Maui Jim Reflection

Hope you have enjoyed the week of seeing Sarasota reflected off the lenses of Maui Jim. Today is the final reflection on the beach of Siesta Key where we will be working on our “give and go” speed tomorow.

#mauireflect

Maui Jim Sunglasses: From India to Nigeria

You know you are getting older when you are coaching your student’s children. That is where I am in life as I am coaching the daughter of one of my former Indian students. June and July was spent training some of India’s brightest tennis prospects.

I lived in Chennai in the late 80s and early 90s. During my final year, I had the pleasure of coaching Vasudev Reddy. He went onto play Davis Cup for India and establish a thriving tennis academy in Hyderabad. His daughter, Vineetha, has a great future in tennis. Vasu wears his Maui Jims everyday on the court protecting his eyes from the harmful rays and optimizing his clarity of the ball.

 

After trips to Boston, Portland, London, Paris, and Madrid, we finished the summer with training and meetings in Abuja, Nigeria. My wife’s cousin, Manji, was an excellent host and guide, but also a Maui Jim (#MauiJim) fan as can be seen in front of the fabulous Aso Rock.

We had the opportunity to meet with Maria Wophill of The Athletics Federation of Nigeria about Body Protection coming to Nigeria again in 2018.

We then flew from Abuja to Paris to find out that Miami airport was closed due to hurricane Irma. When we reached Paris, we had a text from a family friend in Charlotte inviting us to stay with them if we were evacuating Florida. Little did they know that we were in Paris. We changed our flight to Charlotte and were so blessed to stay in there for four nights while Irma veered a little east when approaching Sarasota. We were so fortunate.

After going around the world three times this summer, it is time to train for a few months in Florida. Maui Jim will still be with us every step of the way guarding our eyes and enhancing our sports performance.

Maui Jim Around Europe

Just arrived back on US soil and still a bit jet lagged after our long flight from Athens. We had an incredible trip with stops in Zurich to the Greek Islands of Rhodes, Patmos, Kalymnos, and Symi. As a Maui Jim Ambassador, our Body Protection workouts through the hilly roads or beaches of the Greek Islands were all seen through the incredible clarity and color of the Maui Rose lenses.

Here is a few photos from our trips showing how the details of our travels are more crisp and more defined through the lenses of Maui Jim:

In Zurich:

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From a boat in Symi:

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Resting on the ship after our workouts, Maui Jim hanging out on the tabletop on our way to Rhodes:

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I posted an 80-Minute Mile…and I was happy with my time!

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My 80-minute mile took place traversing the Mahoosuc Notch in western Maine. Many hikers consider this mile the toughest or slowest mile of the Appalachian Trail and usually take a couple of hours to go through the notch. My brother, Richard, and I followed Ken Alden through the notch. Ken did not hesitate choosing his spots to attack the rock formations in front of him. Richard refers to Mahoosuc Notch as a “jungle gym for adults.” Each hiker must go over, under, or around massive boulders that fell from the surrounding cliffs. This hike was part of our 17-mile day hiking from Old Speck to Goose Eye Mountain (photo on the summit above near the end of our day). What a great workout that took us the entire day. Here is Ken below sneaking through a hole he found at Mahoosuc Notch.

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Before tackling Mahoosuc Notch, my Maine hiking expedition began in central part of the state at Gulf Hagas in what is referred to as “The Grand Canyon of Maine.” Richard, Aubrey (my niece), and I hiked a trail that begins with taking our boots off to cross a running river and then goes up and around the rim of the gorge. A beautiful hike with many waterfalls, it was a nice way to break in my new boots. The next two days we hiked about 20 miles of the Hundred-Mile Wilderness trail which is a challenging part of the Appalachian Trail. It was a nice way to send my niece off to college and brought back memories of her completing all the 4,000 footers in New England back when she was just 13. Richard, the consummate guide, took me through four days and 42 miles of hiking some picturesque but difficult Maine terrain.

Maui Jim is sponsoring the Maui Invitational college basketball tournament coming up in November. Because of this, Maui Jim is doing a sweepstakes that includes roundtrip coach airfare, six night hotel accommodation, rental car, a pair of tickets for each tournament day, a $500 VISA gift card and two pairs of Maui Jim sunglasses. Check out this link to enter the sweepstakes:  <registrations are now closed>

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I am traveling to the US Open tennis and then again overseas. Will be back in September reviewing my races in Greece. Have a great rest of your summer!

 

 

 

 

 

Naxos, Greece – Race #4 on the 2015 Greek Islands Adventure Tour

 

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As we await to hear what is going to happen with the Greek bailout, banks will remain closed all week and we will know by Sunday if the EU accepts the Greek proposal. Our time on the islands still remains peaceful and “business as usual” as I have even seen my first credit card transactions since we have been here on the island of Naxos.

Naxos is one of the bigger islands in Cyclades with a deep ancient history. We have enjoyed our time here taking in some of the ruins and archaeological digs on the island. This was the first race I ran without a “Meltemi” – the dry, northern wind I spoke about in my last post. We all had our best day this morning as our team ran the event seamlessly. I felt strong and safe on the road and ran a 4:41. Please take a quick look at the short video below highlighting the last quarter-mile of the race. Check out how we had to go around the man on his donkey… a great memory of our Greek runs.

Thanks to people like Petros (below), www.OneMileRunner.com has been able to execute these mile races around the world. Thanks for all your care and expertise Petros.

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We now travel to Amorgos on the slow boat tomorrow afternoon. We are planning to race on Sunday morning. That would be 5 races in 12 days. Now it is time to recover for a day and finish well in my last race.

Congress Avenue Mile Cancelled

On my 50th birthday, we found out that the Congress Avenue Mile was cancelled due to Run Tex, the company that puts on the race, closing their doors and going out of business after 25 years. This was a shocker as Run Tex has been in business a long time and was a big part of the athletic community in Austin, TX. They put on races, put out water for locals running on Saturday, and even had a foundation to help the area.

I was planning on running a few of my favorite races in 2013 starting with the Congress Avenue Mile. However, after training heavily since the Super Bowl, we will replace it with an upcoming race later this year. We have been racing heavily the last ten years and this is the first time that this has happened. I am always careful about when I kick in the high speed workouts to my program. If I knew that there was a chance that this could happen, I would have waited on my three speed workouts a week until later in the year, but that is how it goes…