Nervous Nellie's First Marathon

Timothy and I arrived in Tampa this afternoon. After checking in we drove the entire course and, oh my god!, it's soooo long. I've been gradually becoming more and more nervous over the last two weeks, but it really did hit me today driving the distance. Anyway, the course is beautiful, mostly along the Tampa waterfront and through old neighborhoods with huge, gorgeous homes. I'm scared to death, but very excited. Funny, I was telling someone this morning that one of the reasons I decided to run a marathon was to participate in a race that, unlike hang gliding, involves no luck and no fear...its purely physical and mental strength. Ha, seems I was wrong about the no fear part.

View of part of the course from our hotel window.

Al-EE-gay-tor

Mom and I took the boy to Gatorland today. Had a great time - nobody loves an adventure more than my Maxie. Of course, I had to show a few of those wranglers how it's done ;-)

Another Weekend at the Questicle

Funny the things we find to entertain us when the weather isn't just right. Saturday we flew, but the wind was blowing quite a bit, so it wasn't the most enjoyable tow or landing of my life. I suppose it's good for me to fly in conditions I'm not completely comfortable with- but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.


Paul and Lauren scouted out this little training hill a while back, so we decided to give it a try. There isn't much in the way of landing area below, so we started with a paraglider. Dustin gave lessons to anyone willing. Pity there's a fence around the track...and heaps of small trees....and lightpoles....and private property ;-) I guess we can't complain - finding a hill of any sort in Florida is a difficult enough task.

Looks Like My Uncle When He's Been Drunk for a Week

.....Nicole's new best friend.

Georgia on my Mind

I'm about 4000ft over the beautiful south Georgia countryside. April,
Johnny T. and I are cruising up to Lookout Mountain to check out the
Flytec Rally course. So far, so good- all looks completely wide open,
green and gorgeous. I think everyone is going to love flying some new
terrain!

Support the US Team

The US team shirts are out and available at www.flytec.com/worldteam/support.html. They've got a cool new design this year and even nice girly shirts for all the wives, girlfriends and mistresses out there.


My best hang gliding buddy Princess Dustina is also offering some really great equipment and one-on-one and group xc and competition clinics for raffle on his blog at http://dustinhoflies.blogspot.com/. Dustin is an exceptional instructor and the clinics are sure to be great! Odds are really good that you'll win something and if you don't, at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that Dustin owes you one ;-)