Nothing sweeter than summertime...

Just like Lady antebellum says…

There’s some magic about summer – the long sunny days, the freedom, the flowers, the beach, an ice-cold drink or some crazy concoction of these.

No wonder there’s summer reading, summer drinking, summer vacationing, staycationing, summer camps and at least million other summer – something. Longer days do allow you more time to take a bike-ride or plan a home-bound BBQ. And then there are beaches and place with beaches which are nature’s ideal lure in summer.

Summer time things I did – biking, river rafting, cabo-Mexico, lots of swimming practice, ice-crèmes, farmers’ market every week.

Summer time things I love – sweet strawberries, water-melon, sunflowers and poppy, meteor showers, watering plants, less TV time, cool-long evenings, misty mornings.

This summer I learnt how to enjoy every season for what it is, for what it offers. And summer brings out a lot on its bid. I can imagine it bringing miserable hot days or immense rains to some parts of world. But, rains bring life and hot days bring a promise of another season. For those blessed with summer goodness, it offers respite from other harsher seasons.

The tan might fade but memories last, shooting stars are through…but wishes might come true!

Tank of carp...

New pedicurists have arrived in town. The latest in the spa treatment is dunking your feet into an aquarium where fish (Yes, fish!) eat away your dead skin.

Believe it or not, it is here. Fish are now cleaning our toes and legs and ankles. I saw it on travel channel and I saw it on news. Cambodia has spas where you can immerse your feet into a fish tank and they come out buffed and free of dead skin. Fish, mainly carp, work away on your tootsies and give you a tickling pedicure. And it is not some exotic thing; it is available in north Virginia as well.

As strange as it sounds it is a genius case of win-win IMO. Fish get food and you get clean feet. For anyone who has a fetish for tickles – it is a match made in heaven. Experiments are under way to see if fishies could help with psoriasis and other skin ailments. Who knew?!

However, the first thing I thought of when I looked at this - let us not use Piranhas!

Transitioning from posses to access

Transition is on the horizon. It is literally in the cloud!

Soon our music, our books, our entertainment – basically a lot that we use to possess (or aspired to possess) with be accessed for use as and when needed and however much desired.

We will have clouds of information, games, comics and novels, opinions and jazz pieces that we can use. As needed ‘stuff’ can be plucked or accessed. No more cluttered computers, minds and spaces. Next exit is ACCESS.

I grew up in an era where everything was basically done to possess more. The more you have the more convenient your life becomes (not necessarily happy but definitely convenient). The only way to consume was to possess. And with everything that was good or wanted the package it came in grew bigger, as in with a good song you wanted came the six useless tracks you paid for. For that one article you wanted to refer, came a magazine with 60 pages you would never look at. Essentially everything we wanted came in a BoC (Bag of crap) that we paid for.

With clouds, you can hand-pick what you want, how you want and most important how much you want. When done with it, stow it away in the cloud. Awesome…you think, not so fast I say.

There’s a joy in surprise of discovering something you were not looking for. Essentially, we are eliminating a lot of exploration. We don’t know what we don’t know so, looking through stuff has a purpose!

On the other hand, imagine the zen like lifestyle of not having to run after possessions. You need it, you get it and then do away with it. Like a library, the books are there – get it when you want to read it, no need to buy in anticipation of that need to read.

It is not happening tomorrow, but it is happening. The butterfly is emerging. Like everything, it won’t be perfect and like everything it will become the way of life.

Let’s hope that chapters instead of books don’t stifle the art of storytelling. Let’s hope that tracks instead of albums don’t smother creativity. Let’s hope that it is just device agnostic, pay-as-you-go, get-when-you-need thing…basically - no muss-no fuss.

Let’s hope the butterfly is beautiful and the transition worth it.

Land’s end…

My trip to cabo was all about this – the land’s end. Land just suddenly ends and you can see right to the last rock…the very last stone where the never-ending pacific begins and spins around the earth.

Baja California is a beautiful place but a bit strange. Anytime you think of ocean you think humid and/or green. Most of Baja, albeit the mighty pacific and the sea, is very dry and dessert-like. Rough coast, calm bays, warm water, rich sea-life on one end and right across are cacti, acrid landscape with acute lack of vegetation. Other than the few palms there’s hardly any tree for miles. If no one told you of the big sea on the other side of sand-hill, you’d think you are in dessert. And you are, just that it neighbors the mighty Pacific.

Land’s end is a beautiful rock formation with rich reefs, magical rock formations, pirate caves, amazing and tidal beaches. It is really a site and it is hard to get use to it. The sea is much calmer than the ocean. Rich reefs attract sea-lions, pelicans, dolphins and even whales – you can even see schools of fish (including sting ray) from glass bottom of boats. When calm, the visibility in sea is near perfect for 20-25 feet.

My favorite part of the trip was sitting beside the beach, watching stars and fire-works across sea and hearing massive crashes of wave on shore. The rumble sounds louder in dark and waves look monstrous as darkness changes the reference frame. The coast was rough due to a distant storm and the waves did come right up to the ‘hotel beach’. And it was cold!

My not so favorite part was the cold (freezing) water of the sea. Cabo is not supposed to be cold! The storm doused all hope of snorkel as visibility got to zero in cold water. But, the catamaran ride to the bays, around the coast-line was amazing. Open bar, good music and wind…it was an awesome feeling to sit on the boat crashing through sea of cortez. Life couldn’t get better than that. Wind-water-sun-music-tequila!

Sea of cortez is so rich in sea-life that it has been called Aquarium of the world! You can swim with whales, sea-lions and schools of beautiful fish. The magical tip where sea meets the ocean is even more magical when you are under water. And although I couldn’t see that, the beauty of the land (and land’s end) is pretty awesome.

That smell in the air...

I heard a story on NPR where a woman described how she lost her sense of smell and then, what she felt when it came back. Naturally, she was very emotional about both experiences. She could hardly even attract sympathy coz’ it is a hidden disability. No one asked her “How she was” even after they knew (if they remembered) what happened to her.

Made me think about things we smell, in a day, and take for granted.

- Coffee - as a coffee lover I can vouch that (for me) smell of coffee is twice as important as its taste. Would ruin my love for the beverage if it had no smell.

- Vanity - vanilla shampoo, favorite soap, perfume. lack of smell will force you to save money as it sucks out the joy out of those things.

- Nature – oh my GOD…flowers, seasons, rain, dew, flowers (can’t get over it), woods…so much is in the scents and smells.

- Food – citrus, spices, fresh fruit, garlic. Smell tells you when something is cooked and when something is burnt and most important when something has gone bad! Everything we eat, we smell first. The only silver lining is that you can drink without having to change a thing (maybe not wines though).

- Random but sweet – fresh cut grass, ocean, bonfire, old books, baby’s smell, candles, Christmas tree.

- Practical – sweat, when you know things need serious cleaning, burning of things.

- Only good thing – don’t have to smell foul things…coz’ you can’t. Bad toilets, bad food, bad breadth…

Some people in this world can actually smell the sounds! As crazy as it sounds (ha-ha), there are people who can associated smell to each syllable. There’s a distinct and specific smell for every word they hear.

We take this ‘sense’ so lightly. Imagine the brain activity around it. To smell something and run through the files to distinguish it, to memorize it and store it – how flawlessly genius is that? ‘Flavor’ is only complete when we add smell to it. Tongue can only taste five things…nose can detect hundreds of smells.

As I can only imagine, when the lady in NPR story got her olfactory working, she was so overwhelmed that she thought she was hallucinating. And then she smelled her favorite flower – lilac!

Smell, smell all you can and savor it.

Beautiful day and a snake!

It was a gorgeous day to be outside…and find snakes!

I am not a big fan of reptiles but I am fascinated by them (Although, lizards creep me out to a level that I think I have herpetophobia skewed towards lizards). Dragons and snakes are my favorites. I am lukewarm about alligators and crocs and highly fear lizards and all forms of salamanders.

But, I digress.

So, it was a beautiful day to get out and stay out. A bit on the windy side and started a bit on the chilly side but overall, a beautiful day. I was out biking and running - part of my on-going and self-inflicted pain aka training for second triathlon. I was biking around Canada and Edgewater – the water in crystal springs was blue and calm, wind was strong but soothing and the 25 miles weren’t too bad. The goal was to transition into running and run 3 miles on a trail.

0.5 miles into my run a fellow runner warned me that they have spotted a rattle snake on the trail. So, I switched to the road. Edgewater park has lots of snakes, mostly non venomous but there are rattle snakes. On the way back I saw two snakes! One poor baby snake was dead, probably knocked out by traffic and it seemed like a rattle snake. A few yards ahead I saw another one, right beside the road basking in the sun.

It was a beautiful snake. It was lethargic and was most likely drawn so near to the road in search of sun. The clouds and wind was making the sun disappear quite often and snakes were probably getting further out to get sun. Being cold blooded they need to warm themselves up. This one had a beautiful camouflage and was quite dormant. I took a quick shot and left it alone.

I was happy to be out. But, I was really happy to find some snakes. I just find them very fascinating. A creature with no limbs and nearly no sight, it is one of the most feared and resilient species on this planet. Their colors, adaptation, magnificent weapon (fangs and venom and camouflage) that helps them defend – they are phenomenal species.

Look at this thriving, exciting species...
Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, Subphylum: Vertebrata, Class: Reptilia, Order: Squamata, Suborder: Serpentes

Living snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica and on most islands. Fifteen families are currently recognized comprising 456 genera and over 2,900 species. They range in size from the tiny, 10 cm long thread snake to pythons and anacondas of up to 7.6 metres (25 ft) in length. The recently discovered fossil Titanoboa was 15 metres (49 ft) long. Most species are non venomous, only ~400 have any kind of venom. However, there are snakes whose venom is potent to kill human adults within minutes. Venom is actually a complex protein.

All this is fascinating but, I often wonder what they talk about, if they talk at all. Do their voices (if they have voices) squeak when they are cold and lethargic? Do they show off their skin the night/day after they slough?
I wonder…

Doubt your limits, not your ability.

I completed a triathlon. Feels so good to write. And this was not just a triathlon or any triathlon, this was my first and it was Olympic distance and it was on one of the toughest courses – wildflower!

It didn’t happen overnight and the journey was long and demanding.

Three months of training, long weeks of practice full of physical and emotional roller coaster. All of it culminated on May 2nd 2010.

For the past few months, my life has been FULL. It felt like I was running 2 days behind everything. The travel, the training, the fund-raising - everything and everyday ran into one another. If not for the training sheet, I wouldn’t know what I practiced yesterday and what’s coming up tonight.

Wildflower is the Woodstock of triathlons held at Lake San Antonio on the first weekend of May every year. One of the largest in the world, it started in 1983 and hosts 30,000 spectators and around 7,500 athletes. Its specialty – the grueling hilly courses!

Lots of firsts for me:
First triathlon
First endurance event
First training for event
First time with TnT
First time running this distance
First time swimming in open waters
First wildflower
So my goal was: complete, not compete.
And all of these ‘firsts’ came together and compressed in 5 hrs and 25 mins of swim, bike and run.

Let me start by saying that it was a particularly hectic weekend for me and up until the morning of race day, I had my doubts and butterflies in my belly. The few things that calmed me down were:
A beautiful and moving speech by an athlete about why we do this…why we raise money and who it saves and why all the fuss? It was a speech that centered me – if people can survive cancer, I can run! And bike and swim!

Familiar faces in the park, meeting with coaches, bursting energy of volunteers, families and athletes helped a lot. And the laughter that erupted as nude athletes made their run reminded me ‘it has to be fun’.

Camping out and sleeping out in open also calms me, albeit the cold night and uncomfortable sleeping postures.

I got my race packet and got the first glimpse of the lake. The deep blue water down the 2mile hill is a thing of beauty. It took me 4 hours before I got into my sleeping bag.

I got up at 6am and was ready (sneaked in a shower too) at 7:30. Once I biked with the group to transition area, I felt such calmness in the midst of 5000 people that it even surprised me.

I had good 2 hrs to get ready, set up transition, take photos, chat around and eat. It was a beautiful day. And it the middle of it all, it occurred to me that this is a festival (there’s a whole festival) for the ‘crazy’ people. Crazies who want to willingly swim, bike and run in the same day – one after another! If that’s not crazy, what is? I pondered and then I slipped into my wet-suit.

I started at 10:10am for 0.9miles of swim in the lake stood at 60-62 degrees that morning (that is cold!). The swim in was very windy and choppy waters really knocked my breadth out. I panicked 100m into the swim coz’ the waves were knocking me back. A new place, wind and packed groups made the start harder than I had thought. I rested twice using the surf boards. The swim back to the shore was so much easier. The whole thing took me ~ 55 mins.

Transition went smoothly and I was on my way to one of the toughest bike courses in the country. The bike course of 25.6 miles starts with a steeeep climb of lynch hill. I had to dismount the bike near the top. Without the clips, this is a tough climb. The course if full of hills with hardly any flat part. The course also showcases the spectacular park and the WILDFLOWERS –yellow and lavender and blue. The bike ride was also marked by winds on one sides stealing away some time.

When I reached my run transition I realized that unlike my practices, I wasn’t hurting in legs, cramping or fatigued. I felt really great. Even in 82 degrees grilling conditions, I felt relatively okay. The run course is full of hills as well, especially in the first half. The water stations had sprays for cooling athletes off. A particular volunteer group cheered me on with ‘Hakuna-matata’.
Running into the final finish area is a downhill and is very thrilling. Going back to the lake, down the lynch hill for the 3rd time in that day – seems unreal. The whole day – spent – swimming in this big blue lake, biking around this huge park and running around on these steep hills – and it all comes to the finish line. They called my name and I kept running until I crossed finish line in 5 hours, 25 minutes.
I got the medal and a wet towel that felt heavenly and I saw my mentor and I said it out loud – I am so happy!

I loved every minute of the day and mostly every minute of my journey to this day. I guess I am a tri-athlete now with a wildflower Olympic under my belt.

Will I do this again? Perhaps I will.
Will I cherish this? Hell yes!