Posted by David_Dobrindt on September 22, 2008 at 01:42 PM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Notre Dame has beaten Navy in college football for the past 43 years, the longest streak in college football history. They are playing this weekend and that streak could end.
You know how I found this out? In a business meeting today. Why did someone bring it up? I have no idea, they kind of threw it out there without any context. It was kind of like random trivia moment that no one knew how to respond to.
Thought I'd share.
Posted by David_Dobrindt on November 01, 2007 at 02:51 PM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
I ran the Marine Corp Marathon this past Sunday in Washington D.C. I had four goals when I set out…
1) have fun
2) finish the race
3) run it within 4 hours or a 9 minute pace
4) don’t die
I made three of those four goals since my final time was 4 hours 48 minutes and an 11 minute pace. So instead of a 9 minute mile, I ended up with an 11 minute mile. Big deal. I finished, which is something important, considering I am not the best when it comes to eating right and am slightly out of shape.
The race was both fun and awful, but definitely rewarding and once I am out of this really sore period, I will think about the next one I want to do. It was a great overall experience, more on that later.
More below the fold…
Posted by David_Dobrindt on October 30, 2007 at 12:57 PM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
It's now less than 48 hours until I run my first (and possibly last) marathon. With guidance from many, including Patti's uncle Tim, I started training about 4 months ago. I plan on running the Marine Corp Marathon in DC this Sunday, Oct 28. After months of training, speed work, hills, eating gel and gu, drinking a lot of water, sore muscles and sweaty shirts, I think I'm ready.
Patti and I flew to DC this morning and my sister, who lives in the area, picked us up. We went to get my race stuff and walked around the expo that is part of any large race, We got some stuff for free and bought some other stuff.
Patti's mother is taking care of the kids back home. My parents are flying to DC Saturday to watch the race on Sunday. There are 30,000 runners registered. The weather is supposed to be cool and sunny, perfect for me.
My plan is to stay off my feet today and tomorrow, and get up around 5AM to get to the race site for the 8AM start. Then roughly 4 hours later hopefully I'll finish, have a free banana, visit the beer tent, and relax the rest of the day before flying home on Monday morning.
Wish me luck, I'll need it!
Thought I'd share.
Posted by David_Dobrindt on October 26, 2007 at 05:32 PM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
It's now less than 48 hours until I run my first (and possibly last) marathon. With guidance from many, including Patti's uncle Tim, I started training about 4 months ago. I plan on running the Marine Corp Marathon in DC this Sunday, Oct 28. After months of training, speed work, hills, eating gel and gu, drinking a lot of water, sore muscles and sweaty shirts, I think I'm ready.
Patti and I flew to DC this morning and my sister, who lives in the area, picked us up. We went to get my race stuff and walked around the expo that is part of any large race, We got some stuff for free and bought some other stuff.
Patti's mother is taking care of the kids back home. My parents are flying to DC Saturday to watch the race on Sunday. There are 30,000 runners registered. The weather is supposed to be cool and sunny, perfect for me.
My plan is to stay off my feet today and tomorrow, and get up around 5AM to get to the race site for the 8AM start. Then roughly 4 hours later hopefully I'll finish, have a free banana, visit the beer tent, and relax the rest of the day before flying home on Monday morning.
Wish me luck, I'll need it!
Thought I'd share.
Posted by David_Dobrindt on October 26, 2007 at 05:32 PM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Along the running theme. Long distance running some times results in chaffed body parts. For me, even though I wear dry fit tshirts, sometimes my nips get raw.
So today (Tuesday) I was in NY City for work after the long weekend. I went for a run around Central Park in the evening and walked back to the hotel. Unfortunately I did not get a room at my normal hotel, so the backup is about a mile from the park. I took some money and on the way back I went to Duane Reed for some water and toiletries I needed.
I walked up to the young check out girl all sweaty and with my earphones still on. I put down the stuff and she looks and me and then looked down at my chest.
“Nice!!” I thought, all those hours in the gym finally paying off. This chick is checking me out.
She kind of smirked and rang up the items. I paid her, gave her a Dave smile to make her day, then left.
About 10 feet from the store I looked down to admire my own chest and figured out why the girl was looking at me. My right nipple was bleeding. I had a white dry fit tshirt on and the blood made a streak from my chest about 4 inches down my shirt, with the red fading in color the farther it went down, kind of like a red comment in the night sky.
So there I was, sweaty stinky hat, holding a plastic bag with shaving cream and a vitamin water, and my bloody nipple seeping through my shirt. Yep, I was the object of Marisol desire.
Posted by David_Dobrindt on September 04, 2007 at 08:25 PM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Some of you know that I have been training for a marathon in October. I plan on running the Marine Corp Marathon in DC and am at the point in my training where I am doing pretty long runs. This past weekend we went to Long Island to visit Patti’s parents in Hampton Bays for Labor Day. I was in NY all week for work and Patti came down mid week with the kids. She met me in NYC on Thursday night, we had a nice dinner, and then we headed out to her parents house the next day. Patti's parents watched the kids for the night.
Anyway, there is this really nice running loop that goes along Montauk Highway, through East Quoge, Quoge, over a canal, along the famous Dune Road, over a huge bridge, through Hampton Bays and back home. I never really knew how long it was but two times I’ve tried to run it in the past resulted in me borrowing some kid’s cell phone at a beach food shack to pathetically call Patti to come and get me. Embarrassing.
So this past Sunday I took some water, had Patti meet me with water, hid some water along the route, took my gel packs, and completed it without stopping. I conquered Dune Road. Yes. I OWN Dune Road.
The distance? 17 miles. Crazy, I know.
Posted by David_Dobrindt on September 04, 2007 at 08:13 PM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
This past weekend I traveled from Boston to Minneapolis to see the Vikings play the Jets. Although I live in New England, and kind of like the Patriots, I kept my allegiance to the Jets since moving from NY. Patti's extended family lives in Minnesota and her uncle Tim, who we are close with (cousin Kara is Tim's daughter) got 4 tickets through work. So on a lark he invited me, not knowing that I would book my ticket that afternoon. One week before Christmas I headed out. Couple of points.
- First, the game was great. The Jets pretty much beat the tar out of the Vikings even though the score was closer than the actual game at 26-13. The Vikings are historically a very successful team and have a huge fan base. I know other teams do as well but there is something different about some teams - The Packers, Redskins, Cowboys, Vikings - that make their fans even more extreme. It was a blast.
- I've been to Jet games in the Meadowlands which is an outdoor arena. Sitting in the cold for 4 or 5 hours is pretty miserable. I like the environment but the weather takes away from it, at least for me. The Vikings play in the Metrodome which is covered. It was about 70 degrees in the stadium while it was cold outside. It was a much more enjoyable game, again, at least to me because some will say the fans and the players are soft because they are basically in a large living room watching the game, but I loved it.
- The Metrodome is known for its noise because it is enclosed. While Kara said it was not as noisy as it usually is, I thought at times it was like sitting near an airplane taking off. More for the fun.
- The Viking symbol is a, well, Viking I guess, a blonde guy with a fu-man-chu mustache wearing a hat with horns sticking out of them. It was unbelievable how creative people got with different versions of this. Some had fake plastic ones, some that were fuzzy and purple and some with actual real ones that could have been worn in actual combat. Good stuff. It's not the Jets fireman hat, but its cool.
- There is a Vikings fight song, called Skol, Vikings, that is sung after the team scores. The Vikings scored right away and after the extra point everyone started singing. I asked Kara what was going on and she pointed to the score board where they had the words to it...
Skol Vikings! Let's win this game
Skol Vikings! Honor your name.
Go get that first down
Then get a touchdown
Rock 'em, sock 'em, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! FIGHT!
Go Vikings, run out the score, you'll hear us yell for more!
V-I-K-I-N-G-S
Skol Vikings, let's go!
While they were singing these people ran around the field with flags that spelled out the team name. It was awesome. I wanted the score to be like 49-47 (in favor of the Jets of course) just so I could sing the fight song. The next and last time the Vikings scored I sang along. I need a good fight song to play after I battle the kids.
- I knew I was among true hardcore fans when, in the second quarter, they started booing the starting quarterback because they were not winning. Then they cheered like it was the beginning of the world when they scored a meaningless touchdown in the second half. You gotta love fans who stay tuned to the game when things are bad.
- They inflate this large blow up viking ship that the players run out of when they first enter the field. Fireworks go off, which I'll admit I was not ready for and made me jump. I wonder how many rabid fans have purchased a similar blow up viking ship for their backyard.
- The other great part of the weekend was seeing Tim and his family. His son just had his second child and Kara's baby is 6 months. Plus I got to stay at the Tim and Deb B&B. Trust me, the best place to stay when visiting Minneapolis. Warm and comfortable bed, private living room and bathroom and three squares a day.
So great football game, fun weekend, time to read on the flight to and from. I'll post some pictures I took after I download them.
PS. From Wikipedia...
Skol (written skal in Norwegian and Swedish, and sometimes "Skoal" in English) is the Norwegian/Swedish/Danish word for a salute or a toast, as to an admired person or group. The meaning of the Scandinavian skalli/skalle: skal means simply "shell" and skal/skal "bowl". There is a popular misconception that the toast comes from the mythical habit of Vikings to drink from cups made from the skulls of their defeated enemies.
Some of the symbols over the letters didn't come out in the blog. If you are really interested, click here
Oh, there is something else I forgot. When they try to get the crowd fired up, or the crowd is going wild after a good play, they play this sound that is like a horn blowing, not a car horn, like a horn taken off an animal. It sounds like something a viking would play when they are getting ready to send other vikings into battle. Something else I wish I could play when I know the kids are getting ready to be trouble. I have a wave file of both the horn and the song if anyone is interested.
Posted by David_Dobrindt on December 19, 2006 at 10:35 AM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Bill sent me this link. It's great if you have time to read it. The best paragraph below.
Context: A reporter is having a conversation with Yankee stadium about being replaced.
"But I sure as hell ain't gonna sit around and whine about it like some pathetic @#%$ Red Sox fan would, crying, 'Oh, look at me! Look at me! I'm suffering -- Don't you all feel sooooo damn sorry for me?' @#&% that. Winners don't complain. Winners don't explain. Winners just accept the cards they're dealt and then we kick their ass all the way back to Boston."
Great piece, a must read.
Click here to read it or cut and paste.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/offbase/060816&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2
Posted by David_Dobrindt on August 25, 2006 at 04:33 PM in Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Strange. Suddenly hundreds of NFL players have asked for a trade to the Minnesota Vikings.
Posted by David_Dobrindt on October 13, 2005 at 11:04 AM in In The News, Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)