Jackson Horner - Coach, Gentleman and Friend.

Ever have one of those moments when a song you h-a-t-e suddenly pops up and you can't get it out of your head? I did a pretty tough... pretty fast paced hill workout today and during the last half (when I was starting to bonk)... I started hearing two voices running thru my mind... much like one of those songs.

The first was my old SCAHS track coach yelling "Work the hills Mengle -- work the hills!". That was one of Jackson Horner's favorites. And to this day I know he was right in pushing us on those hills... because that is where races are won and lost. Remember last year's Tour? (Forget the mechanical... forget Alberto's bad behavior... the race was "won"... and "lost" on a hill!).

The other voice was Penn State and US Olympic Team track coach Harry Groves... "You can't teach guts!"... as he reminded me many times last summer. For anyone who knows Harry this would of course be one of his less "colorful" quotes. In fact there is a whole website dedicated to Harry and his famous (and unedited) quotes and comments on anything from running to politics.

Anyway... like a blast from the past I could hear both of them like they were right there beside me. And I was thankful I couldn't get their voices out of my head because I found myself standing in the pedals and powering up the hills with renewed vigor and determination. Not wanting to let them down... not wanting to let myself down.

As a runner I owe much of my (moderate) success to both these outstanding and dedicated individuals. And it appears that even though I'm not running much now... and have traded running shoes for rubber tires and gears... they still have much to offer in terms of advice, inspiration and motivation. These could be my two favorite quotes of all time and of course cover much more than running, cycling or getting through a tough workout.

Thanks and Rest in Peace Coach Horner.

Capital - Old Main, Penn State University

Capital - Old Main, Penn State University

This photo was shot one day while working on the main campus of Penn State University.

I had done a series of photographs a few days earlier featuring some of the interesting architectural details found on many of the older buildings on campus.

Unfortunately that day the lighting hadn't been right to make this photograph and in fact it took me two more days of trying before I was able to shoot under the hazy overcast skies necessary to bring out the textures and details in this photograph of a capital on the columns of the main administration building know as Old Main.

Shot with a Nikon D90 and 400mm lens.

"Colorful Plantings" - Old Main, Penn State University

Plantings - Old Main, Penn State University

This photo was taken on a slightly overcast day while photographing on the main campus of Penn State University.

I had already spent a fair amount of time shooting one of the most iconic landmarks at Penn State, "Old Main" which is the primary administration building on campus.

During a bit of a break I noticed these colorful, leafy plantings behind me.  They looked like they had promise, but something was lacking at the time so I went back to shooting the building.

Satisfied I had done what I could to catch some new angles on an already over-photographed subject, I turned around and went to pick-up my camera bag.  Just then the sun broke through a high overcast and created a mild back-lighting on these leaves.  That was all they needed to break into the vibrant and unusual colors you see in the photo here.

I used a Nikon D90 DSLR with a 180/2.8 ED lens close to wide-open to make this image.  This created the both shallow depth of field (which draws your eye to the main subject) as well as the vibrant and well saturated colors.  The back-lighting effect adds to the photo by creating a 3-dimensional feeling and is what really caused the colors to "pop".

And no, this was not PhotoShopped :-)