Weekend Blogger

It's beginning to look like a trend since school started, but I've been busy. I know, others are busy, too....

Labor Day was fun at Beth's grandfather's house and then my family's house. I ate a lot, but what's new? I took Monday off of training after 11.5 miles with Beth on Sunday

Tuesday - School, Mile Repeats at XC, pick up deck stain, dinner, stain rails of deck until dark

Wednesday - School, "coached" at XC - my legs were dead from the mile repeats, dinner, stain rest of deck and finish around dark, listen to part of Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC.

Thursday - School, XC Practice (7 mi), stay at school eat dinner & grade, Open House, home by 10pm.

Friday - Swam with Beth at pool, School, XC Pre-meet (3 mi), home for the weekend!!!

PSU TROUBLES

So, seriously, the Penn State program is a good and mostly clean program. But, what's going on lately is frustrating. Guys in the Nittany Apartments having a loud party on a TUESDAY night??? Don't you have any homework? So loud, that the police had to come and ask them to turn it down. And, upon that, finding marijuana in the apartment?

I just can't believe some of the decisions these athletes make. What a waste of an opportunity. What a waste of talent and a letdown to the teammates. They're suspended for the time being and they can stay suspended for all I care if they're not going to follow the rules. Very frustrating....it will sure send a message if PSU struggles against Oregon State this weekend.

I really like Joe Paterno's quote about the situation:

“We preach, preach, preach and they step out of line,” Paterno said on the show. “They deserve whatever they’re gonna get. Now whatever that’s gonna be, I don’t know. My feeling on all of this is that they had a responsibility to the program, they had a responsibility to themselves, their families, their teammates, and if they did something as dumb as it appears they did, and I’m not sure that they did, but even being close to that kind of thing, I’m not gonna play any one of those three kids this weekend.”

I can't agree enough. He's not out of touch, these kids are just making terrible decisions and letting down their teammates. Can a head coach really sit on these kids 24 hours a day? Maybe the rest of the team will get a wake up call with these suspensions. At least Pitt lost last week...

Now that that's off my chest, on to a much lighter note.

TOP TRIATHLON SPECTATOR?

Beth's triathlon friend Elizabeth from the Chicago area has been documenting what she's the World's Best Spectathlete. While she may be doing a good job of cheering and is an amazing professional triathlete, I feel that she may be a little premature in her proclamation of the best in the world. I, for one, would like to throw my hat in the ring with my 8 or 9 years of experience. Here's my qualifications:

- Taking all of my personal days from school for triathlon race-related reasons
- Attending 5-8 races per year as a spectator and getting up early on race day (including a pre-3am wakeup in NYC).
- My ability that I have honed (since the turn of the century when Beth was a PSU XC runner) of maximizing the number of times I catch people on the course....and not only quanity of locations, but QUALITY of locations, like 2/3 of the way up a tough hill on the bike in Philly or at the "GO" point at the end of the run.
- Accumulating comparable running mileage as the competitor like I did down at St. Anthony's this past April.
- The ability to scout out not only good restaurants in the area for triathlon weekend, but a key grocery store to stop in and grab a snack like I did at 70.3 Championships in Clearwater last November...you have to stay fueled to be a top performer.
- And, of course, my ace in the hole--my hurdling of a fence to get to the optimal position to cheer on Beth like I did at Columbia back in May.

So, alleged World's greatest Spectathlete, I say, "IT'S ON!" and may the best spectathlete win.... :)