JIM CHAPMAN - TRIATHLONS KEEP HIM YOUNG by John P. Flannery

Jim Chapman, 72, a former Vietnam Vet and retired CIA analyst, lives off the Lovettsville Road with his wife, Barbara, a Leesburg psychologist. 

Of all the things that Jim does, the one that defines most who he is, what gives him the most pleasure, is his efforts as a triathlete. 

Jim’s been competing in these events for 22 years and loves it. 

“I ran cross-country in school,” Jim said, “but it was when I was working out at the CIA gym, and getting tired of running around the block, and talking to my buddies, I learned about triathlons and thought that must be awful, those three events, running, biking and swimming, all difficult, but one woman was a triathlete and she suggested a good bet to start was Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park Sprint Triathlon.”

“I had no racing bike, nor wet suit,” Jim said, “but I gave it a try.”  “Afterwards, I told my wife Barbara,” Jim said, “I’m blown away.”

“I could ride a bike as fast as 19.2 miles per hour,” Jim said, “and there was a time when I ran 7 minute miles.”

“I entered more races after that,” Jim said, “and even did the Rocky Gap run with my daughter, Hilary,” Jim said.

“I ran in the Reston Triathlon, as well as the Burlington Vermont Triathlon,” Jim said.

“The best thing about the Triathlon,” Jim said, “is how much better I feel for doing this training and competition.”

“When I didn’t stretch before and after running,” Jim said, “I screwed up my knees.” 

“You have to learn to stretch before and after you exercise,” said Jim, “too many do nothing before or after they exercise, no stretching, and that’s a mistake, and where you get injuries.”

“I had Achilles tendonitis,” said Jim, “and I figured out a cure for that, and recommended it to other runners who used it.”

“I even broke my foot two weeks before a race and I had to decide to cancel or not,” Jim said.   

“Ultimately I was told by my podiatrist, with a knowing smile, that I could run on it but I’d have pain.”

You are most likely to see Jim, a lean strong man, without an ounce of fat to pinch, not at home tending to his beloved orchard and grounds, or reading widely, another love of his, but running fast past you on some road or trail, peddling his racing bike up some heavy hearted deep breathing hilly road, or swimming countless watery laps at the Ida Lee pool in Leesburg. 

Jim follows an exercise regimen that takes two and a half to three hours a day, and sometimes longer.   

Not all three triathlon events every day are practiced.  Jim explained, “Triathlons force you to think of three critical elements: nutrition, rest and recovery.”   “You have to get rest,” said Jim, “if you’re doing what I’m doing.”  Jim also calculates his diet with the precision of a NASA astronaut.  Only Jim and his trainer, Margie Shapiro, know the details of the personal calculus by which Jim has won so often in his age division.  “Margie,” Jim said, “tells me when to stop, and when not to overdo it.”

But the best is yet to come.  Jim is within months of his ultimate dream, of running, swimming, and biking, in his age group, 70-74, at London’s world renowned Hyde Park Triathlon this September. 

In order to qualify for a spot on Team USA in London, Jim had to win a qualifying time over others in his age group.

“They have a parade, an opening ceremony, and I have a special shirt to wear,” Jim said, “and I expect to have my wife, Barbara, my daughter, Hilary, my son-in-law and my granddaughter with me for the event.”

With a big smile, Jim said, “I’m so looking forward to this.”

YOUNG COUPLE AND SON ESCAPE LOVETTSVILLE HOUSE FIRE by John P. Flannery

At 8 AM, Saturday, April 13, 2013, Ryan Dowden smelled smoke in his rented house, at 48 East Broadway, and was soon engulfed in smoke.

Ryan couldn’t tell where the fire was, but all he could think of was saving his young wife, Amanda, and their 18 month old son, Silas.

Ryan got them out of the house as fast as he could, and called “911,” hoping all would not be lost.

“I did the best I could to get them out,” Ryan said.

“I tried to save a collection of Silas’ ‘firsts,’” Amanda said, “Silas’ first base ball, his first cap, but as you can see it all got beaten up in the fire; still, I had to try to save these things.” 

A charred baseball, a barely recognizable blackened cap, and a pile of wet and seared papers lay in a pile on the ground to pick apart and salvage later. 

Overwhelmed by what could have gone wrong, Amanda cried.

First on the scene was the Lovettsville Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company 12 with a wagon, water tanker, and ambulance, headed up by the Fire Chief, Jack Hockman, assisted by the Rescue Engineer, EMF Supervisor, and five fire fighters.

“When we arrived, the whole street was a giant haze of smoke, you could hardly see,” said Rescue Engineer, Ryan D. Spencer.

Several companies responded within minutes afterwards including Brunswick’s “Fighting Fifth” Fire Company, Purcellville’s Volunteer Fire Department (and “their Deuce” – the Tower and the Fire Truck), and the Point of Rocks Volunteer Fire Department.

Lovettsville Company Member, Richie Hoopengardner, said, “the fire in the house, it was a dryer fire.”

Ryan Spencer said, “It appears the fire started in the washer-dryer, and the men carried that out of the house, secured the rooms, and the smoke began to subside.” 

Lovettsville Fire Lieutenant Andrew O’Connell, and Fire Fighters Rob Berka and John McIntyre were the first in the house.

The badly burned and broken washer dryer sat on the small side porch, blackened by the smoke that vanished when the water hoses suffocated the flames.  The fire men had made a quick interior tack and put water on the fire as quickly as possible.  “We attached the hoses at the hydrant just up the block,” Ryan Spencer said.

East Broadway was closed off to traffic for hours with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department directing traffic to alternative routes.  The streets were filled with multi-colored emergency vehicles and fire trucks.  No one could get through until it was all safe.

Lovettsville Fire Chief Hockman said, “we saved the building but there’s extensive damage.”

Fireman assembled around the house analyzing what they found while a crew from the Purcellville Volunteers investigated the smoke-damaged crawl space at the roof level.

On the lawn not far away, Amanda held her son, Silas, close and Amanda’s mom, Carol Neff, consoled her daughter and grand-child.  “I’m just glad they weren’t asleep,” Carol said.

“I saved Silas’ favorite blanket,” Amanda said, “it’s resting on the green grass over there.”

“I’m in shock, and discouraged,” Ryan said, “as a father and a man.”

Then Ryan and Amanda held each other and Silas between them, grateful to be alive and together.

 (If you want to help the young Dowden family, who will be staying with family in the area, you can write Amanda at AmandaDowden3@gmail.com).

HORSE SHOE MAN by John P. Flannery

It sure is hard to

Find good work,

He reflected with

A moan.

He paused and rap-tap

tapped some more

Before he could go on.

Once I was an office

drone, he said,

My soul an open sore.

So I became a horse

Shoe man,

To cobble all I

Can.

I did once wrestle

Hard and long,

Enjoyed it quite a bit,

When I shoe horses now

It keeps me really fit

I strike the hammer, to a tempo tune,

The plate sings me a song.

The warm horse hide

Against my side,

The rhythmic swinging

steel,

It fills the void, it makes

a life,

All this I know and feel.

(Poesy by J. Flannery)

Tighe Cullinane, the “horse shoe man,” and his son, Michael, 12, tend to horses around the region and in Lovettsville and Burkittsville.   Tighe’s Irish forbears come from Clonakilty, a small town in County Cork.  Tighe never rode horses much but he liked horses.  “I liked agriculture and working for myself,” Tighe said.  “My family worked in construction,” Tighe said, “and I didn’t want to do that.”  “I’ve worked with all types and sizes of horses from minis to drafts,” he said.  Of course, 

Tighe makes house calls – as well as barn and field calls.  Tighe said, “We do trims and steel shoes, fronts or fronts and back, but we also do aluminum, glue-ons, pads, even therapeutic shoes.”   

Tighe’s tall, at 6’5” for the NCAA award-winning career he had as a wrestler.  Tighe may not be a horse whisperer but he gets along well with anything equine and Michael and he taught their Holstein how to weed.   

Is Michael, his son, likely to become a horse shoe man?  “More likely an engineer,” Tighe said, “he’s good at math and science.  He’s also a wrestler, but more than that, he does baseball and football too.”