Death Warmed Over

A thousand apologies for the long neglect. It's been a frantic past few months. I did do the Ironman St. George race - well, 2/3 of it. See the account here, not yet finished. Thing is, I got a baad superBug a day before the race. In fact, 5 of our 6-person Ironman team (Dave and Diane D, Sonia and Fred P, Joyce, and me - only Dino was spared) - we all got a respiratory virus that was the worst I can remember. A month and two follow-on bouts of pneumonia later, I was finally beginning to feel better. Meanwhile, sicko notwithstanding, I was madly preparing for a unique opportunity - as a member of the Joint Science Team for the Hayabusa Mission re-entry. I left for Australia June 7, returned June 19. An amazing adventure - Pictures are here. The day after returning was also the last day on which I could get a refund for my entry to the Vineman Half Ironman. I felt recovered enough to go for it. The race is July 18, and as a tune up, I decided to join my friend Dave Wyman, who was putting in unearthly mileage to prepare for his grand cycling adventure of 2010 - the Markleeville Death Ride - on July 10. He went for all 5 passes: 15,000 ft and 129 miles. I went for just 2 passes: Once up Monitor Pass and once up Ebbetts Pass (once up Ebbetts is enough for any mortal) - 59 miles and 6400 ft of climbing. I'll post a link to pic's for this adventure sometime soon. Meanwhile, Dave already has a fine illustrated narrative here. That's my update for now, folks.