Boy, it was cold this morning! When I drove out to Jamesville Beach Park, just outside of Syracuse, at 4:15 a.m., the car's thermometer showed 44 degrees! Comparatively, the water was outright balmy at 62 Fahrenheit. That made for an eery scene, with fog slowly lifting over the lake while the swimers entered the water at the crack of dawn.
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| Age-group athletes try to warm up in the lake |
Last year the race was held in similarly cool but foggy conditions, and hypothermia had been a really issue. This year, the sky was clear, the air was dry, and once they got going, the athletes seemed to warm up better than we on the motos. Without fog I got to marvel at the beautiful countryside, with its rolling hills, bucolic villages, and gently green pastures. Following the Pro men's field I had ample opportunity to look around. My driver, Charlie, chauffeured us safely on his beautiful Triumph, and once again I had to p[inch myself to make sure this job is real.
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| Charlie, the Triumph, and I |
Compared to last year's inaugural event, today's race saw far fewer racers, even though the run course had been completely changed (for the much, much better) and other improvements had been made. So, as referees our job was relatively quiet, especially since the many hills discourage drafting and break up the various waves of athletes. Still, the atmosphere was festive, and the sunshine brought out lots of supporters.
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| Fans at the entrance to T2 |
This race must have the tidiest porta-potties that I have ever seen. Every one of the portable toilets has a small carpet, flowers, a bag or two of potpourri, and a nice picture of athletes. Now, that's classy! The company responsible (www.msunlim.com) calls these honeypots
Home Sweet Home Portable Restrooms.
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| You won't want to leave them ... |
The awards were on time, the afternoon had warmed up, and it seemed that everybody (except my two DQs) was happy. How could one not, in such a locale?
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| Jamesville Beach Park, home of the Syracuse 70.3 |
When 5 p.m. rolled around I was finally done with my day (kinda), and I drove back to the hotel to change. Then I was off to the downtown area, where Syracuse was celebrating its Italian roots with music, food, and street dance. I ambled around for a time, looking at some of the historic buildings and unwinding.
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| This former (rehabilitated) stretch of the Eerie Canal is used in the winter as an ice skate rink |
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| Syracuse sees red, green, and white (and orange, as well!) |
I finally ended up at The Limerick Pub where the beer lines are clean and several nice IPAs were on tap, among them Southern Tier IPA and the Californian Laguinitas. Since the pub doesn't serve any food I grabbed another Philly cheesesteak sandwich at the Suds Factory and finished the evening off with good beer, tasty food, and a chance to write my race report. Ah, the man never rests.... Tomorrow night I'll be in my own bed. Yeah!
Jürgen
Dude, as a former English professor, you'd think you'd know it's "Charlie, the Triumph, and ME"! ;)
ReplyDeleteHey, we need to be able to post pics! Can you change settings to allow that (do you DARE???)?
ReplyDeleteOh my, dear Kai, you can't be serious! Why the hell would it be "Charlie, the Triumph, and ME" when you can easily figure out that we're talking subject, not object here? "Me" would be correct if you were to ask "Whom is it?" Obviously impossible! "Who is it?" asks for the subject case, which for pronouns in the first person singular is "I."
ReplyDeleteRegarding pics, I didn't realize that there's a setting to allow that. Shoot me a pm sometime, please.
I suppose you have a valid point there. Were one to ask "who is in this photo?", the correct response would be "Charlie, the Triumph, and me." However, if you're presenting a photo and someone asks "WHAT is this a photo of?", you might be correct responding with "Charlie, the Triumph, and I." I stick by my assessment though; were you to break it down into separate subjects, or parts of the entire subject, you would say that "in this photo are shown Charlie, the Triumph, and me. Oh, and there is that barn..."
ReplyDeleteAnswer me this... you know "The River". A friend and I were talking about the music there and the fact that we thought there should be more. She said, "I wish there were more music at The River." Now, I'm fully aware of the subjunctive "were", and I say that was an improper use of it. The statement should have been "I wish there was more music at The River". What say you?
ReplyDeleteTo the second question: "were" is correct (and you are correct in that it is the subjunctive) as there is no distinction between singular and plural, and all of this is hypothetical. Thus in Anatevka "I wish I were a rich man."
ReplyDeleteTo the "I/me" conundrum: Kai, you got it back-assward. "What is this photo of?" will elicit "it's of me." (Pretty ugly, but grammatically correct. "Pretty ugly" in itself is something, eh? Oxymoron?)The preposition "of" introduces an object, "me." And would you say "Me is shown in the photo" or "I am shown in the photo"? I rest my case.
I will assume, for argument's sake, that "bite me" is proper grammar.
ReplyDelete;)