Slow Sunday

The way it should be - on all fronts. Right now I'm sitting at work on a relatively quiet evening in the sports world, which is a small blessing after the three-ring circus in here last night. Now, don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy it most of the time when it's busy on the desk, but every so often it's nice to catch a small break from the insanity. For instance, last night within a 20-minute period right before first deadline, the following events all occurred at once: the four Pats' stories all came over at the same time, nine photos from the game still hadn't been moved, we were still waiting on a Bruins' game story, and about five meathead high school hockey coaches decided that 10 p.m. was a good time to call in results from their 4 o'clock game. Fun stuff, lemme tell ya.

Tonight, however, is not nearly as pressing. My biggest dilemma will be deciding how many columns of the Scoreboard page to devote to the results of the Cross Country Skiing World Cup - I'm thinking two, maybe three, depending if yesterday's Belfast XC results come over the wire. My kind of night.

OK, now that I'm done my whining for this entry, I'll move on to the good stuff...like running. First, my own. After waking up to an unexpected fresh blanket of snow this morning, I headed out to West Hill for a last long run with the boys. Adam took us on quite possibly the smelliest run I've ever been on in my entire life, as we traversed the farm-infested back roads of Uxbridge, Mendon, Upton and Millville. We had a nice run, hit some good hills in the process and got our first glance at the new fad for early '06 - namely, Driscoll's White Snake-esque headband, complete with 80's-style rat tail. It's gonna catch on, I think.

In other running news, American Dathan Ritzenhein had a successful weekend in Ireland, placing third in a big-time cross country race against a tough international field. Ritz is one tough dude, whose courage and fearlessness I admire greatly. In fact, I wrote an editorial chronicling these two qualities of his for this web site. South African-turned-Irishman Alistair Cragg ran well in sixth place and American Pete Julian had a strong race, finishing three seconds behind the former Arkansas standout. Pete is another favorite runner of mine, a model of toughness and courage worth trying to emulate. Letsrun.com had a great interview with him last year before the Papa John's 10-mile, but I can't seem to find a link to it right now. While I try to track it down, however, check out this one here.

Speaking of successful weekends in running, my good pal Hodgie placed 2nd in the 800m among 50-55 year olds on Friday night at the Dartmouth Relays. After all these years, the man is still an animal, take my word for it. A short story: This past spring as I was returning from a nasty achilles injury and attempting my first track workout in months, who shows up to the track to "time" me but crazy 'ol Hodge...in a flashy new pair of Asics spikes no less! Off nothing but a steady diet of 20-minute shuffles in the morning and a few longer weekend runs, he hops on the track, rips off two quarters in 74, an 800 in 2:32 and calls it a day. Incredible! Make sure to check out his web site when you get a chance - it's easily the best running resource on the web as well as a great source of motivation for any aspiring runner!

Well it's now 11:21 and my work here is done. Time to head home and get some shuteye. Until tomorrow, take it easy.