A Good Weekend

The 10k down in Fredericksburg yesterday was fun. I met up with Clea, Stephanie and Steve just before the start and enjoyed myself. I had a relaxed run and finished in 47.40, which I'll take considering my lack of running (and complete lack of speedwork) for the last month. After the 10k Nancy and I did the kid's mile with Gavin. He alternated between sprinting all-out and having no interest at all in running. We were DFL by a long way, but we were so proud of him - he was by far the youngest kid doing the mile. After he collected his ribbon we explored Fredericksburg some and stopped at one of the local bakeries for lunch before heading home so I could finish off the painting.

And get this - the painting is finished. Hooray Henry!!! I finished up the detail work yesterday afternoon which is really tedious and a royal pain in the rear. Yes, I was the kid in kindergarten who always got into trouble for coloring outside the lines (and let's face it, when have you ever heard anyone credit their life's success to staying within the lines when they were four - uh, never!!!).

This morning I met Clea and Pancake for 9 miles on the greenbelt. It was the longest run I've done in a while, and we had light rain the whole way which is always fun. In fact, the recent rains have resulted in some flowing water and Pancake showed us the way by swimming across at the end. I followed her lead and we all enjoyed wading knee-deep in the water - bliss, and the best part of the run.

As ever, a great start to a Sunday.

Here are some shots from yesterday's race.

Hasta la Pasta

My beloved hand-cranked pasta machine

Pasta is a great runner's food and so versatile - it comes in noodles of all size, can be stuffed (ravioli, cannelloni, tortellini), baked in a casserole, put cold into salad, or as sheets for lasagne. It can be partnered with many sauces (usually tomato or cream based) for endless flavor variations. I love it, but more than that, I love fresh pasta. And there's no pasta fresher than that I make myself. This does come at a price though, because once you've tasted fresh pasta you won't want to go back to the dried stuff.

Fortunately, fresh pasta is quick, easy and fun to make providing you have the right tools. And right at the top of the list is a good pasta machine. While technically you could make your own pasta by rolling it out by hand and cutting with a knife, these little beauties make it so easy. Along with my Kitchenaid mixer, it is the most-used tool in my kitchen. As well as pasta I also use it for rolling out naan bread, pitas and empenadas/cornish pasties/calzones.

Pasta machines come in various different guises (including attachments for your KitchenAid), but I like my manual hand-cranked version because I get more of a feel for the dough and have complete control over it. A couple of recommendations:

- First, get a machine that is made in Italy - it's usually a much better quality. The best two out there are the Villaware Imperia 150 (not to be confused with the Al Dente, which is an inferior product) and the Atlas. I own the Imperia but it's not so easy to find it these days

- Second - never use water to clean it (water + dough = sticky mess). If you flour your dough well it should not be a problem, but if you do get some sticky dough the best way is to wait until it dries out and simply brush it off.

What follows is my basic dough recipe - note that I like making wholewheat noodles because I like the texture, so I use some wholewheat flour in my dough. If you don't, just use all-purpose. I have made variations of this recipe with great success, including colored pasta (using fresh spinach and tomato paste for green and red respectively), herbed pasta (fresh herbs between two sheets and pressed out), garlic and sage pasta and even hot pepper pasta.

Mark's Basic Wholewheat Pasta Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups wholewheat flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tsp salt
3/4 to 1 cup water

Combine the flour, eggs, olive oil and salt in your mixer's bowl. Mix with the paddle while adding in the water. When it starts to come together, substitute the hook and continue to knead. Finish it off by kneading by hand for a good 5 minutes.

If you don't have a mixer, combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and create a well in the center. Pour in the eggs and olive oil, and add the water gradually, incorporating the flour until it is all mixed in. Then knead by hand for at least 10 minutes.

Divide the dough at this point. If you split it into 2, each piece will feed 3 people (or 2 hungry runners, or 2 for supper plus leftovers for lunch). Sometimes I'll do this, and sometimes I'll split into 4. Roll each piece into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. The pieces that you aren't using can be refrigerated for 2-3 days or frozen (thaw in the fridge overnight before using).

Leave the dough for 30 minutes to relax (makes it easier to work with), then remove the wrap and cut into 4 pieces (keep the pieces you aren't using covered). Flatten out by hand and roll it through the widest setting on the pasta machine. Fold the dough in thirds lengthways and put it through again. Fold the dough in half and put it through again. Keep doing this until you get a consistent width then narrow the setting. Send the dough through just once (no more folding) and continue narrowing until you get to your desired thickness (setting 5 works best for me). If the dough gets sticky, rub some all purpose flour into it and continue.

Once the sheet is ready, flour it really well and send it through the cutter. Store the cut pasta in a loose nest until ready for cooking. Note that fresh pasta takes only 2-3 minutes, so keep an eye on it. I make sure to add some olive oil and salt when boiling, and I'll stir it up to ensure they don't stick.

Once you've made your pasta, try this for an easy and yummy spaghetti and meatballs recipe.

Pasta sheet well floured and ready for cutting

A gaggle of fettucine pasta nests

Batman - an excellent noodle tree :-)

Running in the Wildflowers

I'm off to Fredericksburg tomorrow to run the Wildflower 10k with some friends. I haven't run properly in weeks so I'll probably be really slow, but so what - should be fun. Gavin is signed up for the kid's mile and Nancy is looking forward to it too. Really I should be here in Austin doing the Texas Roundup 10k with the work wellness committee, but I skipped out on it. I guess there's something in my makeup that just enjoys rebelling and following my own path. Besides, the Roundup is a real meat market, and I hate crowds. Far better to do a small town race.

Unfortunately for me, word got out that I was jumping ship and the guys are now insisting I bring them back some Fredericksburg peaches as a penance. My pleas that it was too early in the season fell on deaf ears, so I offered to bring them back some wildflowers and warned them not to get the wrong idea.

They politely declined :-)

Signed up for Hell

I just signed up for the 50 miler at Hell's Hills (the replacement race for last weekend's Rocky Hill Ranch). June in Texas - what was I thinking?

Actually it will be good practice at being self-sufficient for the Cactus Rose 100. Besides, a good sufferfest does wonders for the soul.

Yes, I'm sure that makes sense :-)

Pines, Pilates and Pumpkin Paint

I had the day off on Tuesday so I headed out to Bastrop State park for a nice run in the woods. There's something about running under the pines that sings to my soul, and it was an enchanting morning of silver streams and spotlight sunbeams. It is the kind of trail where you can really put the hammer down, but sometimes it's far better to take it slow and savor the experience - the smell of the pine, the swish of the trees, the majestic beauty of the forest. I really don't run out here often enough, and it's not that far of a drive.

I also discovered that my State Park pass expires at the end of the month, so I need to look into renewing it.

I spent the rest of the day prepping our living room and corridor for painting - taping baseboards, removing electrical outlets, ripping off corner protectors and re-mudding the damaged drywall (message to the former owners of our house - it's not a good idea to put plastic corner protectors on the walls, and really not a good idea to hammer screws into them). Painting the living room has been on my "honey do" list ever since I retiled the fireplace, so I decided to finally bite the bullet and get it done. Last night I got started painting. It's great to have a large living room with high ceilings - unless you're painting it, then it kinda sucks. But I burned the midnight oil to get it done, and all that's left to do are the edges and detail work. Hopefully I can finish that tonight, because our living room is a real mess at the moment.

But at least I can rest secure in the knowledge that I am now the proud owner of a pumpkin colored living room!!!*

And last but not least, I ordered a pilates dvd that arrived yesterday. It consists of five 10 minute pilates workouts on a stability ball which can be combined, mixed and matched to whatever duration workout you want. It looks good, and maybe I'll get a chance to do it once the living room gets back to normal.

And a big thank you to all my friends who recommended yoga dvds. I have my eye on two power yoga workouts - one by Bryan Kest and one by Rodney Yee. With these sultans of stretch to aspire to, I will doubtless be as limber as a soggy sausage before you can say "downward dog".


* I know what you're thinking - some kind of horrific 1970s orange. But it's not - more of a subdued off-yellow - looks nice and feels really warm and cozy.

That "Feel Good" Thing

For the last month or so I've been leading a "trail 101" run on Monday nights as part of our work wellness and fitness program (I somehow found myself on the fitness committee about a year ago - how did that happen?? - I blame this). We've had anything up to 8 people show up, but I have a hard core of three guys who have run with me every week because they're training for the 10k version of the Rogue summer series. When we started, they'd never run any kind of trail before and our first 6 mile benchmark loop took around an hour and 10 minutes (and I took all kinds of s%$t for standing at the top of the hills and chuckling - an unfortunate side effect of being evil :-) ).

But it's been amazing to see them take to it and improve week on week. We spent a few weeks hitting every hill I could find in the park, and another week slamming speed interval repeats on some enclosed loops. Tonight we reversed direction and ran the 10k course as a dress rehearsal/final benchmark. A little frustrated at not being able to get a run in this weekend, I decided to push them. So I set a steady pace and kept them to it. It wasn't particularly fast, but I held the same pace on all the uphills. I pushed them just enough that they had to work hard to keep up, but not hard enough that they would bonk before we finished.

We finished the loop in around 55 minutes (according to their watches - I never start mine for these runs) which really surprised them. For me, it was really exhilarating to see them so energized and full of questions. A good workout has that effect, and it's very much an honor and a privilege to share in that.

And I was glad I was able to run out some stiffness in my legs since I did the mother of all leg workouts last night. I shredded yesterday morning and then sat down and realized I was being lazy with my weights workouts. So I crafted my own leg and abs workout that really pushed me. I geared it toward building leg strength for hills, and it included 2-3 sets each of walking weighted lunges with trunk twists, one legged lunges, bridge pose into hamstring curls on the ball, squats and bicep curls combo, side lunges (are you seeing a pattern here) with front raises, deadlifts into lateral raises, bicycle crunches to exhaustion (one of my favorite ab workouts - I can go a long time), side lying leg lifts and butt blasters. Finished it off with a good 2 minutes of plank (deceptively hard). It was one of those workouts that leaves you glowing - your blood is pumping and you can take on the world. Gavin "worked out" with me, though his workout looked a lot more fun - it consisted of taking a run up, diving onto the stability ball, rolling over the top of it and pushing back off the table. Probably a good thing Nancy wasn't here to see it.

He would make a good coach too - "come on daddy, stop hogging the ball. You're going too slow"!!!

And as a bonus I realized this morning that I have the day off tomorrow. So I'm going to head out to Bastrop State Park for a nice run in the pines and to make up for the weekend.

It seems I just feel better when I'm running regularly.

Have you Ever Seen the Rain?

The post title is a reference to one of my favorite Creedence Clearwater Revival songs (I downloaded their Greatest Hits album off amazon for $5 last night and it's playing on the jukebox as I write). But it also refers to the Rocky Hill Ranch race I was working this morning. Gavin and I had an early start at 2:30am and got out to the race site at 4am. We got deluged with rain, thunder and lightning strikes which washed out parts of the course and led to the race being canceled just after the start of the 50 miler - bad news for the hundreds of runners who had signed up for it, but absolutely the correct decision. I was helping with packet pickup, and felt so bad telling those folks who had traveled out to Smithville on such a stormy morning that the race had been pulled, but most of them took it really well. I felt even worse for the volunteers who had spent all day Friday marking the course in even worse weather.

But I just got a notice from the RD to say he's rescheduled the race as a free event in June called "Hell's Hills" - a classy gesture by a great guy. Since I have no conflicts that weekend, I think I may just run the 50 miler as an early tune up for Cactus - it will be mighty hot, but may also be the motivation I need to get my butt back into gear. Since this is Nancy's last weekend out of town I can start my long runs again next weekend.

Enough about running - I haven't blogged about cooking for a while. Tonight I experimented with a "concept pizza" partly inspired by one of the pizzas I enjoyed at a dinner party last night. I made a sourdough spinach pizza crust topped with 3 cheeses, potato, red onion and some chicken fajita I grilled a few nights ago. It was yummy, very different to my usual pizza, and Gavin loved the green pizza dough (the crust is real easy to make - I just combined a cup and a half of my proofed sourdough starter with some spinach leaves in a blender, added it to a cup and a half of high protein flour with some olive oil and salt, and kneaded it into a ball of dough which I covered and let rise). Definitely one to put on my "cook to impress" list.

Some nice pumpkin ale went very nicely with it.

Pizza and beer - a winning combination

Sporting Heroes : Colin Jackson

Colin Jackson - British hurdler

The best 110m hurdler of his generation, Jackson spent a remarkable 17 years at the top of the athletics world until his retirement in 2003. Hailing from Cardiff, he was a huge star in Wales when I was growing up. His world record time of 12:91 (set in the final of the world championships in 1993) stood until 2006, and he still holds the indoor 60m hurdles world record, set in 1994.

A gold medalist at two world championships, two commonwealth games and four European championships, Jackson never quite enjoyed the same success at the olympics - a silver in Seoul his solitary medal. But I have great memories of warm summer nights watching Jackson and Linford Christie dominate European grand prix meets.

Sporting Heroes : Hansie Cronje

Hansie Cronje - the late South African cricket captain.

This is probably the most unlikely entry in my "sporting heroes" series. But the events surrounding the spectacular rise and fall of the enigmatic former South African cricket captain are so fascinating, tragic and controversial I just had to include him.

Born in the Afrikaner heartland of Bloemfontein, Cronje became captain of the Orange Free State as a 21 year old in 1991. It was a period of huge change for South Africa with their readmission to International sport in 1992 following the fall of apartheid, and Cronje was instantly a mainstay of the South African middle order. By 1994 he was captain of the National side.

Throughout the rest of the 1990s I was a huge fan of Cronje. While his test batting record was moderate, he was an outstanding captain and led his side with toughness, guts, determination and imagination. He was an inspiring leader and a role model for the new "Rainbow nation" that was post-apartheid South Africa. No less a judge than Bob Woolmer rated him the best captain he'd ever worked with, and statistically he is South Africa's most successful captain. Under his guidance, South Africa were the second highest ranked test team in the world (behind Australia). Quite an amazing achievement when you consider their years of sporting isolation.

In 2000, Cronje was skipper of the South African side that played England in the 5th test match at Centurion Park in Pretoria (I have great memories of being at that ground for the test match in 1995). The first three days had been rained out, leaving no chance of a result on the final two days. That is until Cronje proposed a deal to Nasser Hussain, the English captain. He offered to make a game of it on the last day - that both sides would forfeit an innings, thus setting up a run chase. This had never been done before in test cricket and Cronje offered England a target of 250 from 70 overs. Hussain accepted, and England won a nailbiting game with two wickets and only 5 balls left (South Africa had already won the series). Cronje was heralded and applauded as an innovative captain.

However, events later that year shone a much different light on those actions. In April of 2000, Indian police claimed they had a recording of Cronje talking to Indian betting syndicates about match fixing. It was an absurd claim - if you were to pick anyone in the cricketing world least likely to be involved in match fixing it would be Hansie Cronje.

But a few days later Cronje shocked the world by admitting providing "match information" and "forecasting results" to bookies in return for cash. He was instantly sacked from the National team, and more and more information came to light as the cricket world watched in shock. Allegations included his payment to other players in the team to underperform, which led to year-long bans for two players, and team meetings to discuss throwing matches for cash. Finally it was revealed that the "innovative" declaration at Centurion park was motivated by a cash inducement to ensure a shock result (hence allowing gambling syndicates "in the know" to clean up on huge odds).

The spectacle of such a respected cricketer brought so low was devastating for the sport. Cronje received a life ban from any involvement with cricket, and the web of match fixing eventually extended to players from several other Countries as well as some umpires and officials. It really made cricket sit up and take notice.

If the story ended there it would indeed be a dramatic one. But it doesn't. In 2002, Cronje's scheduled flight home from Johannesburg to George had been grounded, so he hitched a lift as the only passenger on a cargo plane. He never made it as the plane crashed into the Outeniqua mountains near George. Cronje and the two pilots were killed instantly. He was 32 years old. Was he murdered? We will probably never know, but there are undoubtedly many people grateful that he took his secrets to the grave.

So there's Hansie Cronje - for so many years one of my favorite cricketers. But why does he make my sporting heroes list, and why did he leave such an impression on me? Maybe I just enjoy interesting characters. Maybe because it's so rare we see the human flaws behind our sporting icons. Maybe it's the tragedy of such an admired sportsman selling out his talent for a fistful of dollars.

Maybe it's just the loss of a dream.


* for more on the story of Hansie Cronje, check out the fascinating 6 part documentary on youtube - "Not Cricket : the captain & the bookmaker"

Cross Training

My mileage this month has been low to say the least. After putting in 200+ mile months for the last 6 months or so, I'm probably not going to get close to 100 this month. But that's alright. With Nancy away every weekend, it's not easy to get in a long run and I probably needed the break anyway.

So I've started doing some cross training instead. Thursday evening I did a fairly intense weights workout which included lots of squats and lunges. These left my hamstrings pretty sore, so yesterday I pulled out this Biggest Loser dvd and did all three levels. It was a great workout, and actually helped with the soreness (they do lots of squats and lunges, which is exactly what I'm looking for).

Regardless of what you think of the show (I enjoy watching it, but it's a "reality"* and "product placement" show and I am very cynical, especially when they try to pull crap like this), every one of the Biggest Loser range of workout dvds I've tried contain some really good cross training for runners. When I got back from my early morning run today I did this one - not that difficult, but still good for working up a sweat.

All in all, I'm very happy with my workouts this weekend. Next weekend is Nancy's last in San Antonio - I'm sure she will be glad to be done and I am itching to get back out there and start doing my long back-to-back runs again.

And in the meantime, can anyone recommend any good yoga or pilates dvds?


* reality show = entertainment with the illusion of reality. Ingest with several grains of salt and swallow at your own risk.

Sporting Heroes : Michael Jones

Michael Jones - New Zealand rugby player

The New Zealand rugby team of the late 1980s were the most dominating side I've ever seen - they revolutionized rugby, had world class players from 1 to 15 and could demolish any opposition on any given day. From Gallagher at fullback, through Kirwan on the wing and "Buck" Shelford at number 8 they were world class and I loved watching them play. But my favorite player in that outstanding side was Michael Jones, the openside flanker.

Nicknamed the "iceman" because of his cool and confident play (also for the number of icepacks he needed for injuries) he scored the first try in the inaugural world cup in 1987 which New Zealand went on to win (their only world cup title to date). Two serious knee injuries and a broken jaw threatened to curtail his career, but Jones was still an All Black in 1998. Skill, pace, devestating tackling and a superb rugby brain, Jones could probably have played International level in the backs as well. Though the knee injuries robbed him of some of the searing pace of the early part of his career (he switched from openside to blindside), he was still an outstanding flanker until his retirement in 1999.

Off the field he was a softly spoken, shy, university educated Samoan New Zealander who is still hugely respected throughout the rugby world. One of the interesting aspects to Michael Jones was the strength of his religious beliefs. He had promised his father on his deathbed that he would never play rugby on a Sunday, and kept to this promise throughout his career. Because of this, he missed 3 games in the 1991 world cup (including the semi final where they lost to eventual champions Australia) and was omitted from the 1995 world cup squad (as both the quarter and semi finals were on a Sunday). It is interesting to speculate whether New Zealand would have won those tournaments had Jones been available.

My favorite Michael Jones story concerns a reporter who asked him how a Christian such as himself could be such an uncompromising tackler on the field. His reply was a wry quote from the bible - "it is better to give than to receive".

Michael Jones - outstanding rugby player, rugby ambassador and gentleman.

Planning for Sweaty Twenty 2

Last year's Sweaty Twenty run at Bastrop State park was such a blast we have decided to do it again. The date is May 16th, so if you fancy a nice scenic "out and back" road run on the hilly and windy park road between Bastrop and Buescher state parks, serenaded by beautiful towering pine trees while enjoying good company and conversation, let me know.

Sporting Heroes : Robin Smith

Robin Smith - Hampshire and England cricketer.

The stereotypical view of cricket is of a slow paced sedate game played out by gentlemen in a green and pleasant English meadow, but the reality of top class International cricket is completely different. It is about pressure, aggression and hostility - a place where only the brave survive.

And none were braver than Robin Smith, England's hard hitting middle-order batsman of the late 80s and early 90s. He was at his best when facing fast, hostile bowling and never took a backward step. You knew when he walked out to take on the opposition's snarling attack dogs that you were in for some great theater. Take the video above. Ian Bishop and Courtney Walsh - two of the West Indies "pacemen of the apocalypse" - unleash a torrent of vicious short-pitched deliveries to Smith who ducks and weaves out of the way until he's finally pinned and smashed in the jaw. By a hard ball delivered in excess of 90mph. A short pause to allow copious swelling of the jaw follows (Smith would have his jaw broken by another West Indian several years later), then the very next ball Walsh delivers another bouncer that Smith just smiles at.

What the clip doesn't show is the devastatingly explosive power of Smith's batting. Possessing the biggest forearms in cricket, he hooked and cut the ball with such power that it often clattered into the boundary before the fielders had moved. I remember him scoring 167 not out against Australia in a one day International in the early 1990s where he single-handedly took their attack apart. Although he had a weakness against top class spin bowlers like Shane Warne (and let's face it, who didn't), the selectors ended his International career far too soon and he was still an outstanding player until his retirement in 2003.

My favorite Robin Smith story concerns that fine Australian fast bowler (and master sledger) and character Merv Hughes (they don't make them like him anymore). Well known for "having a few things to say" to the batsman, he bowled a ball which Smith played and missed. Lumbering up to the batsman, Merv growled "Smith, you can't f***ing bat". Next ball Smith clobbered it out of the ground. He looked over to where Hughes stood glaring at him and retorted "we make a fine pair Merv. I can't f***ing bat and you can't f***ing bowl".

So for standing up to the best pace attacks in the world and being a phenomenal batsman, Robin Smith is the third entry in my sporting heroes series.

Sporting Heroes : Sebastian Coe

Sebastian Coe - British middle distance runner.

The 1980s were a golden period for British middle distance running. Our athletes ruled the world and two of the biggest names in the sport were Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe. The intense rivalry between these two phenomenal athletes is documented in this superb book, suffice to say that in Britain you were either an Ovett or Coe fan - there was no inbetween. It was the best athletics rivalry since Bannister vs Landy in the 1950s. Every time they ran was exciting - they broke and rebroke each others records (most notably in 1981 when between them they broke the mile world record three times in 10 days), and both won gold in the other's event at the olympics. This was the kind of drama that made the middle distance races headline events at athletics meets around the world. Ovett was so good that one of his trademarks was a cheeky wave to the crowd. Not as he crossed the finish line, but as he overtook the last of his rivals 100m from the finish line!!!

Coe was the only person to hold world records in the 800m, 1500m and the mile all at the same time. He broke his own 800m world record again in 1981 in a time which would not be bettered for 16 years (look at how quickly he opens the gap over the last 300m in the video above).

But what really appealed to me about Coe was his intensity. He maybe wasn't as talented a runner as many of his competitors, but he was so mentally strong, had an incredibly intense training regime and an amazingly fast finishing kick that could destroy the opposition. He once said that the most important distance to conquer is the distance between your ears. It's a quote I often go back to during my ultras, and for my money he was one of the most mentally tough athletes of all time.

A favorite Coe story concerns a snowy and icy Christmas day in 1979. He had gone for a hard 12 mile run that morning and felt good with the workout. But after Christmas lunch he started to feel uneasy and wasn't sure why. Then he realized - "I bet that bastard Ovett's out there doing his 2nd session of the day". So he went back out into the snow for another run. And added in a hill workout.

Long after they'd both retired, he told Ovett about it. Ovett's reply - "you only went out twice that day"?

Sporting Heroes : Matthew Le Tissier

Matthew Le Tissier - Southampton and England footballer.

Every Saturday night for as long as I can remember during football (soccer) season, the BBC ran a show called "Match of the Day". It was a one hour highlights show featuring the best of the day's action in the English Premiership (and before it the old first division), and I watched it religiously. If I was out on a Saturday night, I would tape it and watch it when I got home (or while nursing a hangover in the morning).

In the early-to-mid 1990s, there were always certain flair players you looked out for - people like Steve McManaman, Ryan Giggs, David Ginola, Eric Cantona (later David Beckham) and Paul Merson who could mesmerize you with their artistry on the ball (these were the days when there was still a majority of British players in most Premiership teams). But more than any of the others there was Matthew Le Tissier.

Everything about him was different, from his languid "lazy" style to the effortless accuracy of his shooting - like all the best players, he made it look so easy. He played for an unfashionable team which was forever struggling (he was pursued by some of the biggest spending clubs in the sport but remained loyal to Southampton). For this loyalty, and for his sheer talent and audacity (year after year he almost single handedly saved the club from relegation) he became a legend at "the Dell". Every week I would look forward to the Southampton match more than any other just to see what trickery or wonder goal he would pull out of the hat. A genius of a footballer, you could build a team around him (which Southampton did), but his talents were shamefully ignored by a progression of England managers who could not understand his unique gifts or fit him into their system. He won only 8 caps as a bit-part player, and we will never know whether he could have transferred his club skill onto the International stage. Maybe that's part of his mystique and why I found him so interesting.

So, for lighting up "the beautiful game", making me care passionately about the fortunes of a small town football club on the South Coast, and just for having the guts to "be different", the first entry in my sporting heroes list is Matthew Le Tissier.

Sporting Heroes Series

Since I am "out of season" and nothing too exciting is going on in my running, I'm going to do a series on those men and women who were (and are) my sporting heroes. A lot of the names will be unfamiliar to my American readers because they come mostly from sports that the rest of the world play, and which I enjoyed growing up. Nevertheless I hope you find it interesting as these players and athletes cross many National boundaries and cover several different sports.

You will find no mention of Troy Aikman, Michael Jordan, Sammy Sosa and the like because they meant nothing to me until I moved to the US. That's not to say they weren't great sportsmen - they obviously were - but their sports are not part of my culture. Even now, having lived in the US for nearly 10 years I'll take rugby, cricket and soccer (probably in that order) over mainstream US sport any day. Maybe its because I grew up with the myriad of stories and characters that fueled the history and romanticism of those sports.

So back to my own field of dreams - should be fun to say hello again to some of my childhood (and adulthood) heroes.

Austin is Beautiful....and Weird

Today was picture perfect in Austin, Texas. The sun was shining, the temperature was in the 70s and it was a beautiful day all round. I had the afternoon off to take Gavin to his ENT appointment, but his primary doctor's office never sent over the referral so we had to reschedule. I wasn't too annoyed because that meant we got to enjoy the afternoon together instead of sitting in a waiting room. We headed home to pick up his wagon and then set off down to Town Lake.

We walked together for a while and when he needed a break he jumped in the wagon. We meandered, talked, told stories, played with his toys and enjoyed ourselves. Here are some of the highlights.

1. We stopped by the edge of the lake and Gavin spotted a turtle coming up to the surface to eat a cookie. We spent a good 10 minutes watching it, the ducks, the fish, and chatting to a girl who stopped for her dog to swim. Gavin has gotten very talkative of late, and now he's started flirting as well - he's definitely kissed the blarney stone.

2. We were sitting on one of the benches playing with Batman and watching runners pass by when Gavin pointed at a very attractive young lady and said in an extremely loud voice "daddy, she's hot". She gave us a smile and I could swear she was blushing.

3. One of the local mottos is "keep Austin weird". Well, this afternoon we saw an oldish guy cycling along the hike and bike trail wearing nothing but a piece of string and a smile. And when I mean a piece of string, I literally mean "a piece of string" - his wrinkly old butt was hanging out each side of it. Gavin pointed at him and asked me why he wasn't wearing any clothes. I couldn't think of a reply.

4. There were two girls in a canoe being "menaced" by a swan. One of them was trying to shoo it away with her oar while repeating "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" over and over again.

I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday, and am looking forward to getting some running in this weekend.

Planting Tom

Last night we planted "Tom" - a chinquapin oak tree - in our front yard. To see where the sprinkler lines went we set them going, and before you could say "drowned rat" Gavin was in them. He loved getting soaked and ran around giggling like mad while I dug a hole for the tree. I don't even think he noticed.

Unfortunately I'm still under the weather. Took the day off work today as I had a rough night and was in no shape to do anything this morning. I hate taking any kind of medication, but Nancy force-fed me something or other this evening that seems to have taken the edge off it. Hopefully I'll be better by tomorrow.

I should know when I have a sucky run that means I'm coming down with something.

Anyway, I haven't run or done any kind of workout since Monday night. Nancy's in San Antonio again this weekend, but I've worked out a deal where I can run downtown on Saturday and Sunday and meet her in our work parking lot at 7 to get Gavin. That means I can start at 6 and still get in a nice 10k run. Hooray for "not too early" mornings. Think I'll have a go at the old Texas Roundup course - that's always a challenging workout.

Now I just need to get to feeling better.

Something in the Air

I don't know if it's the high mold or oak count that's off the charts at the moment, but I'm feeling awful. Did 10 miles Monday night which left me drained, and that almost never happens. Could not stop sneezing all day yesterday and my throat feels like sandpaper today. Dragged my sorry butt into work and I'm just looking forward to lunchtime so I can close my door and take a nap.

Nothing else to say - just wanted to spread the misery :-)