James D. McCurdy

Hong Kong has been a blast.  I can’t say enough about the great people I’ve met.  I’ve learned an enormous amount about growing grass.  I can speak a little Cantonese.  And I’ve made some life-long friends.  But I’ll be headed back to Dyer for the 4th of July, then off to Auburn University to pursue a PhD this August. 

Thus far, a majority of my posts have dealt with my athletic endeavors rather than those involving work.  So many of you might have had the impression that I was playing more than working.  On the contrary, I’ve been busy since starting work in October.  With the help of my friend and colleague, Dr. Micah Woods, we have established a turfgrass research facility that the members of the Hong Kong Golf Club can be proud of.  Perhaps most importantly, it’s a facility that will continue to produce valuable data for years to come. 

But I have run, biked, and swum a many mile in Hong Kong.  Sheung Shui is reasonably well situated for bike riding.  There’s relatively little traffic, but man is it hilly.  The swimming has been interesting.  I can’t even begin to describe how rough the water is at the Fanling swimming pool.  It is as rough as any open water swimming I’ve done.  And the running.  Well, if it weren’t for the traffic, pollution, and pointless, temporary track closings, it would be fine. 

The number and vicinity of races is acceptable.  I was honored to get an invite for a race two weekends ago held down on the island.  The folks at the Institute of Human Performance have a triathlon team, the Tritons, that held an eliminator sprint series.  There were prelims, semi-finals, and finals held on the same morning.  They were short but competitive little races with many of the top Hong Kong triathletes.  During the finals, I was a little slow out of the swim and nearly didn’t catch the group for the bike.  By the run, I was useless; I had spent all of my energy on the bike.  But I came in a close third behind one of the Hong Kong national squad members and the squad’s coach – two strong athletes. 

Funny story:  The personnel of Royal Green hand out locker keys for the locker room.  The keys have a strap/wrist-band – blue bands for the men’s locker room, pink for the women’s.  Today, there was this young kid, no older than 5 or 6, who walked into the locker room with his dad as I was changing.  His dad said hello.  The kid was shy, but his dad told him to say hello.  He said hello and then, while starring up at me, stuck his hand down the front of his Speedo, dug deep, and pulled out the key for locker number 7. 

That’s all for now, but I look forward to seeing family and friends upon my return. 

Jay