Random stuff

Once upon a time I was an Ironman participant. This morning I chanced to read a headline that two men died during the swim leg of an Ironman race. They called it Ironman, but it was really Ironman 70.3. I quibble.

One was about my age, one much younger. Keep in mind that these men were almost certainly in superb shape physically compared to the average person. While it's possible to sign up a short time before race start, and do no training for it, that's not the normal course of events. Most people sign up well in advance, and put in a huge number of training hours. 12 to 15 hours a week for months would not be thought unusual in that community.

Any serious participant would have routinely swum the 1.9 K distance in a pool, and almost certainly would have done it in open water as well. The difference is race day, and the stress of wanting to do well, all the while packed into a small space with many other people who want the exact same thing. The race organizers go to significant effort to brief the participants on all aspects of the race, and provide logistical and emergency support.

And yet they died. Officials speculate they each had a medical event while in the water, but we don't know. It's sad and unfortunate, but calls to cancel the races are overblown. Many thousands of people participate in triathlons every year, and the typical result is pride in accomplishment, and maybe some blisters or sunburn. With some care and attention, training and participating in a triathlon, even the full distance Ironman, is no more risky than day to day life for most of us.

(A bonus digression. "Swim, bike, and run, three things a child can do, so how hard can it be?" is a line from one of my novels.)

And yet shit happens. Apparently healthy people drop dead of heart attacks or other bodily failures. The message for me is to enjoy each day, make sensible preparations for whatever activities I have on the go, and get on with it. Death will come one day whether here or in Samarra.

In celebration of that randomness, here are several random unblogged photos from the last year, oldest to newest. At least I think they are unblogged, I apologize if you've seen them before.

From a walk in Fish Creek last year when I was looking for red.

 An evening shoot from the pedestrian bridge over Anderson, hoping for dramatic skies.

Auckland Botanical Gardens.

Auckland Museum.

I think this is in the gardens at Lanarch Castle.

One of the transom windows at Lanarch Castle.

Part of the view from the roof of Lanarch Castle.

I think this is the Dunedin Gardens, but might still be Lanarch.

One of the murals in Dunedin. I still have many murals not yet blogged. This was brutal to try to get into a panorama.

Part of the road to Milford Sound. I'm not entirely satisfied with the colour balance here.

This small version of an island in Doubtful sound is so promising for a print, yet there are flaws when I blow it up. I would like to get a photoshop buddy to advise me, P&TY. (Any takers? Wine? Large supplies of good coffee while working? Assistance from cats?)

A night sky from near Queenstown.

One of many random bits of old farm equipment in New Zealand, photographed from the Tranz Alpine train ride.

Part of the dam at Zoolandia.

A night sky panorama from near Napier.

Some rocks and driftwood from the beach north of Napier.

A random tree on a random beach.

These would have made it into the driftwood of the day eventually.

These are from Fish Creek.

A tuft of grass growing out of one of the boulders at Red Rock Coulee.

A rainbow on the way back from SandHills. Pity about the raindrops on the lens.

One of the hens and chicks from our own garden.

A wet flower from our own garden. No, I don't know what it's called.

Driftwood of the Day