Charity of the Month: Hurricane Irma Relief Efforts

Charity of the Month is a way Team Tizzel is helping to support some very worthy organizations. As part of this program, we will dedicate a post to a charity that we will sponsor through the month by donating Holly's training run money.

In September we supported the Red Cross with a $125 donation to help with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

October's Charities

Jost Van Dyke Preservation Society
Virgin Unite
Cow Wreck Beach Fund Page
Perfect Pineapple Inn Fund Page

Although we've never been through a full-blown hurricane, we've been impacted by hurricanes. In 1995, our wedding had to be relocated from St. Thomas and our honeymoon from Antigua due to hurricane damage. In 1999 a hurricane hovered over St. Kitts for days, causing us to switch vacation plans last minute to Jamaica (and thank goodness - we love Jamaica). Last year our resort in the Bahamas received some damage, causing it to close and divert us to Grenada. These annoyances are nothing compared to the havoc inflicted by Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

We were nervous about Irma. It was on a direct path to the British Virgin Islands, a place we've enjoyed year-after-year since 2003. We've built friendships with people on the small islands of Jost Van Dyke (JVD) and Anegada and have even helped some of them in developing their business. The small inn we stayed at in Jost Van Dyke kept our personal beach towels for us each year. We nervously awaited the social media updates and were in awe once we started to read the posts. The first picture we saw was of Ivan's in White Bay, JVD. A few years ago the main building was refurbished, now it's mostly gone. The new gift shop at Cow Wreck in Anegada is gone. The Perfect Pineapple cottage we stayed in for years...gone. One friend from Jost who is now in the US did not hear from her son and family for almost a week. About 200 people live on each island and after the storms many have gone off-island to stay with family.

Ivan's on White Bay, Jost Van Dyke

Cow Wreck after

Great Harbor Jost Van Dyke

Perfect Pineapple Inn

The ferry landed on a restaurant

We've stood on this house's porch

This month we are going to do something different by supporting four separate funds. We'll donate $100 to the Virgin Unite relief fund. We caught a glimpse of Sir Richard Branson on Anegada in 2016. We know his organization will do its best to help the region. We are also sending $100 to the Jost Van Dykes Preservation Society. Their goal is to raise funds to support their community in humanitarian and reconstruction efforts. Currently they are trying to buy some heavy equipment to help with cleanup. Not sure how that effort is going since Maria hit Puerto Rico (where the equipment was located). We're also making smaller donations to funding pages setup for our friends at Cow Wreck Beach Bar/Inn on Anegada and Perfect Pineapple Inn on Jost Van Dyke. These are family businesses that have treated us, and many others, very well over the years.

This video from Beme News highlights Jost Van Dyke and shows how the community is coming together (Our first time at that yellow restaurant we may have been sitting where that boat landed).

 

Jost Van Dyke Invitational 5K Race Recap and Video

For the last ten years we've spent a week of vacation time in the British Virgin Islands on the island of Jost Van Dyke. The population there is around 300 people. Over time we've formed friendships with locals and other vacationers that visited each year at the same time we do.  In 2010 our friend Dan was selected by his running club to receive an entry into The Boston Marathon. This was a sort of "hall pass" to bypass the qualification requirements. In order to help him train while on vacation, we developed the Jost Van Dyke Invitational 5K. Holly and Dan were the only two competitors. We provided race bibs, entry form /  event guide, t-shirts, and medals.

The race holds some traditions in-place: the time and day of the week, race course, and post-race breakfast. But many things have changed too: This year we replaced medals with more natural tokens (which were left on the island - ingrates) and race certificates (soon come). We created a permanent race logo last year that still goes on all media and wearables. The wearables have improved too. We went from iron on t-shirts to long sleeved printed tech shirts. Of course, the race fee went up too.

On race day the Race Director, runners, and MaryJo (Dan's wife and race photographer) all gather in front of Perfect Pineapple's Store. While runners are corralled up they typically complain about the heat and hilly course. MaryJo does a great job capturing all the action in jpg while the RD tries to see how many video angles he can line up. If it wasn't for a dead GoPro battery it would have been four angles..... This year we had an extra spectator at the start line. A French guy on his way to town stuck around to watch the fun.

Once the race began MaryJo headed up the hill to take more pictures while Dave just sat on the stoop and played Candy Crush. The runners found another ACTUAL spectator on the course. A guy we met the day before at a bar.  He did not believe the race was real so he stumbled out of his villa to check. Boy was he surprised.
We don't have fancy bib tags for this race to track the location of our runners. We rely on the local cabbies and folks driving to work to post us on the race status. One person even informed us that Team Tizzel was in the lead!

Holly crossed the finish line first in under 39 minutes with Dan not too far behind. This was Holly's third overall victory and Dan's fourth consectutive overall male finish (plus he had an overall win in the inaugural event). Once all the athletes had a chance to cool down we hold the award ceremony and then send them to the showers before breakfast begins. Later in the day race shirts are worn for the afternoon pub crawl. This year some lady from Canada bought us a round. Sweet!

Here's our video from the race, the registration form / race guide, and the race report newsletter we send out when we get back home.  You can click on the images to make them a bit clearer.

GoPro on the Beach Video Edition

Dave here.....

A couple days ago I posted about using my GoPro Hero3 Black Edition for photos. Overall I was happy with my results.

I finally had time to edit the video. Quality was great, but the audio (especially in the waterproof casing) was horrible. I was also surprised at how shaky it was while walking. I shot everything in 1080p/30fps (frames per second), but processed it at 720p. After doing some more research I think I will play around with fps rates to do more slow motion work.

 

 

GoPro on the Beach

Dave here.....

One of the gifts Holly gave me for completing the Coast to Coast Challenge was the latest GoPro camera - Hero3 Black Edition. It's a real small sports camera that comes with waterproof housing, a remote, and a bunch of other things you screw it into that I haven't figured out yet. The camera has its own built-in wi-fi, which is how the remote works, or you can control it with your i-device. There's no viewfinder or display screen so the camera on its own doesn't give you feedback (you can buy an attachment or use the iPhone app).

Here's why I wanted a GoPro: 1) it's tiny 2) takes wide angle videos and photos 3) takes rapid photos at 30 fps 4) takes interval photos - like 1 every 5 seconds 5) you can wear it on your head. I did number 5 during the Never Land 5k. Battery life is advertised at over 2 hours. I can't get any more than 45 minutes. The wi-fi sucks a lot of battery. One other watch out - when you put it in the water casing it forces on the wi-fi automatically. I took it out one day to find my fully charged battery was dead. Still need to read more on these topics and find more tips.

I had a week to play with the camera on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. I haven't edited any video yet (why blow it all in one post?) but here's a sample of the photography:

These photos were taken from the same place. The top photo was taken with no zoom using my Pentax Optio WG-2. The bottom photo was taken with the GoPro - which has a set focal length.

 

 

 

We're going to need a bigger iPad..... These are interval photos I shot one night - 1 shot per 5 seconds. I plan to import these into iMovie to make a timelapse video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Just one of those photos.

 

 

 

Not sure about this but I think the angle you hold the camera determines how wide the point of view angle becomes. On the top photo you can see the chairs are about 3-4 chair lengths to the water. Those same chairs look really far in the bottom photo.

 

 

 

I was sitting on a barstool and just held the camera up with my arm.

 

 

No flash. Gotta think about backlight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's lots more to learn. Overall, there is a lot of technology packed into this little thing. It will never replace a conventional camera in my bag, but it's a great extra to have along for those fun shots and videos.

Here are some of my favorites (with some "ugly" ones included at the end):

 

 

Ducks of Jost Van Dyke

We're on vacation this week in The British Virgin Islands. Specifically, the small island of Jost Van Dyke. We have been coming here for many years so we are used to the way things work around here. This year we did see something new.

There's a salt pond on White Bay, just a little off the beach. There have always been ducks in the pond. Now, it seems like there are more. There are white farm ducks, mallards, some strange black and white ones, etc. For some reason these ducks have started taking trips to the beach and grabbing food from the Caribbean Sea.

White Bay from the top of the hill and the bathing area of choice for the ducks.

Luckily, Dave was out early this morning and caught a few of them just finishing up their morning excursion.

 

2012 Race Recap

2012 was a big year in races for Team Tizzel. Holly added 5 more states to her 50 Marathons in 50 States goal. Race events brought us to Disney World 3 times and Oregon for the first time. Dave did his first distance beyond 5k.

January

For the past few years January has kicked off with the race events at Walt Disney World's Marathon Weekend. This is the focused event of our Team AllEars fundraising efforts for breast cancer. Dave's Duffy the Disney Bear outfit for the 5k helped us to raise over $6,000; and the team over $70,000. Holly had fun doing the half marathon with our friend Jessica on Saturday. On Sunday they ran together again, but Holly participated in the 13.1 mile relay with our friend Jamison as a partner while Jessica continued on for the Full/Goofy. There's no relay offered in 2013 so Holly may have scored her only chance for a Chip and Dale medal.

February

February brought two unique events. First, the Jost Van Dyke Invitational 5k. This is a 2 person race between Holly and our friend Dan over the hills of beautiful Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. Next, we trekked a few hours over to Goshen, Indiana so Holly could participate in her first indoor marathon - the Maple Leaf Marathon. 204 laps around a track with 8 other participants.

March

Saint Patrick's Day Weekend was spent in Virginia Beach. On Saturday Dave and Holly participated in the 8k event. The next day Holly ran the marathon. These events were well-run, had miles of shoreline, and great  after-parties on the beach. This became a family event with Holly's parents, brother, and nephew cheering her on along the way. Holly's favorite race this year due to her whole family being able to watch her finish and the excellent post race parties.

April

Holly was able to squeeze two marathons into April. First was the Go! St. Louis Marathon. Two weeks later was the Kentucky Derby Marathon in Louisville. With Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan checked off we are running out of driving distance marathons.

May

The spring ended up being a busy travel time. A week after Kentucky Derby was the Expedition Everest 5k in Disney's Animal Kingdom Park. The night race combined obstacles and puzzles to create a really fun event.

July

Fourth of July morning kicks off with the Antioch 5k. This is a pretty big local race. Hot as heck this year. When Rock and Roll announced moving the Chicago events to July we thought they were nuts. It was warm, but not as bad as it could have been for a 5k (Dave) and half marathon (Holly). We had a fun day Saturday with Team AllEars friends and enjoyed the post-race Cobra Starship performance.

September

Back on the road this month. Labor Day Weekend was spent in central Oregon with the focus on the Sunriver Marathon. A few weeks later Dave participated in the Fox Lake 5k and got an age group award. At the end of the month Holly took off for Disney World to participate in the Tower of Terror 10 Miler - another night race. Dave stayed home for that one and attended Tizzel's Food and Wine Festival.

October

Back to Virginia for Washington's Marine Corps Marathon. A great event that Holly wants to do again. The only thing that brought the weekend down a bit was Hurricane Sandy and having to leave via rental car immediately after the race.

November and December

The winter brings shorter-distanced themed races to Chicago. November brought the poorest organized event: Hot Chocolate 5k (Dave) and 15k (Holly). December was the opposite with the Santa Hustle 5k.

2013 Plans

Currently in the plan for 2013:

• Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend - Dave and Holly are both doing the 5k and half marathon (Dave's first). Holly is adding on the marathon to earn another Goofy Challenge medal and unofficial Dopey title.
• Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend in Disneyland - Holly and Dave will both do the 5k and the half marathon. This will give us both Disney's Coast to Coast Medal. This will also be the end of Dave's half marathon career.
• Little Rock Marathon, Arkansas - We'll be joining a few friends for the race with the biggest medal in running. Holly will be doing the full while Dave snacks.
• Flying Pigs Weekend Cincinnati, Ohio - Pigs is a big race/party weekend. Dave is doing either the 5k or 10k (can't remember which one he registered for) and Holly is doing the 5k, 10k, and full which will earn her an additional medal.
• Chicago Rock and Roll Half - Holly should get something special at this one since it's her 5th Chicago RnR in a row.
• Atlantic City Marathon, New Jersey - Looks like a fun location for a race.

Hope we see you out there in 2013!