Wednesdays were Wonderful
And we still remember. Here the excitement of weekdays past lives on.
Tuesday, the 30th of June
Just a brief check-in here, for a fun Tuesday at the Reef ’n Run, where this guy is getting the most managed transition ever. Not very speedy, but immaculate.
Wednesday, the 24th of June
The theme was “fairy tales”... or was that “tails”. Lizzie and Dave definitely led the way and held up their end (no not that way!) with serious costumes. Their closet at home is getting better and better stocked — a good thing to remember when an event calls for something outré. Nancy Clayton too played well (again) with others.
It was a Grand Prix night for the SBAA, so hot-shot runners were out in force. And Ricky did the almost impossible: set a(nother) PR in the 5k. On this course! We were all in awe. Drea McClarty zoomed to first for the ladies, but our own Groover Laura Turner managed the juggling of sports and babysitters and won her age group too. (If there was a group for mothers-of-three... well she would dominate!) Brian Lee had a solid run, and then continued on with his most important role: introducing more people to the Grooves concept. Here he is with sisters Chelsea and Natira.
We were celebrating all sorts of birthdays: Josh, Kelly K, and Stacy. (The latter was unavoidably detained in LA, explaining the difference between quarks and quantums to contractors.) Karen baked a chocolate macaroon cake especially for Kelly... and it expresses what we wish we all could do for her. (Cover her with coconut? No.. repay all the great times and great hands.)
With the Republican scandals apparently never-ending, the question arose at the table: what does it mean to be conservative? A good answer was provided by, of all people, John McCain’s daughter a week or so ago, on this interview with Stephen Colbert. Almost enough to make me switch parties! But why stick to our own shores when we can meddle overseas too? Were the Iran election numbers “cooked”? Andrew opined (that’s a nice term for clueless guess) that Ahmadinejad probably edged out a win, but the Establishment blew it and did an unnecessary and totally unconvincing cheat. Some evidence of that is here — a well-known effect that people can’t be random even when they try. But at least the turmoil gives a boost for the term “hooligan”. We were worried there weren’t enough of them going around.
Tuesday, the 23rd of June
Reef ’n Run — rhymes with fun! The turnout continues to increase... and we know it's quality as well as quantity. Jazz under the blue arch, sand, sea, and it's (almost) free. We are thankful for all the great opportunities we have here in SB. Speaking of free, both Sterling and Ricky made off with some adult beverages on the house. And more: Andrew got to try out some new footwear from Teva: all-terrain adventure shoes, due to be named “Top Fuel”. Not available anywhere... yet. Now, these are not recommended as running shoes, so what would our intrepid tester do with them but.. run four miles in them!
The report: very solid, lots of support, but they made me feel like slowing down and hiking. They got lots of attention on the two-mile loop that is sort of an extended track, with soccer and rugby players going at it in the middle, a total feast of Santa Barbara sports. (After the run, not wanting to get sand in my new shoes, I changed into sandals, made by... Teva, of course!) If you want to find out what is going on outdoors in SB, the best place is Tuesday nights at East Beach, where you never know what new thing will come along. Andrew drove off in his new 2010 Honda hybrid thinking that his shoes and car are equally cool.
Wednesday, the 17th of June
The Endless Summer is upon us. It seems like we’re floating through time, and the sand and the waves will go on and on. We can’t tell when Nite Moves starts or when it ends.. especially the latter because we just won’t let it end. The theme this week was pirates, and several Groovers had their gear, matey! Alas, no photos, because sometimes you just have to live life instead of recording it, but mehopes some scurvy Groover will be able to cough up a few pieces of eight megapixels. We did get some cool mugs for our grog, though.
Clearly we didn’t hold back: Ricky came in second in the 5k and Jayna was first female, squeezing out a six second win over her nearest competitor. (When she showed up at the ’Hood she looked like a fashion model. Quick change!) Karen won her age group in the swim. Taj and Matt crushed the opposition in the swim/run, as did super-mom Laura Turner. Entertainment from the Debra Farris band, with whom Andrew used to play. Strangest version of “Proud Mary” we’ve heard for some time.
The ’Hood was a lot quieter than last week — perhaps somebody's hand on the volume knob was lighter, or maybe just the music selection: The Police, CSN&Y, and other less-pounding choices. And the turnout was fantastic: I counted almost twenty of us there, including Sterling, Liz & Dave, Jayna, Laura Turner, Andrew, Desa, Ann Marie, Peter & Kelly, Matt, Brian, John, Sarah, Taj, Karen, Josh, and who knows who else? We heard from our travelers about the “love hotels” in Japan, for them (like everything else), an art form.
There were some pretty fast-moving ping-pong — excuuse me, table tennis — games and foosball. John shows that it takes more than a 4-pack to dominate. Again, even those who were full from Nite Moves dinner showed the team spirit and came over. More energy than a nucular power plant in overdrive. And we demonstrated that we definitely have the best buns in town. Dave apparently tried to levitate Kelly... Hash Grandmasters have all sorts of powers! Several Groovers inquired about Andrew’s pants, with the swirly musical notes... made by Melissa Stafford, the housemate of his friend Roberta who visited last week. They are groovy!
Don't forget that Solstice is this weekend; the State Street parade starts at noon and is always a blast. And the post-parade party at the downtown park is an all-day fiesta. SB is showing its best face this year... in spite of economic difficulties I think we know how good we have it. Let the good times roll!
Wednesday, the 10th of June
It feels like we are right in the groove of summer now, even though it’s not “official” until the solstice. Lots of people, lots of waves, lots of fun. And what a draw: we have our best friend Sarah Claus coming up from Newbury Park, Amy now from Santa Maria, and Andrew’s friends Roberta and Joey down from San Luis Obispo. The Nite Moves “watershed” is really expanding.
And it certainly attracts talent. It was our own Ricky Ho who crossed the line first in the 5k, and on the women’s side, we have the first four finishers from Santa Barbara, Lompoc, and Grass Valley. (See Nite Moves Results link both here and — new! — in the sidebar.)
In the swim, the amazing Dan O’Meara, at age 63, still shows us how to do it, coming in just five seconds behind the winner Jim West, who is a youngster at 54. In the aquathon, we clearly had a ringer here, a kiwi named Andrew Young from New Zealand, who showed us that they can still swim and run upside-down. Groovers Matt, Josh, and Peter were within spitting distance though. This small town race is getting pretty competitive!
We hung out as long as we could on the beach, with Andrew showing off his balanced diet here. He should be as eco as Nancy, who rode her bike back home. When the sea breezes started giving us goose-bumps, we headed off to the traditional post-Nite Moves spot: The Neighborhood. Sometimes this place is a little loud, and this was such a night. There were important conversations all around, but it seems like what happened at the ’Hood stayed at the ’Hood. Even those who really had their dinners at the beach (Sarah, Brian) were good enough to come along to spice the brew. Brian gave travel advice to Roberta, who will be in Italy soon. Let’s hope Roberta doesn’t leave as many broken hearts all over Europe.
Walking vs. running — which is better? Roberta has probably walked around the world by now in accumulated miles. Here is a new take on the topic.
Swimming vs. floundering — which is better? Here is an article with a good embedded video.
Wednesday, the 3rd of June
Summer’s a-comin’ in, and we are actually missing the “June Gloom” and instead getting the hot stuff. Starting out with Desa, liberated from the shackles of school. Inspired by Sam. This isn’t your everyday 5k you know — it’s up and down the hills and all around. So what happens? A PR of 19:30 — that’s a 6:17 mile pace! — that’s all. Be careful Desa, we don’t want to set any more fires around here. There were only seven people of any gender ahead of her. One of those was Ricky, who whittled his time under the 17-minute “barrier”. How many barriers do we have to build? Lisa Dunn, who runs like a rocket, and usually leads the way, had some serious competition today, and came in “only” third (and first in her age group).
How appropriate for our Groovers to throw down their best performances on this particular Wednesday, which was the birthday of... our best friend Lizzie! Words can’t express the way she inspires us; pictures will have to suffice. If you’re ahead of Lizzie.. wow, you are blazin’ fast. If you are behind her.. well, the scenery is nice. And she is always ready to help anyone, anywhere, anytime. She is the Swiss Army Knife mom/wife/triathlete/party-maker that keeps us all Grooving, and the invisible hand behind a lot of good things that happen around here. Happy Birthday Lizzie... race ya to the beer!
Brian was all over the theory of abs, and had circulated a Newsweek article dissing sit-ups. Here’s the right way to do it... if you’re man or woman enough.
Friday, the 29th of May
Not a Wednesday, but an important birthDAY for a (founding) Groover, Nancy Clayton, hosted (hostessed?) by Kelly Knowles, an equally original member of the Groove. Her place is so nice. How many shades of purple can you discern? We didn’t see any signs of Tigger, and nobody sneezed either.
And Fridays are sports days anyways these days, as we were reminded by Cathy Czuleger. She runs the Surf ’n Turf biathlon, which has either one or two more weeks to go, depending on who you talk to. Get out there to the UCSB area and shake a leg!
We told stories of the “old days” and one involved Nancy getting some serious hardware at the Big Bear Triathlon. Here’s a photo blast from the past. She still looks the same. Laura V and Kelly took on Joe, Andrew, and Peter in a game of Taboo, and edged them out by just one point. We think the girls were cheating by using ESP. Is that fair?
Wednesday, the 27th of May
The theme was red white and blue and you could see the colors everywhere! The waves were definitely up for Wet Wednesday, boats afloat, and another swim course. Are we getting it down yet? It looked like the swimmers followed the right path, no missed buoys, and Karen Egerman Schultz sure found the line, emerging from the water ahead of almost the whole pack, but barely beating out a fifteen-year-old youngster Lauren Shackelford. She had more competition from Dani Lipski but held on to win the day! Against a tough competitor from Carpinteria. When do those swims start down at Ash Avenue on Sunday mornings? Probably June.
Ricky Ho dashed up the hill and down again in a blazing 16:49, which is faster than you can get service anywhere. The photo shows him proud of his accomplishment.
It was also Andrew’s birthday, and the gang were nice enough to get the whole Nite Moves crowd singing for him. After-party ideas were thwarted by the Lakers game, which had all our usual hideouts packed, but we found space at State & A, and ate cake, drank beer, and celebrated the 49th time around the sun for the Nite Grooves Webmaster. On on!
Tuesday, the 26th of May
Reef ’n Run is definitely picking up momentum. You can see that the transition area is getting more crowded, the water is warming up, and it’s just becoming another “must-do” event in Santa Barbara. Especially for those of us whose Wednesday nights are constrained by work, school, kids, or other things that are almost as important as sports & exercise!
We had some serious competition in the 1-mile swim, with fast, buff-looking athletes crossing the line completely exhausted. That means they consider it a real race, and not just an event. Congrats to Jane & company for adding something we care about to our local race scene.
Even the smaller athletes get into the fun of it all; here we see Whitney & Alec’s younger son getting a literal “sand-wich”. Andrew is told by his parents that he used to do this too.
Monday, the 25th of May
A holiday for most Groovers, several of whom could be seen at I Madonnari, the chalk art festival at the Mission in Santa Barbara. Chris Latham, Alethea Butler-Nalin, and Mark Urish all took time out from their important training schedules to take in the art. Perhaps Nite Grooves could get up for a space some day. Do we have artists in the Groove? We could express our love for the water and hills of our town.
Wednesday, the 20th of May
|
Lots of excitement at the beach, and afterwards, but your correspondent got into a little too much excitement of his own, in the wee hours of Wednesday. Driving home from the Bay Area, intent on getting home with time for a nap and a good Nite Moves, he drifted off (narcolepsy? no, just poor judgment) and then the car correspondingly drifted off, and had a run-in with the center divider. We performed the experiment where the (supposedly) irresistable force meets the (putatively) immovable object. Looks like object won this round. Sorta like rock & scissors. There is a funny spot about narcolepsy in the movie Annie Hall, but I couldn’t find a YouTube clip to accompany the above mention of it. However, here’s one from the same movie that certainly seems apropos of night driving. One of Christopher Walken’s greatest moments on screen. This means there will be better photo coverage of many Tue/Wed/Fri Groove-like events because I will not be competing. Many thanks for all the sympathy and offers of help I have already received. I think the only real challenge comes when I need to scratch my back. ☺ — Andrew |
|
Wednesday, the 13th of May
Back to normal at Leadbetter this week: staff, participants, spectators, and sunshine. The new swim course is marked by easily seen buoys, and was pretty easy to navigate. I hit them all spot-on; swam sans wetsuit this week. Next week we can do a controlled experiment by wearing the suit. We’ll see if the rule-of-thumb of several minutes’ advantage holds up.
At the Reef ’n Run yesterday Brian and Andrew were talking up the Wednesday night Groove, and thought that it’s too easy to forget the web address, simple though it is. Why not hand out cards? Here’s a sample of what one might look like. Groovers could always have a few on hand to spread the “religion.” Maybe around the end of the season?
The theme today was RED to celebrate and honor our firemen and women. Desa, Amy, Lizzie, and Nancy all showed their respect. And ran and swam like they were on fire too! This time we weren’t so alone in our run up the hill; last week I couldn’t see a soul either ahead or behind me and felt a bit like an alien, clad in skin-tight Lycra and dashing up and down a hill when most people were abandoning the neighborhoods.
And after all the beach fun we made our pilgrimage to the one and only Neighborhood, where music, pizza, and ping-pong are mandatory. So it looks like all the grand traditions are back in swing. See y’all next week!
Tuesday, the 12th of May
Another great day at the Reef ’n Run, organized by friend of the Groove Jane Cairns, along with Alipasha and Richard. They have tried hard to minimize the friction with our beloved Nite Moves... it’s the free market at work. Consider them like Apple and Google: they play well (iPhone and Google Maps go together like peanut butter and chocolate), but also compete and keep each other on their toes.
You can see from the photos that it’s a pretty small and intimate affair, with the (small) transition area notably empty. A crew of about twenty stalwarts lined up for the swims. Course is now settled into a west-out, east-back path, with good visible buoys. Last week Andrew forgot his wetsuit; this week he merely eschewed it, thinking “Hey it wasn’t so bad last time.” Desa missed her friend Linda Manzer, got tangled in some killer kelp (it always feels like the Monster from the Deep) but showed some cojones, got out and rocked the swim. Ricky, too, threw it down and both swam and ran.
Afterwards, the rap/ska band Raise the Bridges from Oregon raised the non-roof for us. Brian met two new faces, Karen and Julie, and clued them in on the whole Wednesday groove. Desa got her fellow English teacher Michelle out & running. Hope to see them tomorrow. Our M.C. was typically generous in throwing out goodies to the deserving. A Good Time was had by all. I don’t know how much conflict there will be with the venerable Wednesday event, but I think there’s room for two in this town. Jake Clinton was observed hanging out and watching the set-up. Perfectly natural. Let’s all just raise the standards and make capitalism work in this liberal town!
And a shout-out to core Groover Sarah Mandes for being the cover girl for the SBAA. The problem with excelling: how do you top that?
Wednesday, the 6th of May
Chaos reigned and ash rained on the first day of Nite Moves. There were almost no volunteers, spectators, or even participants for that matter. We Groovers must have made up the majority of the crowd, apart from the band, who also stuck it out. The swim course was altered into more of an out-and-back. Coming back was almost impossible, with the low-hanging sun in our eyes, the buoys invisible, and even the nearby swimmers effectively gone. This correspondent could easily have gone in a few circles before stumbling onto a beach. Then up the hill, where there were so few participants that the odd straggler or two must have seemed a surreal sight to the neighbors. And likewise the course itself seemed like a Dalí painting to the runners. The air was so dry my tongue felt like a towel.
It may seem odd, or even indulgent to come down to recreate when some people are losing their homes. But we thought of ourselves as the carriers-on of a great tradition. Jake Clinton can be seen here handing out some goodies to the stalwarts that made it down to the beach. We hope that next week the organization will be back up to par.
Wednesday, the 29th of April
|
And not just any Wednesday, but the last Groove before we Move! Not that anybody got into the water... that was for yesterday. But there was plenty of water at the place of Doug Black, who again was kind enough to host a post. There were some adventurous flights down the water slide — too fast to catch on camera. But then the good stuff always evades the lens. The dogs stayed out of the swim this time. Great food and drinks of course, and that poolside fire is just the height of luxury. In the dark, one Groover mistook Julie for Laurie, the swim coach and DP science teacher. A case of prosopagnosia? At least he didn’t mistake her for a hat. A great way to wind up a great winter of regular running. But next week... the party just gets bigger! With Groovers leading the way. See you at the beach! |
|
Tuesday, the 28th of April
What? Not a Wednesday? How can this be? But yes, there is a new series of fun in Santa Barbara, the Reef ’n Run, which was inaugurated today at East Beach. Swims, runs, biathlons... and showers! Well, anything that is run by Jane Cairns from the beach truck should go well.
Your webmaster zoomed down to Hazards, expecting to get his new racing togs and flaunt them to all and sundry, but for some unexplained reason they weren’t on hand. What to do? Race naked? Bruce literally gave Andrew a shirt off his back, donating a nylon top to hold in the handles and supplement the backup Speedo at the bottom of the DeSoto bag. (Which Bruce had sold Andrew, thankyouverymuch.)
The water was properly cold, with quite a glare from the sun on the return leg. Just like the SB Tri, come to think of it: opposite time of day, opposite directions — same result. PRs were set everywhere by everyone. Probably to be broken next week. There were so many variations on the events, everyone must have gotten a prize. Something like the Dodo’s Race. Even Ty(rant) felt like a winner.
Wednesday, the 22nd of April
It’s Earth Day, what better day to run around on top of it? It always seems like you’re on the top anyway, because of gravity. We strode across its latitude and longitude, length, breadth, and area, vertices and edges, corners, sides, points and lines... all the way to the Bird Refuge anyway, and back.
Having thus proved that the world contains at least one closed curve, and hence might be a torus, we got into a circle and debated where to eat. There was a strong Neigborhood swell, but Sarah informed us that we have to hold off so we can go there on the first Nite Moves night. So off to the Brew Co Lounge it was. Peter has had some bad experiences there recently and so threw a hissy fit (not really, Pete!) and snubbed them but good. The rest of us did hie unto the Lounge, where there were pitchers of IPA and other good stuff going around. The Groovers took care of their own properly.
Andrew — and hence the blog — was MIA previous week because of an important excursion to D.C. to hear The Dead. It was better than any unrepentant hippie could have hoped for: Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” sent a message to the Washington elite, and out of the free-form jam of “Dark Star” came the ferociously tight “King Solomon’s Marbles” — a tune in 7/4 time your editor didn’t think he’d ever hear live from The Dead or any other band. And you can hear it as the background to this video of their last rehearsal before the tour.
The girls caught us up on the buzz from last week, which centered on results from the Tough Enough race (awesome all around) and the fact that guys are douchebags. Hard to say where that lies relative to scumbags, but suffice it to say this is a long-worked topic, and it's just too bad that more and more evidence keeps piling up. Present company, i.e. Groovers, don't contribute to the situation, of course. We commiserate.
Some Groovers were lucky enough to hear the words of the Dalai Lama, who passed by our way this week. We look forward to sharing the vibe this coming Wednesday.
Wednesday, the 8th of April
It’s starting to look like Day Grooves again, and we are all speculating on how much we will be showing up to the smorgasbord of activities available to us this season: Tuesday track workouts, Tuesday Reef ’n Run, Wednesdays (obvious), and Fridays Surf ’n Turf. Mondays everybody shows up at Masters swim, the better to slack off the rest of the week.
The wind has whipped up again, stimulating allergies all around, and making us feel like Sister Bertrille after the turnaround. No wonder we felt so fast going out!
We retired to Dargan’s afterwards, where we enjoyed their improved menu. Laura Vlk shared her lack of vowels with us... we think the Dutch stole them from the Balkans. She and Kelly were following a drama at a table next-door that was probably more intricate than the above-board dealings at our own. No hidden agendas in our group.. at least for the moment! Any highly reactive ions like Amy get snapped up pretty quickly. Although Josh and Karen and Sarah went off to the bar to get their food more quickly. Probably they were talking about the rest of us while they were there.
Ann Marie left her take-home food.. and Josh thoughtfully took care of it for her, stepping in for the role that Matt usually plays. It is now incorporated into his muscles. The next time he whizzes by we will know where the energy came from.
Wednesday, the 1st of April
When things happen, they happen fast! A few weeks ago we were running with headlamps, now it’s sunglasses. That’s what you expect from an inflection point like the equinox that we just passed. The highest rate of change. Thanks Mr. Newton for that one. We welcomed back Laurel and Nancy to the run, and other new faces we’ve never seen. Like Barry, who is touring with his wife, who is a player in Mamma Mia, the great traveling Broadway show full of songs by ABBA. (Which is one of the standard patterns for song or poem structure: A-B-B-A. Clever huh?)
We zipped on along the waterfront, and we are starting to see the rebirth that Spring brings, from hula hoopers and other running groupers, seems like things are bustin’ out all over. We can hardly tell who is in or out of our group as we run along.
After the run we went to the Brew Co Lounge; we had almost 30 people hanging out, tuning up, and chowing down. There was some serious business to get down to, planning the next Tough Enough run team. (Click here for last year’s rockin’ success.) Alas, the successful chauffeur of last year will be out of town, heading east to hear the Grateful Dead live, with his brother. New team name: Trail Blazing Babes. They follow in the footsteps of this tough enough bitch.
And the old news or new olds, which we all sort of knew but now is out in the open, is Amy’s engagement! The moving party is next Tuesday.
Finally, there will be yet another reason to get out of the house on a weekday evening: the Surf ’n Turf series at UCSB on Friday evenings. It doesn’t last all summer, just until school gets out. But it will keep our laundry cycle going with wet towels!
Or join our mailing list. (See above.)