HOTCuyahoga

So I mentioned this via e-mail to some, but figured I should get it out the rest of the world as well.

This Saturday, September 18 I'll be doing some rowing in Cleveland's fall regatta -- The Head of the Cuyahoga.  This is the 15th Annual so you know it's legit.  Or something like that.

The Mighty Cuyahoga
Photo Courtesy of the National Archives
http://www.archives.gov/research/american-cities/

Fellow Mile Challenger Gavin will be participating as well.  We're in a 4+ race at 10:30am but in separate boats and then we'll be together in an 8+, in the last race of the day at 2:40pm.

I just wanted to throw out an invite to come on down and watch some boats go by. There will be over 1,000 rowers and over 250 boats, ranging from high school kids to old veterans.

In other cities like Boston and Philadelphia people actually go watch races and hang out along the river and party it up. Cleveland?  Not so much.  That said, I figured I would send out the invite and try to build up Cleveland's drunken, boat watching population. Support Cleveland and support the riverfront and support the great outdoors.  Bring some food and some drinks and hang out in the fresh, fall air.  Or don't bring food if you don't want ... Dim and Den Sum will be there providing food as needed!

Admittedly rowing isn't always the most exciting thing in the world, but look at this random blog post I found from someone who was at the Head of the Charles:  http://inquestoftherobot.blogspot.com/2007/10/sort-of-like-catalina-magnet-high.html  See? You don't need to like or even understand rowing to hang out and have fun.  Look at all of those idiots on the banks in Boston.  That goes on for like three miles.  People everywhere just rockin' out.

Oh, and if you get a good vantage point, and you get lucky, sometimes rowing on the Cuyahoga gets full contact enough to bring some thrill to your day:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc0v9vGy9TQ

The course begins at the West 3rd Street Bridge and finishes down by the red swing bridge at Center Street.  The first race starts at 8:00am and the last race starts at 3:10pm. 

So there you go.  That's your invite.  If you'd like to roll on by that would be cool.  If not, no harm done. 

Here's a little promo video too: http://www.clevelandrows.org/HOTCVideo.wmv  If you look carefully you might just spot someone you know (psssst, it's me! And Gavin!  Fancy!!).

Nature Of A Different Status

Since my bird post is still appearing as the last thing posted, I thought I'd add a bit of an opposite view of nature that I experienced. Not as cheery as the birds but sometimes the whole yin/yang thing takes over I guess.

This tale begins this past Sunday when I went out for a row with some of my rowing chums. We had some heavy rain in Cleveland Saturday night into Sunday and when this happens the debris in the Cuyahoga gets pretty bad. Everything from every storm drain, creek, roadway, etc. winds up in the river. So it's tree branches, bottles, basketballs, chip bags, hats, logs and plenty of other goodies. Most are just gross, but the big stuff is also rather unpleasant for the rowing shells if you don't see one and there is an impact.

So this particular day there was a lot of stuff out there. At one point we were coming up on a section of river that was like a minefield of debris so we had slowed so we could ease through without destroying the equipment. Up ahead we see something floating that doesn't look like the usual log or garbage. As we pull up alongside we discover this mystery object is an enormous, fat, bloated, and very dead raccoon. It smelled pretty bad and looked even worse.

We carried on and about 10 minutes later we come up to something else big and out of the ordinary in the water. This one? A dead deer floating along.

I can sort of see how a raccoon might get trapped in a swirl of water in some pipe or something and wind up in the river, but the deer has me stumped.

So there you go, two different tales of nature along the Cuyahoga ... the living and the dead.

The Birds

Not really related to miles, and especially not to running (since I am way behind in that category), but while rowing this spring I've seen a lot of birds.  I don't know if there are more than prior years or if I'm just noticing more, but I had a mental list going then decided to actually put it all down for whatever reason.

And for those of you who may row or formerly rowed, I am well aware that I technically shouldn't be looking out of the boat, but sometimes there are breaks and I check out my surroundings.  And I've also been a coxswain a couple of times which makes for good viewings.

Anyway, here's my list of feathered friends I've seen this year while rowing:

• Blue Jay
• Wood Duck
• Rock Pigeon
• Great Blue Heron
• Canada Goose
• Ring-billed Gulls (one impolitely pooped on me)
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Turkey Vulture
• Grackle
• Mallard Duck
• Sparrow
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Robin
• Starling
• Tree Swallow
• Great Northern Loon aka Common Loon (this one was in Craftsbury, VT, not Cleveland, OH)

And that's your nature report for today. Keep on milein'.