Paul Asay

Had the opportunity to try out the mountain bike trails in Brown County State Park over the weekend.  Headed down with my friend Nick early on a Saturday.  Thinking the weather would be nice, the sun shining, and a decent winter day to give it my first try.  Turned out they actually had snow the night before, and we were in for an interesting surprise.  Snow or not, we didn't make the 1 ½ hour trip for nothing.  We arrived at the West Gate of the park, and headed to Hesitation Point for the trail head.  From here the trail takes you generally downhill toward the North Gate Entrance.   The trick is the first two miles are the “advanced” rated trail which then turns into mostly intermediate following.  Starting on the advanced with some snow on the ground was a bit intimidating.  However, it started well until the first hairpin turn maybe ½ mile in.  Having just switched to a 29er Trek Superfly 8, it gets a bit interesting maki...

I've met a character like Madame Blueberry from Veggie Tales fame, and I believe I’m looking at him in the mirror.  “ Though her butlers (portrayed by Bob and Larry) attend to her every whim, they find themselves unable to lift Blueberry out of her ever-present doldrums. The only happiness she seems to have comes from gazing at photographs of her neighbor's possessions".    The topic of Madame Blueberry came up this past weekend when we attended the evening Pioneer Days showcases at Fowler Park.  Somehow seeing the re-creation of a much simpler life convicted me of wanting too much.  Having recently purchased a much newer SUV and to top it off a nearly new mountain bike I am the guilty party.  All this before Christmas, do I feel convicted, well yes. One of my goals for 2014 was to learn and put into effect the word Guilelessness.  “The quality or state of being as simple and sincere”.  Seems I have not succeed well.  While I...

Rosaria Butterfield & Nabeel Qureshi Very Different Yet Similar Stories         They made a 180 conversion in their worldview after they earned a doctorate degree         It took years for them to make it         They lost a lot of friends, family or associates, even made real enemy’s in the process         They had a close friend come alongside them in a non-judgmental way that made all the difference         They were ultimately interest in truth         They published a rather explosive book about the experience         The chance that they would make this radical conversion seemed off the charts Dr. Rosaria Butterfield :  As a professor of English and women's studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel...

Biblical prophecies from Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49 both speak of a time when Damascus will be nothing but ruins.  We are living in that day.  A majority of the citizens of Syria have become refugees and now live in Turkey, Jordan, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Iraq or even Iran.  The chances this will be solved anytime in the near future are nil.  To make an attempt at understanding what is going on in Syria, the different groups with varying ideologies, I thought I might summarize the situation from the daily headlines to get a more easy to comprehend overview.      Syria is currently in the midst of a civil war that began in 2011.  The two largest cities in Syria are Aleppo and Damascus which are among the oldest cities in the world.  Aleppo had a former population of over 2 million with Damascus a close second at 1.7 million.  Aleppo is now a ghost town and Damascus will likely be so as well.  The fight, especially in Aleppo ...

Yesterday evening the ISU Women’s Basketball Team held a mile run on the track.  Coach Joey Wells sent out a note to campus that they were holding 3 consecutive mile runs on Thursday evenings for the team to improve their mile time.  He also invited everyone to come out and run with them to do the same.  Not being one to pass up an opportunity I sent a quick note to two of my running partners in crime, Joe and Don, and we showed up on the starting line.  Coach Wells was the first one I met walking out to the track.  Very personable and made everyone welcome for the event.  The team did a nice warm up, had some music going and made it fun.  We all lined up on the track for the start.  Besides the team they probably had another 20 join in.  Having one more triathlon this season coming up Saturday morning I thought I would give it a 90% effort and not pay the price come race morning.   So I lined up a couple back on the insi...

Saturday July 26 th was my 4 th in a series of Olympic distance triathlons this year.  While it was small in number, the race was no easier than any of the others.  After all, the swim, bike and run are basically the same with either 50 or 4000 other competitors on the course like I had in Chicago.  What’s more is most of the people I was racing with/against were my friends. Sherrie and I made the 30 minute drive to Mill Creek just outside Marshall, Illinois.  As soon as I got to the transition area and ran into Stan Strohm, Troy Charters, Tony Williams, Ron Gillen, Robert Montani , Daniel Alexander and several others I know well, it was going to be a family affair.  The swim started one at a time with a dive off the dock for a two loop 1500 meter swim.  The water was 77.3 degrees or just wetsuit legal so I figured the swim would be fairly easy.  I jumped in about 10 seconds after Troy, maybe 6 th or 7 th one to go.  I caught a couple...

Chicago is set to host the 2015 International Triathlon Union World Championship.  With that in mind this year everyone was invited to race the event and try out the course in advance.  ITU had the pro women race on Saturday afternoon which I got to watch.  Sunday morning the amateurs started at 6:00 A.M.  My wave, Men’s 55-59 started at 7:00 A.M.  I knew in advance the competition would be close to a national championship event so I didn't think too much about where I might finish. The swim, bike and run course are all pretty spectacular.  The swim started in Lake Michigan adjacent to the Buckingham Fountain along Grant Park.  Swim about ¼ mile north, then around a turn buoy and back south to the finish.  Water is very clear and a bit on the cold side at 65 degrees.  As scenery goes it was top notch.  Sail boats to the left, Chicago skyline to the right.  The last ½ mile I happened to notice someone walking along the park at t...