Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over."– F. Scott Fitzgerald
Secretariat and I just completed a short tapering run. I am still nursing my hand injury from a fall last week while he is preparing to leave for his vacation. After our run we usually sit on my deck in the cool morning hour. Today, he drank a beer and I had my smoothie. Today’s conversation dealt with, in part ,the Guinness Book of World Records and the difficulty of the early settlers coming across the Sierra Nevada’s. Does anyone know when “no hands bridge “was built? Secretariat told me of the many railroad bridges that crossed the American River with “no hands “being the only one still standing.
After our discussion we came in the house to look at the two new book trailer videos that he produced. We have a long version and a short version of the trailer. We both agree and like the short version better. On the blog, both versions show up. So just because you seen one version doesn’t mean you’ve seen the other one. Tonight Linda and I, Secretariat and others are going to go to Marco’s, in Coloma, to show our trailer along with others since its movie night. Join us at 8:00 PM.
Sammie Stanbro, one of the magnificent seven that I interviewed in my book, sent me an August 5, 2011 newspaper article from the sports section of West Hawaii Today written by Kevin Jakahi. On that front page, titled Keauhou’s Winning Link is the picture of six women . The article is about Sammy and her crew which is seeking its fourth straight title at the Hawaii Canoe Racing Association state Regatta. Incidentally, these women are in their 60s.
Sammie began paddling about 10 years ago after her husband Phil died from prostate cancer in 2000. She first met Phil in Australia and went on a trip to Japan with him. He proposed to her while visiting Hiroshima. They married in 1969 and had two sons, Joshua and Orion. They lived in Northern California and Oregon before settling in Hawaii. Phil’s grandfather had a place in Kona so the family became rooted in that section of the big island. Phil worked for the US Bureau of land management. In 1994 they bought land directly above the Kailua Village and built and designed an old custom Hawaiian style dream house overlooking the ocean.
Sammie has traveled around the world and padded races in New Zealand, Australia, Greece, and Sri Lanka to name a few. She also is involved with the Project Pure Light, an organization started in 2002 to allow adaptive paddlers an opportunity to challenge themselves in the canoe. “We’ve had two blind people, a couple of amputees, and others are paraplegics and we’ve done the Queen Liliuokalani (long-distance races) and the 41 mile Molokai Hoe,” said Sammie. The Molokai Hoe is referred to as the Super Bowl of paddling and began in 1952 for the men. The women’s race started officially in 1979 it is called Na Wahine O Ke Kai. These races begin in Molokai and finish in Oahu. Sammie has paddled with both the men with the Pure Light team and with the women in this special Outrigger paddling event.
Do I have your interest?
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