Run to Win

This week last year was all about racing, specifically focusing on the New England Mile. Alas, the NE Mile no longer exists, but at least it went out with a bang. I also delved a little into politics and into cross training last year.

• Early in the week, it was announced that we had secured a $1500 bonus for breaking 4 minutes in the New England Mile. If it happened, then it would be the first time that a native Mainer had done so on Maine soil. Standout runner Louis Luchini and Pete Bottomley appeared on the Kid’s First radio show before the race, discussing the father/child competition and general running. Shortly after the show was announced, though, Pat Tarpy announced his intention to race. Not only did he intend to race, but Tarpy won the race in 3 minutes and 54 seconds, winning the race and taking home the prize money. After the race, he was asked when he knew that he was going to win the race. “Yesterday,” was his reply.
• In other racing news, the first Back Cove 5k Leader Board was announced. I expect that this year’s first leader board (which will be announced on Wednesday evening) will be much larger. Not only have there been over 100 runners every week, but there have been quite a few people that have run all 5 of the initial races so far.
• For cross training, I suggested that you pay attention to your lawn and do some yard work. You can get a good workout that way and your spouse will love you for it.
• Delving into politics, I tried to determine whether the NCAA had the right to kick a blogger out the baseball finals so that he couldn’t “scoop” the paid media sponsors. I never did see what agreements that he had to sign in order to get his press pass.
• This week two years ago I concentrated mostly on topical news, both local and national. I also shared my recipe for grilled catfish and tried to determine how many pushups I was capable of doing (46).

“If it wasn’t for all of you, I wouldn’t be running around in circles wondering what I’ll be when I grow up.” –Joan Benoit Samuelson, November 15, 2007

Joan Benoit Samuelson spoke last night for about an hour at the Maine Running Company. She was the first women’s Olympic Marathon gold medalist in 1984, has won the Boston Marathon twice and the Chicago Marathon once. She is the founder of the Beach to Beacon 10k, which is one of the most popular races here in Maine and never fails to bring in world-class talent year after year.

Throughout the evening, Joanie told some stories about her training as she has aged and shared her thoughts and opinions on the modern state of running and our children.

She said that she finds it more difficult to speak at home than she does when she travels and talks to strangers, but you would not have been able to tell by listening to her tonight despite her soft tone.

She spent the majority of her time answering questions from the 30 or so people that had come out to see her last night.

There were 9 specific questions that the audience asked Joan:
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Brian Bennett is a reporter who writes live updates to a website during NCAA championship games. He’s done it at the Orange Bowl. He’s done it at the NCAA basketball tournament. And now he is doing it at at the NCAA baseball tournament. At least, he was providing his live updates until the fifth inning of yesterday’s game when his press credentials were yanked and he was thrown out.

“It’s clearly a First Amendment issue,” said Bennie Ivory, the newspaper’s executive editor. “This is part of the evolution of how we present the news to our readers. It’s what we did during the Orange Bowl. It’s what we did during the NCAA basketball tournament. It’s what we do.”

NCAA spokesman Bob Williams said Monday that Bennett was asked not to blog about game action before Sunday’s game. “In a nutshell, we asked the blogger repeatedly not to cover it in that manner, because it violates the policy, and he continued, and his credential was revoked,” Williams said.

The NCAA is trying to limit bloggers from covering the events because they consider it a “live representation of the game” and they do not want anybody to be able to scoop their media sponsors.

I think that anybody has the right to provide updates to a game that they are watching. Of course, the NCAA also has the right to allow or remove anybody that they choose from their games. I do not think that Bennett has the right to be in the facility if they decide that he is an undesirable. I am not sure how the process of obtaining (or losing) a press pass works, so that may very well change my mind once I looked into those particular statutes or rules, but based upon what I read in the article I don’t think that Bennett has a case.

What do you think? Does the NCAA have the right to kick Bennett out of the game?

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a part of an athletic program that has recently moved from Division III to Division I? RIT’s hockey program is in their second season of Division I, which does not leave them eligible for the post season until next year when they finish their probationary period. However, this does not mean that they can’t try to win their division. Jim Mandelaro of the Democrat and Chronicle went behind the scenes at a recent win against UConn to describe what it is like throughout the day of the program.

The Tigers are the surprise of the Atlantic Hockey Association, but this is a weekend on the brink. Friday’s stunning defeat concerns Wilson. Immediately after that loss, Wilson and his assistants watched the game on tape until 11:30 p.m. “He wouldn’t have done that if they had won,” says sports information director Steve Jaynes. “It really bothered him.”

Wilson calls it “the most frustrating loss of the season.”

“We have to turn it around tonight,” he says.

I have only gotten to one RIT hockey game since I graduated, and that was a women’s game up here in Maine. I am planning on getting down to Boston for the last game of the season (possible for the last two games) and to watch a track meet that is also happening that weekend. I recommend taking a look at the article (linked below) if you are interested in seeing the pictures or reading the hour by hour summary of the day.

(Source: D & C » An inside look at the Tigers in their second year as a Division I hockey team)

This week last year I concentrated on getting the site updated and writing articles concerned with one aspect of weight lifting or another. There was a small bit of football news that snuck in there as well.

• I continued my animated series by demonstrating how to do a back extension with your hands behind your head. I also described the wife’s weight program and highlighted an article from the St. Louis Post about beginner exeriser tips.
• I reviewed the PowerBar ProteinPlus bars.
• I shared one of my best “workout” tips, which is important not only during a workout but throughout the entire day. It is very easy, as well. You just need to keep a water bottle handy at all times.
• In football news, I predicted the results of the second half of the Rose Bowl, but I wound up being wrong. Within hours after winning a game against the Bears, Mike Tice got fired from the Vikings.

The California Golden Bears beat Washington State 21-3 this past Saturday, breaking a winless streak at Memorial Stadium that had been in place since 1979. Cal fans still got to watch the game despite the game not being covered on television anywhere near Berkeley thanks to a Slingbox.
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My RIT Tigers made the front page at the NCAA website this week with their performance last weekend at the Geneseo Invitational.

The RIT men’s cross country squad, ranked 23th in the latest NCAA Division III poll, finished second out of 18 teams at the Geneseo Invitational cross country meet hosted by SUNY Geneseo at Letchworth State Park on Saturday, Sep. 30. SUNY-Genseo, ranked fourth in the nation and the hosts of the event, barely nipped the Tigers, finishing with 34 team points to RIT’s 36. SUNY Brockport was a distant third with 108 points.

RIT is doing really well this year, and has been moving up the polls. I have raced in the Geneseo invitational a few times while I was in school, and it is a flat and pretty fast course. It is in a beautiful national park, and really condenses the race down to the flattest and least intriguing course that they possibly could.

(Full Results - NCAA Article - Polls)

Catch me if you can is a website devoted to old race bibs and other running paraphernalia. The general idea is that the author had a lot of bibs with a lot of stories in his closet that he wanted to share with people, and thought that others might as well. So, he started up this site.

There are certainly some interesting stories to be found, as well as a few mysteries to be unraveled. For example, a bib from an NCAA regional meet was a random piece of trash that the author found on the ground. He did not know anything about who the bib belonged to or what events it was used for, but it made its way to the site where amateur internet sleuthes could research it and leave the information.

I submitted one of my bibs from the Back Cove weekly 5k race series that I ran in this summer. That bib got a lot of use; I wore it for 16 races.

Stop by the site, live vicariously through others, and share a few of your own racing bibs and stories.