Yakima polo

After a three year polo hiatus I finally found myself back on a polo field. My buddy Jason invited me over to Yakima for an informal polo weekend. I rode Jason's horse Elton for the first chucker and did pretty well. I was able to stay with the action and even made a few good hits and plays. I was off the next chucker then jumped on one of Big R's horses, Hector. Hector used to be a roping horse and that came through loud and clear on the field. Hector would stop or turn on a dime. We had a tough time getting to know each other so I wasn't able to get into the game much. Lesson in all this...it's time to get my own horse.

Sean Down Unda - Sydney Day 11

I went down to the beach cafe to get my favorite chocolate muffin and fresh squeezed juice called the "triathlete" (orange, pineapple and melon) then it was off to the city to get my pictures developed and watch the athlete parade at noon. I ended up catching up with Heather, the pentathlon ticket queen. We went up the big tower in Sydney, had a bite for lunch then it was off to the parade. Afterward, we both went back to Coogie to hang out on the beach. Got my last shake from the Copenhagen ice cream shop then it was off to bed as I was leaving at 5:30am for my trip back to the states.

I've had a great time in Australia. Australia is kind of like a cross between souther California and Europe. Very hip, very laid back yet sporty. I look to coming back someday and checking out more of the country.

Sean Down Unda - Sydney Day 10

With the pentathlon events - and the whole Olympics - over, I was looking forward to a little down time. I went for a final run in the morning along the beach all the way up to Bondi this time. I went into town for some gift shopping, then came back to just relax on Coogie Beach. Eli and Justen left at around 6:00pm so all was quiet for the night. Went to bed early for once.

Sean Down Unda - Sydney Day 9 - Women's Pentathlon

My alarm was set for the wrong date, so I ended up missing the shooting portion of the women's event. But I arrived to find out one our US athletes, Emily, was in the lead after the shooting.

I did get to watch Emily and Mary Beth fence each other, once again the fencing starts by fencing your own teammate. Mary Beth one, she was pretty psyched. The men yelled a lot when they one, the women did to, but about two octaves higher. Yikes. And the women were just as intense as the men, maybe moreso.

Emily came was in first after the first two events, Mary Beth in 3rd. So now it was off to the pool. Both did pretty well, so remained in their places.

Both did well in the jumping as well so the run started with Emily in front and Mary Beth in 4th. But...Stephanie Cook of Great Britain was well known to be the best runner and was only staring off 27 seconds behind Emily, in 7th place. It turned out to be an incredible run with Stephanie slowly picking off the other runners. She finally caught Emily at about 400m from the finish line so Emily came in 2nd with another Brit coming in 3rd.

It was an incredible finish with Emily coming in 2nd. This was the first time the women's pentathlon has been in the Olympics and for a non-European to place was a pretty big deal. Also, Emily had introduced Stephanie, the winner, to the sport while attending Oxford...what a great story.

In the evening I hung out in Darling Harbour on my own to watch the closing ceremony fireworks. I bought a little dinner at a cafe just at the end of the pedestrian bridge at Darling Harbour and watched the closing ceremonies from there on a 13" TV. The fireworks after the ceremonies were synchronized in three locations thorghout the city and lasted for a half an hour. There were also fireworks going from building downtown buildings all over the place. Impressive and a great way to finish things off.

Sean Down Unda - Sydney Day 8 - Men's Pentathlon

Today was the big day. We all got up at 4:30 to head out to the park to make sure we got good seats for the first two events, shooting and fencing, that would be held in one of the pavillions.

We met up with Chad Senior's parent's at the park and tried to find a place with coffee and breakfast snacks. Guess the Olympic organizers hadn't really planned for a competition to start at 6:45 in the morning because nothing was open. We survived without coffee for a while and got some great seats to watch the fencing (not much to watch in shooting that was taking place at one end of the pavilion so we wanted good seats for the fencing).

Chad and Velizar both did pretty well in the shooting, but not spectacular. Chad on the other hand, had an exceptional fencing event and came out in first place. Countries with two athletes start off by fencing each other. What a way to start...fencing your teamate. Velizar won the first bout over Chad. Pentathlon fencing is pretty fun to watch. Since it is one touch fencing, the athletes get pretty psyched when they get their touch. Some of the guys got really into it, jumping up and down and the like. In the end, it was Chad that came out on top.

We did OK in the swimming event, Chad came in second, putting him in 1st place overall going into the show-jumping event. Three events down, two to go.

Next, we were off to the baseball stadium for the last two events. Show jumping and then the run. The athletes start by walking the jump course, pacing off the distance between the fences to figure out how many strides their horse will take. Then, the draw for the horses...one of the wild cards in the pentathlon is that athletes ride unfamiliar horses. All the horses have ridden the course and the riders that rode them provide a summary of the ride as well as their comments on the horse. Chad got a horse named "Riverine". Turns out Riverine wasn't one of the best horses to draw. Chad knocked down four fences, which surprised a lot of the people that know him as he is a pretty good rider. Velizar did pretty well and ended up in the lead in a tie with another athlete, so both of them would start out first in the run.

It became pretty clear that Velizar wouldn't have his best run. We found out after the event that his legs started to spasm about halfway through. Chad didn't have a great run either. According to his family and friends, he did have it in him to get into a medal spot, even though he started off fifth. Well, it didn't happen. I was told later that Chad is one of those athletes that is going for the gold or nothing at all. Once again, to family and friends it was apparent that he wasn't giving the run his all.

It ended up that the Russian, who started the run in 7th place, came in first. It was quite an upset for Chad and the US. He was doing so well early on, only to lose the momentum in the ride.

It was back to New Balance for dinner, where things were pretty somber. We looked forward to the women's event the next day.

Sean Down Unda - Sydney Day 7

This morning I set off early again to watch the men's platform diving preliminaries. Besides athletics, I figured diving is another one of those sports that you don't get a chance to see live very often so this would be a good Olympic viewing choice. The US did OK, but nothing too impressive. The Chinese really did some impressive dives. After diving it was back to New Balance, a little souvenir/gift shopping, then back to the hotel for a change of clothes before going out.

While waiting for the bus a good friend from Seattle, Mike, ran by during his evening jog. I knew Mike was in town, but didn't know how to get ahold of him. Pretty small world to run into him along Coogie. We made plans to catch up later at a bar where a bunch of the swimmers had turned up the night before. It was his brother's birthday, so I was to plan for a long night. Back to New Balance for dinner, then a little stroll around downtown before meeting up with Mike. As usual, Darling Harbour was full of people so I had a good time just people watching.

The bar I ended up catching up with Mike at happened to be one of the hottest drag queen clubs in Sydney. Surprise! Turns out that after the movie "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" that came out several years ago, Australia has become very proud of their drag queens. One of the drag queens in the movie happened to do her thing in this bar, so that's why it was so popular. That night we ran into more swimmers, a bunch of athletes from the French equestrian team and several of the Taekwando (sp?) teams, including the gold medalist. During the show, the drag queens really made a scene with Mike's brother since it was his birthday, as well as the gold medalist. My stomach hurt I was laughing so hard. Turns out, the Aussies are so proud of Priscilla and their drag queens that there will be a whole bunch of them in the closing ceremonies...should be quite a show.

I didn't stay out very late...had to get up at 4:30am to get out to Olympic park to get situated for the men's pentathlon.

Sean Down Unda - Sydney Day 6

I got up extra early this morning to get to Olympic Stadium in time to watch all of the morning athletics. This time I was 26 rows back from where the decathletes were throwing discuss...more great seats. I also got to watch the qualifiers for the the women's high jump, as well as the women's 20k walk. One of the high points was an Aussie almost winning the women's 20k...until she was disqualified just outside of entering the stadium for bad walking form. Another high point...the WAVE around Olympic Stadium. Yes, I got to be part of a wave at the Olympics. I stayed to watch two pools of decathletes (one American was in each) and was then off the the Olympic Superstore. Took almost 45 minutes to get in! Once inside, it was quite a let down...they didn't have any sports specific stuff...well, at least not for pentathlon anyway. But I got some stuff and then headed back over to the New Balance center to update my webpage and have dinner. Planning on watching the fireworks along Darling Harbor tonight.

Sean Down Unda - Sydney Day 5

Eli, Justen and I got up early to head out to Olympic Stadium to watch the morning 'athletics' (we call it track and field). It took us almost two hours to get there! But it was well worth it. This was my first visit out to the Olympic Park (aka Homebush). The entire park is huge and it was pretty breathtaking to walk up to Olympic Stadium after I'd seen so much of it on TV. And the day was beautiful after we had such lousy weather last night. Eli and Justen had seats way up in the bleachers which they had bought on the street the day before. I lucked out...the ticket I bought later the same day for less money was 23 rows up from the field right by the decathlon long jump. Pretty cool, I got some really great pictures of the men's 200, the decathlon long jump and various other events going on.

I had to leave the park early to catch a modern dance matinee at the Opera house. The route back to the trains that go to the city is about a mile walk. I got back to the new balance center just in time to have lunch and find out that we had been moved out of our cozy apartment right on Coogie Beach. I guess someone more important wanted. Bummer, but we're now right across the street in the Holiday Inn.

The matinee at the opera house was incredible. The performance was called "Skin" and included two individual dance pieces, the second included several artists that were in the opening night ceremonies. The first was nice, but didn't engage me. It was a troop of women dancing to half aborigine, half modern jazz music. The seconds was a troop of men and a small boy. It started with a native aborigine hanging himself then shifted in to dance and some singing dealing with some of the issues natives in Australia and New Zealand are dealing with today. The set was only a burned out car shell that was moved to many different positions for different acts. The final scenes were of one of the older performers sitting down and singing songs to his guitar. The last song was about how for a time, native children were taken from their real parents to be raised by white parents in hopes of civilizing them. Once again, I teared up at the end.

Then...back to the New Balance center for dinner. After that, I caught up with the cousins of one of my best friends Peter Barnes in Seattle. We went to the Lord Nelson pub in an area of town called The Rocks, the pub was just under the Sydney Harbor bridge. We had a great time and it was fun to be in a local pub when the Aussies cheer on their team.

Sean Down Unda - Sydney Day 4

Eli and I headed into the city around 9:30 this morning. About half way in we figured out that our bus went right along where the women's bike race was going to be held so we decided to hop off and watch the start. We followed the helicopters and arrived at the start line just in time to see them take off. There was a big screen TV showing the race as they went through the course at the first turn, so we planted ourselves there and stuck around for several of the seven laps in the race. Pretty cool, definitely felt like I was at the Olympics. The riders were so close you could touch them. I'll be off to track and field tomorrow at the Olympic stadium to watch some of the decathlon events. The symphony tonight at the Opera House was fantastic. The arias were fantastic and the Maori dance/singing group that performed with the symphony were amazing. The men's parts were basically made up of a lot of shouting and stomping and it was pretty moving to see and hear this in concert with the symphony. The view from the opera house was spectacular as well, especially as there was a lightening storm as we left the building.

Sean Down Unda - First Sidney swim, first 50m pool...almost

I Stopped in to a pool just on the east side of Hyde Park for a swim that some people had mentioned yesterday when the other pool I tried was closed. Wow...this was a public pool. There were tons of people. There were ten lanes with at least 3-4 people in each doing laps...and this was midday! Unfortunately, they had split the 50m pool into two pools to 'accommodating' all the levels of swimmers that they would have with all the tourists. Bummer. In the other end of the pool they had some crazy show going for kids with a bunch of guys dressed up in the old style bathing suits (the ones with the black and white stripes) doing synchronized swimming. Didn't watch any of it myself. In another adjoining pool there was a big structure for children to play on. Lots of people around...it was kind of fun.

The workout went great with the exception of the hand-paddles. They wouldn't let me use them because the pool was too busy. The water was a little colder that what I'm used to as well so that was a new sensation

Sean Down Unda - Cliff run with Eli

Got up this morning and decided to head out for a run with Eli. I was a little nervous since he's much farther along in training that I am, but he wanted to just to a jog so it ended up that the rate felt pretty good. We headed north along Coogee Beach for a while, then along the cliffs that lead to Bondi Beach eventually, where the Olympic Beach Volleyball events are being held. The run was incredible...incredible views, incredible workout, incredible guy to run with. Can't really do justice to the views...cliffs, rocks, crashing waves, all of it. Even though it was cloudy, it was beautiful. The trail included pavement, dirt, grass, stairs, uphills, downhills...a little bit of everything. Once again, the run time was right at 45 minutes. Finally, Eli really is great guy. He's given me lots of pointers along the way and gave me many more during the run. I'm pretty lucky to be able to spend some time with him, get to know him and benefit from his pointers. He's only 22, but has a lot of wisdom.

Sean Down Unda - Beach run with Justen

I met up with Eli Bremer and his brother Justen on Saturday. They will be my roomates here in Sydney. Eli is training for the Pentathlon in Colorado Springs with several other pentathletes and his brother did them when he was younger too. This morning I went out running with Justen south along the cliffs, but since I had walked around Melbourne so much, my plantar fasciatis really started to bug me, so after we turned around to see what what was up north, I opted to stay on the beach and run bare-footed in the cold sand and water. The sand helped stretch out my ankle and the cold helped reduce the inflammation. I ended up running sprints on the beach with put me in for about a 45 minute run overall.

Sean Down Unda - Sydney Day 1

I arrived just fine to Sydney, but it went down hill from there...at least for a little while. I called the hotel for my free pick up to find out that the pentathlon organizers (UIPM) had overbooked. So I called the UIPM contact and was told to come out to the Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour where the UIPM and New Balance had a hospitality house, I would get further instructions there. The cab took about half an hour, then there I was...right in the middle of one of the main Sydney action centers, several of the venues are located here...boxing, fencing, volleyball, etc.

I was told that we'd be staying at the Coogie View, which was a ways out of town, but it was on the beach. I was a little nervous, had lunch, then left for my new home. WOW! It was an apartment right on the beach!!! Needless, to say, I was pretty happy. Since Eli (one of our up and coming pentathletes) and his brother - who I would be rooming with - were due to arrive in later, I did have to stay in to wait for their phone call, since as far as they knew, we were still at the original place. So I watched the Olympics...and the sunset. Not a bad way to start my Sidney stay at all.

Sean Down Unda - Melbourne Day 2

I started my day with a run around some of the sites around Melbourne. The Huge MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), which seats 105,000, along the Yarra River, by the rowing club houses, through Fitzroy Gardens, then back to Sibylle's. Then I had a quick breakfast at the George St. Cafe, just diagonal from Sibylle's place and finally set off for the city. I stopped in to the nearby Holiday Inn to check out tours down to see the penguins along the way. Hmmm, dilemma...the tours takes off at 1:30 and gets back at 11:30pm. It includes a stop at a sheep station and Koala Conservation Center, but I'm not sure if I want to be gone for the whole day and get back so late. After thinking about it in the gardens for a bit then walking around downtown, I met up with Sibylle to catch the view from the Shell building where she works...incredible, you could see all the way to the ocean. Then we had a quick lunch and I was off again. This time to look for some aboriginal artwork...that I could afford! I found a great little shop and bought a 5x7 of "flying ants dreaming". The aborigine style is a kind of large pointillism and the 'dreaming' genre reflect much of their spiritual and cultural heritage. The little painting, done by a 10 year old, is in reds and yellow, the original colors they aborigines used before westerners brought in many more dies and color schemes.

With my artwork purchase finished, I headed up to check out the university, walked through the Carlton district known for its Italian feel and finally back over to Fitzroy to have a spot of tea and cake before heading back to Sibylle's. She was having a dinner party with some friends from work. I took a quick nap and woke up to an incredible seafood paella smell. We ended up watching the Olympics most of the way through the dinner, including a show called "The Dream" which is two comedian-sportscasters that interpret the days Olympic happenings. Pretty funny stuff. I'll try to update on further The Dream shows later, it runs every night.

Sean Down Unda - Melbourne run

I bought this great book on runs in different cities around the world and decided to try the Melbourne one out. It took me around the Cricket Coliseum, which was HUGE, it holds 105,000 people. Then through the tennis center left over from the Melbourne Olympics, along the Yarra River where I saw many of the Rowing clubs (nobody around when I was there though) and finally across Fitzroy Gardens back to Sibylle's place. It took me about 45 minutes or so.

Sean Down Unda - Melbourne Day 1

I had a great flight over the Pacific. I actually slept much of the way so it seemed to go very quickly. The best part: the maps they show of the plains location. On this flight, they had several different GIS views including a very detailed local map so it was need to watch us approach Melbourne.

I arrived earlier than expected so surprised Sibylle, the person I was staying with. I met Sibylle in India three years ago on an Earthwatch study researching snow leopards, so was really looking forward to catching back up with her. She has a great little place near downtown. It reminded me a lot of the places you would find in New Orleans...one story, but lots of lattice work on the outside and very narrow but long living spaces. We had some coffee then I walked with her into the city as she had to work that day. We crossed the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens on the way and she told me the stories of how people pack into the park at night to feed the possums.

My first stop downtown was a bookstore that Sibylle said I'd find on Bourke St. I wanted to pick up a guide book for Melbourne. Well, in Melbourne they have Bourke St. and then Lt Bourke St. which stands for Little Bourke Street. Took me a while to figure out that Lt Bourke wasn't Bourke (they don't make it obviouse) bit I did make it. I walked all over downtown that day. One of the highlights was the Victoria Market. The "Vic" resemble any other open air market in the world, fruits and vegis, meats and of course all of the cheap leather, watches and other miscellanea that you find in places like this. What really made this market different was the overwhelming number of stuffed koalas and kangaroos at some of the booths, overwhelming...really.

After a quick visit back to the bookstore to pick up a book on good places to jog arond the world, I made my way to the Melbourne City Bathes which is really more like a gym in a very historic building. The building was quite beautiful. The swim felt great as well (Details in Pentathlon journal soon). One of the gals at the front desk notice my UW rowing shirt so I chatted with here for a while.

Fitzroy, a neighborhood in Melbourne, was next on the list. Sibylle said this is the Bohemian part of town. That it was. It reminded me a lot of Haight-Ashbury (sp?) in San Francisco. I sat and had cake for a while listening to an aborigine fellow play American standards on his guitar on a street corner. I can't remember his name at all, but I do recall it meant "little black kangaroo". He was a great singer, had a great smile and busted out quite a few jokes as well including "If Adam and Eve would have been aborigines, they would have just eaten the snake and we wouldn't have had any of these problems we do today".

Then had a great dinner with John and Sibylle at a Thai restaurant. John brought his own wine, an Australian red, it was fantastic. Then it was off to coffee (hot chocolate for me) along the Yarra River.

With jet lag, walking around all day, swim and a late night with dinner and coffee, I was really tired and slept really well that night.

Sean Down Unda - Melbourne swim

After touring around Melbourne most of the day, I stopped in to the Melbourne City Bathe for a swim. Its really a complete gym, but the historic building was all pools and spas when it was built in the early 1900's so it retains the name today.

I was a little tired out from the walk around town and jet lag, so I did about 3/4 of my usual swim workout. It felt great. I did get in at the wrong end of the pool that was very deep and had no where to hold on to, so putting on my goggles and later my hand paddles (which I had left at this end) was a little challenging. Remember the one armed runners and bikers from Seattle? Well, I saw a one legged swimmer today. Another good omen. I also ran into a rower a the front desk. She saw me in my UW crew shirt so we had a little chat about rowing in the area.

Highway running in Spokane

I was in Spokane, WA for a Labor Day weekend polo tournament...grooming and tacking for some friends. On Sunday, we had a long break in the morning schedule, so I slipped away, put on my running shoes and headed out for my long run that I usually do on weekends. This time, I was scheduled to do an 80 minute run. I haven't done much work at any kind of elevation (not that Spokane is that high at 2500 feet), so I wasn't sure how it would go...would I make the whole 80 or settle for an hour? The route was completely flat, so that was one good variable. I ran out along for 40 minutes...no problems. The 40 minutes back were just fine too. Yee Haw, I did the whole 80 minutes...even after a biscuits and gravy breakfast at the Longhorn restaurant just across the road from the polo field. I didn't get a long swim in over the weekend, but it was a holiday anyway, I deserve a break now and then. Back to the regular schedule on Tuesday.

Swimming in a sauna

I found out that the outdoor pool in Syracuse, NE (about 10 miles to the north) had an open lap swim from 5-6pm every night...so I thought I would try it out since I didn't see running as a long term solution to keeping fit while on vacation. Got to to the pool, which did have lane markers painted on the cement on the floor of the pool (but no floating markers), jumped in and quickly discovered that the shallow end was only about 2'6"...not far above my knees. Hmm. They did have kickboards, but no kneeboard for working out my arms. Hmm. The feel didn't feel to hot or anything...until I finished my first lap and realized that the only reason it didn't feel hot was that it was 98 degrees outside the pool...the pool was around 75 degrees or so. Yuck and hmm. I also discovered that swimming mid-continent is different than swimming at sea-level, I could barely finish the first four laps of my warmup. Well, the rest of my workout had to be reduced as well, I just ran out of gas too quickly...high elevation, high temperatures - both in and out of the water - didn't make for the best workout conditions. But at least I did get about a half an hour of workout time. Better than nothing.

Rough run...literally

Well, I'm in Nebraska now for a week and a half visiting my grandparents and aunt and uncle. Its 95 degrees outside and the humidity is at 91%. Not the best running conditions, especially for a sea-level athlete like myself. I decided I would try it anyway and waited until evening, around 8:00pm, when it cooled down enough that I could actually leave the house. I was sweating before I even started the run...but that's OK. Unfortunately, the highway just down from my aunt's house doesn't have a shoulder so I had to run on the dirt road directly west. This would have been fine if it were actually dirt. The county had just recently put down fresh rock on the road which made for really poor running conditions. I did an interval set, 2 minutes off 1 minute on for 10 minutes out and 10 minutes back, about the same time frame I've been doing back in Seattle. This went well enough, I survived and all, but it took me almost an hour after stopping to stop sweating and my poor legs were all wacked out from the fresh rock. Next time, I'll take my chances on the highway.