On Olympic Medals

My friend, Vince Hemingson, made a post in his blog about choosing not to see Olympic medals at the Canadian Mint. I've seen the Vancouver medals, and they look to be about the size of CD's or DVD's.
I've had the pleasure of carrying a very old Olympic medal around the world. (I also turned down a chance to meet the Queen of England, but that's a whole other story.) One of the places where I took this medal was to the Expo at the London Marathon in 2008. It was displayed there, along with Dorando's Cup, and one of the events was an Italian press conference. At this press conference, which was organized by the Enzo Ferrari Memorial Marathon was Stefano Baldini, the 2004 Olympic Marathon Champion.
I found myself standing close to Baldini, and he commented, "Mine is much bigger." (Now, aside from all the potential nudge, nudge, wink, wink implications of such a statement, it's true.) The medal I was holding was about the size of a U.S. half-dollar. Olympic medals have grown significantly over time, from the very small size of the early era, to these oversize medals of today.
Those of you who might want to run a marathon in Europe may want to consider the Ferrari Marathon. One of the related things you can do tied to it is to visit the Ferrari Museum, which is located in the start city of Maranello. The finish is in Carpi, where marathon legend Dorando Pietri spent his running life. See more about the Ferrari Marathon here.

A Busy Weekend

This weekend, I was with my son most of the time. He had a lacrosse game at 2PM on Saturday, and we went to an antique fire truck muster before going over. There was equipment going back to 1840, and as recent as the 1980's, though with the real trucks, the 19-teen's was the oldest. There weren't that many, but many were quite nice. My son got involved in looking at a current heavy rescue truck. I'd seen this truck before, when I covered a wall collapse in a neighboring town about 2 years ago.
I'd given blood that morning, and the weather was hot. I wound up pretty tired.
On Sunday morning, I ran, then got cleaned up, and took my son from Sunday School to a track meet. We had about a dozen kids compete. (I coach a youth team.)There were few shining stars, but lots of solid efforts. A couple of times, I felt a bit light-headed, but otherwise seemed OK. When I weighed at the end of the day, I'd lost about 4.5 lbs., probably mostly water, but dropping that much weight that fast seems wrong. I did wind up as the big loser in the weight loss contest for the two-week period.

Of Michael Phelps and A-Rod

A photo of Michael Phelps taking a bong hit was published recently. The leaking of a supposedly secret test result revealed that Alex Rodriguez had used performance enhancing drugs (PED's) in 2003.
Upon publication of the photo, Phelps immediately acknowledged his improper behavior. A-Rod acknowledged his used of the PED's after the test results were leaked. Rodriguez had stated in prior interviews that he'd never used PED's. While there are some similarities, there are some very profound differences.
Marijuana is a banned drug, and may be classed as performance enhancing because it can reduce pain, but its performance enhancing effects, if any, are only in the immediate aftermath of its ingestion.
Steroids are used to build muscle, and have long-term effects on performance due to the added muscle, ability to absorb more training, etc. Simply put, the only reason to take steroids is to increase performance.
Significantly, Phelps might have denied that it was him in the photo. (I don't know if there was anything uniquely recognizable about him in the photo.) He chose instead to acknowledge his misbehavior, and suffer the consequences. I believe he had two endorsement contracts pulled as a result.
A-Rod had lied in the past about his use of steroids. It seems he only came clean when it was clear that the evidence was solid and was out in public. It's not as if A-Rod didn't know about the inherent impropriety of steroid use, even if they were not specifically prohibited by Major League Baseball. He chose to use a drug that had no use aside from enhancing performance, and then chose to lie about it.
As I see it, both made bad choices, but Phelps chose to be a stand-up guy and acknowledge his error immediately, and his bad choice was not made in the interest in giving him a performance edge. A-Rod deceived the public by using drugs specifically to improve his performance and he compounded his crime by lying about it. While neither man's behavior is laudable, Phelps immediately tried to do the right thing, while A-Rod persisted in doing wrong. The really unfortunate thing is that Phelps likely has to face proportionately greater consequences than A-Rod.
(in the interest of full disclosure, I should reveal that I am and have always been a Red Sox fan, though I have great respect for the New York Yankees as a team. Similarly, as a long-time runner, I have great love for the Olympic Games, especially in the traditional summer sports. Still, I think these facts had virtually no impact on this essay.)

Rock Wall, Quick!

On Monday morning, I got a phone call, can you come in at eleven and work the rock wall for 2 hours. It was for a girl's group activity, scheduled long before, but accidentally left unstaffed. The girls ranged in age from about six or seven up to high school. Things went well until one girl panicked. She started crying and froze on the wall. It's not really a big deal, but she was being belayed by a fairly inexperienced belayer. I told the belayer to crouch down, but rather than just crouching, with the effect of lifting the girl slightly, unloading her arms and letting her know she was being held by the rope, she played out rope as she sank down, yielding no effect.
Since my climber was down, I was able to walk over and grab the girl by the hips, tell her that I had her and she she was OK, she then let go of the wall and was lowered down. Truly no big deal, but a harder experience than necessary because it was not brought to an end as quickly as possible. It bothers me when problems aren't handled effectively.

On Belay?

One of the more enjoyable tasks I perform is belaying climbers at the local YMCA. This weekend, I found myself doing this at a birthday party. Parties are often the toughest duty because there is constant application of harnesses, a continual need to confirm that they have been properly and safely applied, and the need to provide basic instruction to the many who haven't climbed before.
Still there are dividends. On Saturday, a mother decided that she wanted to climb. For most adults, the climbing is the easy part. The tough part is when you've climbed either to the top of the wall or until you can't climb further, you must commit yourself to the rope. Letting go of the solid, stable wall and dangling on a piece of rope a half inch thick goes against virtually every instinct you've developed thoughout your life. It's that act of letting go of the wall that is, as a climber, the most difficult thing you must do.
It's always nice to see adults challenge their fears, and that's what makes it so nice when adults choose to climb.

Michael Phelps - Not the Greatest Olympic Athlete Ever!

No disrespect to Mr. Phelps, certainly he is one of the finest swimmers ever, perhaps the finest, but we must examine this fairly. Mr. Phelps, on winning his tenth gold surpassed several athletes tied for the honor with nine, one of whom was Paavo Nurmi (another was Mark Spitz), but it's Nurmi whom I'll use to argue this point.
Swimming is different from running, most significantly because it is raced in multiple strokes and at a great many distances, whereas there is only one way to run. What would Phelps' medal haul look like if he could only race freestyle? Or what would Nurmi's look like if he raced a run, trot, and canter? Simply put, the yardsticks are VERY different.
Nurmi won his 9 golds across three Olympiads, capturing three golds in Amsterdam (1920), five in Paris (1924) and one in ?? (1928), he also won several silvers. None of his medals were earned at distances less than 1500 meters. I will make the claim that running, because it involves impact loading, presents considerably more abuser to the body, and the ability to absorb that abuse and come back for more is more difficult than in swimming, lacking impact loading AND of generally shorter duration than running. (Time, distance as well, but I think time is the right measure here...swimming paces are inherently slower, so measuring by distance would be unfair.)
I would argue that the double double of Lasse Viren and that Emil Zatopek's 1952 distance running triple, golds in the 5000 meters, 10,000 meters, and marathon exceed what Phelps has done, but simply put, the yardsticks are different. (BTW, when checking details, I stumbled on Britain's James Cracknell saying much the same here.)Swimming has all these variants, and I believe more distances as well, so earning a swimming medal may well be easier than earning a running medal. Also, anyone without access to a reasonable body of water (think much of Africa) lacks the opportunity to hone their skills to an Olympian level.

Olympic Trials

Well, the Olympic Trials for track are going on, and I can't find 'em on TV. When I was young, ABC would always have them. Now, NBC has 'em and apparently doesn't feel they're worth running live. Meantime, Amy Yoder-Begley ran the race of her life to qualify third in the 10,000 meters, running a 31:33. They guys at Let's Run are kvelling about her (OK, being good white bread, calling it kvelling might be inappropriate...maybe "gushing").
Parker Morse comments on the Indianapolis Star not sending a reporter to cover their hometown athlete on his excellent Flashes of Panic blog. I think met Amy last summer while visiting Dan and Patti Dillon in Connecticut. Here's a shot of her finishing.

Racing For The Cure

My wife is a trainer. The gym where she works ran in the local Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure. My son, who's nine, joined her team. He ran a solid race, posting a 26:27 (and comfortably beating my wife's 30:00). What I found a bit remarkable was that he was the first finisher from the gym, including a fair number of other trainers. I am quite proud of his performance.

I was not there to see it, having spent the day coaching a very small group of my athletes at a track meet. Since things were well in hand, when a call went out for judges for the Turbo Jav (the form of javelin that kids throw today), I volunteered. Along with getting a bit of sunburn, I had a nice time.

Finally, Running Chick posted a link to a great sportsmanship story. She said it's worth a read, I concur.

Sk. Trp.

OK, it's a fairly convoluted way to note that this past weekend, I took an abbreviated ski trip. (Get it?...I abbreviated the words, "ski trip.") Due to my classes, I could not leave until noon on Friday, while my wife and son went up a day earlier.
I had to cut my one day of cross country short, with a blister developing on my right heel. (If I was a tough guy, I'd have popped it, pressed it flat and continued on...and had I had another pair of socks with me, I might well have done that.) As it was, I did an hour plus of solid activity, and felt pretty happy that it was comfortable.

Misguided Expectations of Parents

You can find a good New York Times article on how little scholarship money is available in many sports here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/sports/10scholarships.html?em&ex=1205380800&en=a7d4378c9f0fa471&ei=5087%0A

Two of Nine

On Thursday, I went into New York City. My primary destination was the Forbes Gallery. I was headed there because I was aware that I could see some Olympic Gold Medals.
The National Jewelry Institute had put together an exhibit of Olympic Gold Medals, the oldest dated from 1908, 99 years ago; the newest from 2006. As a distance guy, the medals that meant the most were the distance medals. In the one hundred eleven years since the inception of the modern Olympics, the United States has won (if my count is right) only nine gold medals in distance running. By my count, the medals that we've won are: marathon, four, 1904 - Thomas Hicks, 1908 - Johnny Hayes*, 1972 - Frank Shorter, and 1984 - Joan Benoit; 10,000 meters, one, 1964 - Billy Mills; 5000 meters, one, 1964 - Bob Schul*; 3000 meters steeplechase, one, 1952 - Horace Ashenfelter; I recall that we one a gold in the 2500 meter steeple, but don't recall who won it, and I think there was one more (I have some homework to complete this post) and, I thnk one other. (The two medals marked with asterisks are on display.)
As a middle aged guy, I also enjoyed seeing the four gold medals won by the ageless Al Oerter in the discus (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968). And recall his efforts to return to high level competition back in the 1980's. This man, who recently passed away, was both an amazing competitior and his competition in middle age and later gives those of us who are seeing more salt than pepper in our hair, hope.
Regardless, several of the most important icons in American distance running are being displayed this fall in New York City. Yet, I suspect most runners who come into the city to run the New York City Marathon will have no idea that this exhibit is going on.
I was permitted, by special permission, to take photographs of the Johnny Hayes medal, and will link to where I post them.

Here Come Da Judge

(It's been way too long...I won't begin that way, as a friend of mine claims that is the most popular phrase for beginning a blog post. I apologize for my laxity, and will try to make sure it doesn't happen as often.)

Last Sunday, I spent the early part of the day judging a racewalk. It was my first time judging one, and it opened my eyes a bit regarding how walking style can impact judging.
I should tell you, in case you don't know, there are two rules in racewalking: 1) one foot must always be in contact with the ground (when viewed by the naked eye) and 2) the lead leg must be straight from the time of its plant until it passes under the body.
One competitor was particlarly egregious with his bent legs. He planted bent, and kept his leg bent throughout his stride. He got disqualified quickly, but kept walking without his number.
One interesting thing occurring was a documentarian taping the goings on. I was briefly interviewed, but more interestingly was his tachnique. He needed to be able to move quickly, and in order to do this, and not have the bouncing of running, he used a skateboard. I'll be interested to see the result.

On Conditions and Cameraderie

Last night's practice for my youth track program was held in steady, heavy rain. Some of the workouts are unsafe in the rain, so I felt that interval work would keep them warm and make some progress on fitness. I think there was a special feeling of toughness and friendship that last night's workout created. I will say that the kids who are willing to run in conditions that are less than ideal are my stars. Track and field is competed in all kinds of conditions, so my feeling is that practices should never be cancelled (except for lightning...not really my feeling, I generally regard lightning as so minimal a threat as to be ignorable, but I am dicatated to by policies of both our host and our sponsor.)

Good-Bye, Mr. Halberstam

I just read of the passing of one of my favorite writers, David Halberstam. While I was aware of him as a journalist during the Viet Nam era, my love of his writing really grew during the 1980's and later when he was working as an author, especially of some very fine sports books. During the mid-1980's, I was dating a rower, and his book, The Amateurs, came out. She loaned it to me, and I became a fan of his. A few years later, I read his Summer of '49, and became an even bigger fan. It also brought me up to speed on some Red Sox lore that I, having grown up in the NY metro area hadn't known. This year, I read his The Teammates, the story of four guys from that era and their friendship of many decades.
This was the article on his passing. As I wrote this, I checked Wikipedia, it was already updated with his death. The power of distributed writing is pretty remarkable.

Curling

Not happy with your locks, and you wanted to find out how to impart beatiful curls to them? Well, you aren't going to find out here. My longest hair is about an inch long, and graying, so to find the Farrah Fawcett look, go elsewhere.

Oh, and if bigger biceps is your aim, again, wrong place. If you want to use exercise and steroids to get bigger, ain't gonna find it here. My stance on steroids, DON'T!!! My stance on weight-lifting, maybe.

No, this post is about the sport of curling. I suspect most of you are scraping cobwebs out of some deserted corner of your brain, asking yourself, "Could he possibly be referring to that weird sport with the big rocks being slid on ice and the guys sweeping the ice with brooms?" Yep, that's the one.

The circumstances are a bit odd, but last Sunday I tried curling. My take on it: Surprisingly difficult. It consists primarily of two kinds of activity: 1) Sliding a 42 lb. stone and 2) sweeping the path of the stone. To slide the rock properly, you stand in a starting block called a "hack" and slide out briskly keeping yourself balanced while slipping on a teflon soled shoe and as you slide, directing the stone and simultaneously imparting a spin to the stone. It's this spin that both give a degree of control to the stone (think rifled bullet or spiral pass)and permits the stone to curl (think bowler's hook or curveball).

Keeping one's balance while sliding isn't terribly easy, even with a broom to aid you. And for a runner, the act of sliding requires a fair degree of flexibility, not my strong suit.

What did I think? Well, first, let me say that curling, like bowling is one of those sports that can likely be classed as competitive recreation. The athletic portion of it is limited. (It can even be reduced, in the USA, use of a delivery stick is permitted in most games, this permits those with physical limitations to play the game.) More than that, I won't argue this point. Suffice to say, like most competitive recreation, I had a lot of fun. It's a sport that center around a fair amount of cameraderie. I understand most clubs have opportunities for beginners to learn the sport and a post-match beer (or soda) is almost de rigeur. Put another way, if you want to add something unusual to your "sports I've tried" list, this is a good one...and unlike my hang-gliding experience, I didn't screw-up a shoulder.

The Rutgers Ruckus

Last night, Rutgers beat Louisville 28-25 in a game that seemed to have tilted from one side to the other during halftime. It's fun to see a local team getting some national attention on the football field. I didn't go to Rutgers, but having grown up and living in NJ, I know quite a few Rutgers alumni. I had also taken a summer course there while in school, and had dated some Rutgers students while younger. I figured a post about this was in order, and out of respect for the Scarlet Knights, it should be presented in scarlet.

Panicking about Title IX

On his "Flashes of Panic" blog, PJM has an excellent discussion of Title IX's impact on a school and the uproar, much of it misguided, that it's created. I could rehash what he says, but couldn't possibly say it as well as he did. Please see his post here.