summer is winding down

It really pained me to write that blog title. Summer is almost over, which has the ability to send me into a borderline depressed state. In a little more than a week I'll be moving back down to Baltimore. At least I will have a week of XC camp before class starts, but it will still be tough to say goodbye for another long school year. It will be fun seeing all my college friends again but it's a real bittersweet time. I feel bad, everyone else looks forward to going back to school but I find that hard to do. School is fun but there's a lot going on and it gets pretty tense and stressful. Saying that summer is my favorite time of the year wouldn't even come close to doing it justice. I'm having hands down the best summer of my life. I might actually cry when it's over...maybe haha.

I've been pretty busy since my last post. I kinda lost track of how long it had been. I was surprised it was about a month ago that I last got my blog on. Lifeguard races have been going real well and my running has been coming along very well. My mileage ended up bein a little lower than I had planned but it's cool because I get a lot of good cross training from the job.

On Saturday was my favorite race of the summer, the Captain Bill Gallagher Sea Isle 10 miler. The race draws a lot of good runners from South Jersey and Philly since so many people from the Philly area vacation down here. I ran it in 52:59 which got me 6th place. That was 4 places better than last year so I was pretty pumped. I had planned to try and run it in 55 so I was amped about my time. I was coming down the final stretch and saw the clock at like 52:40 and I almost didn't believe it. It was sick. The competition was very legit as usual. A bunch of college or post-college runners always do the race. A pro actually won it, some guy who runs for Mizuno. He was a finalist in the Olympic Trials for the steeplechase last summer, so that was pretty cool to race a guy like that. Granted, he beat me by over a minute but I hung with him for a while. The crowd gets real into the race too which is fun and makes the running a bit easier mentally. It's a big party day in Sea Isle (assuming you're not doing the run) and a lot of people drink all day on the beach or maybe their house then watch the race. Needless to say they get pretty enthusiastic, and scream a lot.

The only good thing about summer ending is that running is a lot easier in Baltimore. The shore is probably the worst place in the world for a distance runner to train just for the fact that it's very hard mentally to run a lot because the scenary couldn't get any more monotonous. Plus, when it gets hot, it gets really, really hot. It sucks, but I get through it. Baltimore has some decent places to run with some cool trails and parks, so I'll look forward to getting back to my familiar routes down there. Plus, I love ice baths, which I don't have down here. They feel great.

Here is a cool picture I found online. It's from a lifeguard race. As you can probably tell, these 2 girls are about to get ROCKED. I feel bad for them, they're just about to get so owned. Man, I'm glad it's not me. Enjoy:

Grey No More

It has been quite a while since my last post. My last entry was titled "Another Grey Day." Well, thankfully, a lot has changed since then. The weather has gotten great and it really feels like I'm in the thick of summer. This is a great place to be at. The weather has been consistently good, and I couldn't be happier.

I sit on 96th street in Stone Harbor every day, and it sure has gotten very busy. This is one of the busier streets in town because 96th street is sort of like Stone Harbor's "Main Street" with lots of shops. I enjoy it, though, because busy days always go fast. Plus, I sit with one of my good friends from high school every day, so it's always enjoyable. One of the busiest days yet was, unsurprisingly, the 4th of July. Not only was it a beautiful day, but it was also a Saturday, so the weekend crowd was out in full force. We set up a big American flag on the back of our stand and gave out red/white/blue ice pops to kids. It was a great beach day that went great for everyone with little incident. This great day led into an even better night. Our house has a deck which provided a perfect viewing spot for the Wildwood fireworks show. It was quite a spectacle, and fun was had by all.

Another reason that it feels like summer is in full swing has been the start of the lifeguard races. Everyone who lifeguards in Jersey looks forward to these races, held every Friday starting in July. There are many great athletes on all the patrols so it makes for a competitive yet fun and laid back atmosphere. Events include doubles and singles rowing, paddleboard, swim, run, run/swim, and surf dash. I participate in the run/swim, which is a grueling yet fun event. It is a 1.5 mile run into a 1/4 mile swim. It is fun because it is a pretty unique event, and is, in my opinion, good testament to what a lifeguard should be. Watching the races is always awesome and there are always big, enthusiastic crowds. I like to watch the rowing events the most. They are sort of like Nascar - you want your patrol's boat to do well, but you secretly really want to see a good crash or a big wave mess someone up. Most entertaining, though, is when skilled (often veteran) rowers till a wave. This is when the rowers use their oars like rudders to steer the boat once they've caught a wave. When done correctly, it is very impressive, and can often bring a boat from out of contention right into first place.

I hope everyone's summer is going well. Summer is a great time and I'm glad we're in the midst of it right now. I'm sure when it comes to an end it will seem like it flew so I'm just trying to savor the days. That's all I got for now, later.

Another Grey Day

Thus far, the weather this summer has been horrible. There's only been one day that I didn't need to put on my jacket and/or hoodie. It's been consistently grey, windy, overcast, and often rainy. It is nearly unbearable. I keep thinking it will break soon and summer will "really" start, but it just hasn't arrived yet. My captain told me about a summer back in the 70s or 80s when it was like that all summer long. I'm praying that this is not that type of summer.

Despite the less than ideal weather there have been some positives. For one, the ocean water has been relatively warm for early summer. Last summer the water was painfully cold for more than half the summer. I would even go in the water waist deep after running because it was like nature's ice bath. There hasn't been one day where the water temperature was at all comparable to last summer, which is great.

Friday June 19th was the best day of summer so far. The sun was out all day long and I didn't need to put my jacket on at all. There was a warm West wind blowing at our backs, and nice waves generated from a storm the day before. The West wind gives the waves good shape. There was some bad rip currents, though, and we made some pretty legit saves. Rips are crazy, they can seem to open up out of nowhere and just rip out. Those kinds of days are tense and I sit on the edge of my seat but they fly by because I'm so preoccupied with watching the people. It's funny when you save a kid, the look on their face is priceless. They probably won't go back in the water, at least not for that day.

After work that day a bunch of us went surfing. It's so great when a large group of us head out on the boards after work. In terms of ability, some people are sick, other people are horrible, but everyone has just as much fun. It's impossible to be angry after a day like that. I hope we get some more days like that soon. Until then, I'll just have to sit through some more grey days.

some info about my summer setup

After reading my classmates' blogs I realized that I should probably give a little more background info about what I'm doing for summer while I take this class. I'm living in North Wildwood, NJ with my younger brother and 3 of my friends from high school. We all ocean lifeguard in the next town over, Stone Harbor. It's an awesome job and I love doing it. I probably should've gotten a internship but I honestly just don't want to do that one bit, so I'm gonna go ahead and put that stuff off for as long as possible. Our house is small but it's got a deck, a hot tub, and is steps from the beach/boardwalk (sick).

The summer is goin pretty slow right now without a lot of vacationers around yet, but it's slowly getting into it. Last week was practically a ghost town and was cold/foggy most days. This week has been better with some decent beach days and the water isn't even that cold which is nice. There are a lot of high school kids down here on senior week which is annoying but I can't be too mad cause I've been in their shoes before...the shoes of an obnoxious high school senior, sittin on top of the world.

Today at work me and my stand partner found a turtle backbeach in the dry sand. It was a cool creature and made the day go by fast. We didn't know if we should put it in the ocean, drive it back to the bay, or just leave it be. We ended up throwing it in the ocean. I still don't know if we made the right choice.

Also, our house's TV doesn't get Phillies games which is hurtin. We can only watch games on weekends cause they're on a different channel. We're thinking about buying digital cable for the summer but I don't know if it's worth it. We shall see. Ok that's enough bloggings for the moment, hope everyone's summer is going well. Peace.

First blog post ever

What's up everybody

My name is Dan McDevitt. I'll be a senior at Loyola College (University? did that "happen" yet?) in the fall. I have set up this blog for my summer class with the great Dr. King, though it is a different Dr. King than you might be thinking (that'd be impossible). The class is called "travel writing" which I think might be challenging considering I'm not traveling anywhere all summer but I guess we'll see. However, I'm living in North Wildwood, NJ for the summer, and this is a shore town/popular vacation spot so I feel like that will help the "travel" aspect of it. Plus this is not my hometown so in a way I am traveling just by being here. Alright I think I've done enough blogging for the day. Peace.