More Coney Brrr

Sad times for Coney Island--here come the bulldozers

I don't know if it'll do any good, but I signed this petition......

I also like these ideas to protest in a grass roots fashion....one of which is to call 311 and complain about tearing down Coney!

Does anyone know whatever happened to the astroland rocket?

Photos via Lola Starr...

Blast from the past--1879 to be precise

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Coney 1.04.09

                   MORE VIDEOS 1.4.09

   Air Temp  28F

   Water Temp 40-41F

   Coochie Temp -2F
 

Magellan-mania

For those of you who don't know, some of the more die-hard have been quietly training year-round for one of the ultimate swim challenges--the Straits of Magellan.  At last, the dates have been set, and it's this month!  On January 20th, Rachel and Cristian (as well as Scott Lautman and his bro) will be attempting a swim that has been only accomplished by five people.   It's a big F'n deal.  So I want everyone to be sending them warm strong positive energy during that week!  Rachael's been keeping a blog, so check it, yo.  

Reasons why I miss Bonaire already...

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Originally uploaded by brooklynmermaid

Photos of Bonaire and the 2008 Eco-Swim

Bonaire Eco-Swim meets Igor's stupid drills

I sent the following letter to my beloved coach Igor this morning....



Hello my darling Igor,

I'm back from Bonaire.
Just wanted to let you know how invaluable you are (and have always been) to me.

I swam the 5k last Saturday, but once again, half-way through, my bicep/shoulder started to hurt. The pain was getting very bad, and since during my last 10k race in Bermuda I swam through the pain and was not able to lift my arm for days, and worse, messed up my training regime, I thought it might be wise to not push through this particular pain again.

So instead, I swam the last 2k doing one arm backstroke (occasionally alternating one-arm breast/fly).

After my initial rising panic, consequently going nowhere fast, I stubbornly waved off a concerned kayaker and managed to settle down and get comfortable enough to maintain (new) streamlined form and timing. Eventually I was even passing some swimmers. One-armed!  But more importantly, I finished the race. Without injury. Most importantly of all, of course, I avoided the boat-ride of shame.

So thank you for all those endless stupid drills. If you hadn't trained me to get so comfortable taking apart my stroke, I would have never been able to finish. But don't ask me what my time was--I was afraid to look.
love you,
Patricia


Bonaire 2008 race recap & photos