Recently in Sports Category

T-ball season officially started for Sean and Daniel tonight. They’ve been having practice for 3 weeks now, but this is the first “game” for them.They got to wear their uniforms tonight for the first time - and you cannot see the yellow socks they also have on!

I think they’re learning to like the game. It’s T-ball, so there’s no score and no outs, and it makes for some absolutely funny situations in the field. Who knows where the ball will get thrown. There was a little frustration in that the ball wasn’t ever hit in Daniel’s or Sean’s direction, but they’ll learn that they won’t always get a chance at the ball.

They did a good job hitting the ball — Sean even had one roll almost to the outfield grass! I have some video from their last practice, so time permitting, I’ll try to post that shortly.

Well, my church league team did it — we defended our championship title again this year (albeit against the lower division teams). Woo hoo! Last year was a bit of an upset (#3 seed in a 4-team division), but this year we were the marked team, as we were the #1 seed in an 8-team division. We had an awesome year (12-2 in the regular season) and really clamped down for the wins in the playoffs.

Even Kellie and the boys got to come out an watch the game tonight. And since the game was at the middle school where Will will attend in just over a year, I showed him around the halls a little.

Being as good as we were this year, I’m pretty certain we’ll be moving to the upper division next year (we were 1-1 against teams in that division this year). We’ll see how the league gets organized next year. But it sure is fun to be winning as much as we did. (And I can speak as a we/I because I am also the coach, such that it is. I really don’t call plays.)

Where did the month of May go? 31 days, and no blog posts. There aren’t a huge number of pictures to share, but a lot did go on. There was someone’s 42nd birthday (mine), someone’s 12th anniversary (mine and Kellie’s), a first birthday (my niece), another birthday (no age provided, Mom!), weekly Blastball games for the twins, Cub Scouts and swim lessons for Will, other birthday parties to attend (kids), a vacation (to the Outer Banks), a 5k race (placed 3rd in my age group), and the pool has opened up (Sean and Daniel are now kicking themselves around the pool with arm floats without Mom and Dad holding on, and Will is swimming all around on his own).

Here are a few of the cool pictures from our vacation earlier this month. The weather was great (lows in the 50s, highs around 70), the crowds few, and just enough wind to fly the kites, like this evening on the beach.

We did take a trip to the Corolla Lighthouse, and all 3 kids made it to the top without a problem. It was windy (~20 mph), but it was kind of cool to let the kids see in all directions. The sky was clear enough that we were probably seeing up close to Virginia in the north.

Even cooler was the shot I got at the bottom, while Kellie and the kids visited the gift shop — an upside-down rainbow appeared behind the lighthouse.

The surprise of our visit? It would have to be the raccoon that decided to hang out next to one of our sliding doors. We have no idea why he thought we’d be a good place to hang out. The only reason he left is that the maintenance staff (with a little assistance from me) almost caught the bugger (he escaped the fish net they originally snagged him in). He ran off after that, never to be seen again. Not to say we weren’t paranoid he might return.

Here’s hoping everyone has a great summer planned. May you not be visited by uninvited guests — like our racoon.

Turns out I couldn’t quite shake the bug overnight. I felt pretty good during the day and thought I could do it. Everything was laid out for me to go in the morning. But despite being a stubborn man, I did not actually go out to run the half-marathon. (It starts in 7 minutes.) Who knew I could be sane like that?

Unfortunately, there really isn’t another half-marathon for me to target that’s near home any time soon. Now I have to figure out how I’m going to apply this fitness going forward. Stay tuned.

If I can stay healthy. I was supposed to run the McDonald’s Half-Marathon on Saturday morning (about 24 hours from now), but I came down with a virus attack on Wednesday night that was no fun. I feel like I’m getting better, but we’ll see how ready I am for this. I started back at Capital One this Monday, so I’m guessing the air really hasn’t treated me well. At least today was a nominal holiday.

In the past, I have shared links and pictures of some of the major races I’ve done. I’ve actually done very well (better than expected, probably) with my last 2 races, which was supposed to build up for a really good race on Saturday.

Back in late August, I ran a half-marathon around Ashland. I’ve done it each of the past 4 years, and the one thing about it is that it is always hot. This time, the temps were almost reasonable (low 60s to start), but by the time I finished it was around 80 with high humidity. The shorts were not dry, needless to say, which you can see in these pictures (not that I want you to look — I really don’t like how I look in them, but I will share as I always share them).

My time was just a few seconds over 2:05, which is exactly where I wanted to be. Not blazing, but the one good thing was that I pretty much nailed every mile between 1 and 10 within 15 seconds of each other (between 9:29 and 9:44). That’s incredibly even pacing, even with water stops and the occasional hill, and I really didn’t try too hard to match it. I didn’t realize that happened until after the race — I just knew I wanted to keep the early miles around 9:40. Then, I had plenty of energy to crank the pace over the last 3.1 miles, while everyone else was fading. I only got passed by 3 people that entire way, so I’d say that is executing race strategy (although I will also admit it was not a full-on race, as I knew I wasn’t going to set any records).

One of the cool things about local races is that they are starting to share video of runners crossing the finish line. So even if you couldn’t be there, you can see me finish (in the red tank top, coming into view at about the 6 second mark). I look pretty whipped.

OK, that was longer than I expected. The other race I did was really good — a 10-miler starting and finishing at the Virginia State Capitol. My strategy came together well here, too. Weather was perfect (low 50s to start). I went out at 9 minute miles for the first 5 miles (actually 9:04, according to the race organizer), which put me in 401st place of 708 finishers. But this was also one that I expected to speed up, to around 8:45 average pace (there’s a massive hill just after mile 9 that really tests you).

But there was a problem — I actually finished at an 8:33 per mile pace. Which is awesome! Believe me, I was feeling jacked after turning in such an average pace on the finish. And that 8:33 pace actually meant I finished the last 5 miles 296th place, for an overall placing of 343 (top half) in 1:28:08.

Once again, the pictures aren’t great looking. And there is a finish line view of me as well. Once again, I’m in the red tank, crossing about 7 seconds into the video in a crowd that actually held me up (no need to push it — I had already set a record at the distance, although this was only the third time I’ve raced 10 miles).

In so many ways, my training says I’m ready to do some solid racing tomorrow. But this bug has me worried. We’ll see how well I do, and how the weather cooperates. Have a great weekend.

It means Daddy won’t be running the half-marathon that he was planning on running this upcoming weekend.

Am I unlucky, or just a klutz, or something else? Who knows, but I’m seeing much too much of the doctor’s office these past 2 months. My latest escapade was stepping in a large hole at work — hidden in a grassy strip going between parking lots. I went down hard, and it took a while to gather myself to stand up. I don’t think anyone saw me, as I didn’t see anyone else around me the whole time.

But anyway, it was slowly improving through the weekend, and walking straight-ahead wasn’t an issue. But an increase in soreness and tenderness on Sunday sent me to the doctor yesterday, and the x-ray says I have a slight avulsion fracture at the end of the tibia. Slight, as in only a couple millimeter fragment of bone broke away. No surgery or immobilization necessary — just treat it like a sprain (like I already was doing). It won’t reattach or need to reattach. But the tenderness and swelling still continues some today, so between the inconsistent training and now this injury, I’m going to have to call off the race.

Maybe next year. (I did run the inaugural race last year.)

And yes, I really am bummed about not being able to do it. But to run another day (and play basketball this winter), I need to let the ankle heal. 13.1 miles would not give the ankle the “break” it needs. rim shot

Tonight was a not-so-normal night, in that Will (and I) went to the pool. But there was a reason — he was invited to a birthday party in a nearby neighborhood. We got lucky with the weather — it rained on the group a couple of times, but there was never a peal of thunder. (The forecast had 60% probability of thunderstorms.) That meant Will could stay for over 2 hours of pool time with his friends. And yes, with me. I did get in.

The one cool thing this pool had was a diving board. And Will saw a few of his friends jumping off it into the deep part. Oh, he so wanted to jump there, but he understood that he didn’t have the skills to do it. I only started to teach him how to tread water last Sunday.

Well, he overcame his fears and now has opened new possibilities for himself (whether he realizes it or not). I made him understand that he needed to start jumping on his own (instead of me catching him) in the 5 foot area before he’d be close to ready for jumping in the deep end. That didn’t happen for a while, and the first couple times, he tried jumping further out (toward me), meaning he was nearly belly-flopping in. Ouch.

But eventually, we worked through it (I moved closer to the edge and closer to the 4 foot area, where he can stand, catching him but allowing him to go under water), and soon he was jumping in, getting back above the water, and swimming a couple of lane distance to me. Hooray!

Later on, after I had gotten out, he got really adventurous. He swam half the length of the pool, chasing a couple of friends, through the deeper area (where he couldn’t put his feet down). Nothing like that added incentive to keep yourself going. He also went over to the 5 foot area and started jumping in, then turning around and stroking back to the edge.

He saved the best for last, as we were getting ready to leave. He jumped in at one corner (before the rope to the diving area) and surfaced. And then, instead of coming to the closer wall, which he had been doing previously, he started swimming to the other side, even stopping briefly to tread water while I asked him if he really wanted to swim all the way across the opening to the diving area to the other wall. (Distance-wise, this is similar to the sizing at my parents’ pool.) And he did it.

So now, he has no excuse. He’s shown me he can pretty much handle all aspects of at least our neighborhood pool (which is much smaller than this one, with a truly deep area). Endurance on swimming is still a little issue, but going half of a 25-yard pool shows he can do it when he puts his mind to it. And when he visits Nana and Grampa in August, he can show them all of his new swimming skills and abilities.

The only regret is that there are no pictures of him doing any of this. I was in the pool too much to take pictures/video, and just forgot the last few times he was doing anything.

Anyway — congrats, Will! That’s some awesome swimming you did today.

We present — footbowl…

Kellie broke out the plastic bowling set this morning for Sean and Daniel. And they were excited about it. And proceeded to show us that we haven’t been doing it right all these years.

I don’t think we’ll take them to a real set of lanes any time soon, as kicking those balls would probably hurt just a tiny bit.

Swimming at the pool.

Or something like that. (Wiggles are sticking in my brain.)

Last Sunday, we took the boys to the pool for a bit of swimming. We remembered to take the camera with us, so we got some shots of the boys jumping in the deep end (of course, Daddy is catching, as it’s too deep for Mommy) and Will swimming back to the edge.

A couple of interesting side notes on this. For 2 or 3 pool visits before this past Sunday, Sean would not get in the pool beyond the first step in the shallow end. He just didn’t want to get wet, for whatever reason. And now, suddenly, he’s jumping in like a pro. You can see a little hesitation at times, but he has too much fun jumping in and kicking around.

Daniel, on the other hand, loves to jump in. He even was doing it earlier in the afternoon. So it was strange to get him on camera doing essentially a belly flop. And shortly after that shot, he was jumping in normally. But I guess it adds a bit of humor to the jumping. All 3 boys took turns nicely jumping in.

I don’t know why things got a bit blurrier on the second shot, but it isn’t permanently on the camera. Oh well.

My parents came down to visit this past weekend, so everyone got to have some fun (even though it was scorchingly hot). We got out for visits to the pool on both Saturday and Sunday, and having extra hands available made having 3 kids in the pool much easier.

Saturday was actually a bit cooler when we went to the pool at midday, and having a cloudy sky made the water feel just a bit cooler. (I think I described it at brisk when I jumped in.) Needless to say, we were the only ones there willing to get in the pool. Sunday was bright and sunny, and more people trickled in and out while we were there midday.

The kids also got to spend some time playing outside and doing other things with the grandparents. Kellie and I got to go out for a few hours on our own for dinner and just time away. All in all, I think everyone had a good time. And of course, the kids didn’t want Nana and Grampa to leave. Too bad Rice couldn’t get back to the NCAA College World Series for the fourth straight year. Looking forward to next year.