% of recipients received 78% of the $223.5 billion doled out, according to EWG.
The top 1% received 26% of the payments. That averages out to $1.7 million per company.
Fifty people on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans received farm subsidies. On the other hand, 62% of U.S. farms did not receive any subsidies.”2
I’m sure there are those that will argue that, in addition to the need to protect the nation’s food supply, farmers and ranchers ‘work hard’ and earn the right to these subsidies. I’ve been around enough ranchers and farmers in my life to agree wholeheartedly with that statement. Ranching and farming are hard work. However, using this as a way to rationalize these subsidies and argue against other government aid programs implies that other people who receive government aid do not ‘work hard,’ and so are less deserving of any type of government aid.
That myth was created by Reagan’s ‘welfare queen’ campaign and has been propagated ever since. There are a lot of people who are receiving various types of government aid who are working their butts off, sometimes at two and three jobs, just to try to pay their rent and take care of their families. This pandemic showed how many people in the US are living so close to the edge of poverty. The sudden loss of a job or a major medical crisis can wipe a family out quickly and, all of a sudden, they are in line at a food bank or on food stamps.
So, before all of these Republicans start screaming about socialism, I would strongly suggest that they look first at the types of government programs they are currently benefitting from and ask themselves if its really all that different from other types of government aid. Otherwise, it would seem that the definition of socialism is simply, government aid that benefits me is OK, but government aid that benefits someone else is socialism.