On Saturday, I got a nice 13-miler in; I left the house at 6 and was back before 8. Then at noon, I headed off to play in my company's golf tournament in Lynnfield. I was pretty terrible, but fortunately it was a scramble and my buddies Z-man and John picked up the slack for Rick and me. The weather was unusual for August, almost chilly with some serious winds whipping through. As I teed off on the 18th, I heard my phone ringing in my golf bag; turns out Deb had been trying to reach me for about an hour. She had felt lousy for the previous few days and got the word that she had tested positive for strep throat. Plus she had a fever and the girls were driving her crazy. So I ditched the post-tourney BBQ and awards and came home in time to tuck the girls in. We finished at +2; the winning team was -5. Deb's on some antibiotics and feels a little better, but she's still not 100%.
On Sunday, I played softball in the Easter Seals tourney. We had only seven players show up, so we had to borrow a couple from the other team. We ended up tying them 14-14, although we blew 10-1 and 14-4 leads in the process. I felt pretty good at the plate even though I hadn't swung a bat all year; went 3-3 with a double and drove in a few runs. I'm just glad I didn't pull any muscles running the bases.
Looks like the weather will remain cool and dry until Friday, when it's supposed to get all hazy, hot and humid on us. I suspect we will attempt to hit the beach on last time on Friday.
Where's the beef?
- The Boston Globe had a front-page feature yesterday on the debate over races banning runners from using headphones during events. USA Track and Field, the governing body of competitive running, has passed a rule allowing such a prohibition, but it's still up to individual race directors to enforce it. It gets much more difficult to enforce for bigger races where you're dealing with thousands of runners. Grandma's Marathon in Minnesota notably informed runners they would be disqualified if they were found wearing headphones. The argument is that runners who wear headphones are distracted and could cause injury to themselves or others because they're not totally focused on what they're doing. Some also say that people who run with headphones on aren't real runners, just recreational "joggers." As someone who wears my iPod whenever I run alone, I find it just enhances the experience, just like whenever I drive somewhere, I listen to the radio or stereo. I try to keep my iPod's volume low enough so I can hear approaching cars, people, animals, etc. In a race situation, especially a marathon, my iPod helps me stay motivated and pumped up when my body may be telling me otherwise. I have never bumped into, tripped up on, or had any other mishaps in race in which I've worn headphones, and I've run some of the biggest marathons: New York, Chicago and Boston. Can I run a race without music? Sure, I did Maine and my second Boston without it because I ran with other people. And in NYC, Chicago and Boston, I turned off my music at the start and at several points to soak in the atmosphere and sights. I'm running Baystate in Lowell in October and it looks like they won't ban iPods this year, according to the race director who was interviewed in the Globe article. Which is good because that race doesn't have anywhere near the crowd support or scenery that some of the bigger races have. Hopefully the flat terrain and my tunes will propel me to another personal best. But if I'm entered in a race that bans headphones and they threaten to disqualify runners, I'd probably go without. It's not the end of the world.
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