Monday, May 30, 2005

Running and Sports

5k – 27:07 Yea!

I should remember though, the longer I postpone my run, the hotter it gets. By the time I got on the trail today, it was hot. That means an extra gallon or twelve of sweat. That means the joy of dehydration. I actually never got near ‘dehydrated,’ but I was certainly less hydrated than I would have liked. Cotton mouth ain’t joyous.

Other random run thoughts:

Everyone on the trail, whether they be runners, walkers, painters, horse riders, bikers, whatever, they all go counter-clockwise. I go clockwise. Weird.

I started my run as Saffin and Robredo started the fifth set at the French Open. I came back completely drained and these two guys were still in the fifth set. Their match lasted around four hours.

Sports thoughts:

I’m a sports fan. I’m not a fanatic. I follow a couple of teams, and I like watching just about any sport on TV. I even go to the games on campus when I can. I say all of this to preface the idea that the fact that I really don’t like baseball is not borne of a general dislike of all sports. I’ve even gone a several games just to make sure that I wasn’t missing something in the live game that doesn’t show up on TV. Nope. It’s just as dull in person. It’s not that there aren’t exciting parts. It’s just that those parts are interspaced with interminable stretches of a whole lot of standing.

At one game, I saw an infielder twist his ankle. Like any other sport I’ve ever seen, he writhed on the ground a bit, and after awhile, he got helped off the field. I was waiting for the ‘action’ to get started up again, but nothing happened. Everyone was milling around, not doing much, and while to the untrained eye, this might seem like any other part of a baseball game, I noticed that the ball wasn’t being thrown to the batter. I asked the folks around me what has happening, only to find out that they were going to take the player into the locker room and look at his ankle, and maybe re-tape it or something. So we waited.

It amazes me that America still cares about this game. I thought we were all supposed to have the attentions of gnats on Pez. The only excuse I can think of is that maybe it’s just so institutionalized. After all, if you’re brought up to believe that Stalin is a nice grandfatherly figure, you’ll buy that too.

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