Afternoon running

Just got back from my first run in almost a week. I only did 2.4 miles, and I suppose it went pretty well. No pain at all in my Achilles, although I felt more tired than I wanted to be. Obviously I'm not going to be the same after a week break from running, but I wonder if the change from morning to afternoon running also had something to do with it. Tomorrow I'll try to go ~4, and if that goes well I'll plan to go long (maybe 7-10 miles?) on Thursday. The half-marathon is approaching quickly, so by the end of next week I'd like to be taking it easy.

The White Sox beat the Tigers 8-2 last night to set up a one-game playoff with the Twins tonight. Should be an exciting game, but I can't watch because it's on TBS. Incidentally, I noticed that the entire first round of playoffs will be on TBS. I think the same thing happened last year. So I won't get to watch any baseball. Stupid MLB.

The football game last night was between the Steelers and the Ravens. I had it on the radio as I was lying in bed, and I heard Pittsburgh kick a field goal to go ahead 3-0. After that I conked out. But I saw on the internet this morning that it was a close game with the Steelers winning 23-20 in OT.

Redskins win in Dallas

Yesterday afternoon I watched the Redskins-Cowboys game on TV. I'm not a big fan of the Cowboys, but I expected them to win, especially since the game was in Dallas. So I was pleasantly surprised to see the Redskins stick with them and even take a 17-7 lead in the second quarter. The Cowboys tied it up in the third quarter, and I kept expecting them to regain the lead, but it never happened. Washington scored three additional field goals, and it bothered me that they couldn't get 7 points on any of those drives. Dallas almost made them pay by getting a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, but they were unable to recover the on-sides kick and the Skins ran out the clock. Very entertaining game.

The Eagles played the Bears in the Sunday night game, and I only watched a little bit of it before going to bed. I think it was tied 7-7 when I fell asleep. The Bears ended up winning 24-20.

Haile breaks marathon WR!

At the Berlin marathon this morning, Haile Gebrselassie lowered his own world record to a phenomenal 2:03:59. I don't even know what time the race was, but I read the news online this morning. What a run! I'll be interested in seeing what his splits were. In spite of this new WR, it's hard for me to consider Haile the world's best marathoner. Sure, he has the fastest time, but I have yet to see him win a competitive marathon or even a world championship marathon. I think he's run London a couple of times with no success. He is definitely capable of running a blazing time trial, but I'd really like to see him win against guys like Lel and Wanjiru and Cheruiyot before calling him the best. Of course, Haile's getting old now, so he probably picks his races very carefully. He backed out of the Olympic marathon in Beijing, citing the polluted air as the reason. I'm not entirely sure he could have won that race.

Andy Roddick won the China Open earlier today, defeating an Israeli named Dudi Sela. I had never heard of the guy before, but after looking him up, I see he's currently ranked 92nd in the world. The final score of the match was 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3, so Sela was able to take a set off Roddick. In other tennis action, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Novak Djokovic 7-6(4), 6-4 to win the Thailand Open. This was a rematch of the Australian Open final back in January, and I have to admit I'm very surprised Tsonga won. No doubt he's a good player, but he's not on the same level as Djokovic. At least not yet. Anyway, this upcoming week is the Japan Open in Tokyo, and it looks like Roddick is entered in that, so we'll see if he can win back-to-back tournaments.

More Achilles problems

Earlier in the year I missed a couple of months of running due to pain in my Achilles tendon. I started up again in May, and since then the pain has been manageable. I've been icing it after all of my runs, and it hasn't caused me any discomfort when I'm just walking around. Until this past week. Tuesday morning it hurt pretty bad during my run. Then I felt it that day during work, which was definitely not a good sign. I ran again Wednesday morning and concluded that I needed to take some time off. I have no idea what prompted this injury, but I haven't run since then. Right now the Achilles feels pretty good, so I'm hoping to start up again in the middle of next week. I still plan to run the Baltimore half-marathon next month, so I really don't want to take a whole lot of time off. The next time I run, I think I'll go after work instead of in the morning. Seems to be a good time of year to make that transition. That should also give me the freedom to run long during the week. Previously my morning runs were limited to about 4 miles because I didn't want to be too late getting in to work. Now I won't have to worry about that.

Does any team want to win the NL East?

The Phillies are trying their hardest to give away the division title, but the Mets don't seem to be interested in taking it. When I turned on the Phillies game, they were trailing the Braves 5-3. Atlanta scored another run, and then Chipper Jones came to the plate. The announcer had just finished saying that Chipper had 407 career home runs and was tied with Duke Snider on the all-time list when he hit a three-run shot to give the Braves a 9-3 lead and blow the game wide open. I must have fallen asleep shortly after that, but the final score was 10-4.

The Mets were playing the Cubs and leading 5-3, but they blew it. The Cubs tied it up, took a 6-5 lead, gave up another run to the Mets, and won it with 3 runs in the 10th. The Brewers won their game, so now they're tied with the Mets for the Wild Card lead.

Phillies beat Braves

Last night before going to bed, I turned my radio on to the Monday Night Football game before realizing that the Phillies were playing. End-of-the-season baseball always interests me more than football, so I tuned in to the Phils. They were tied 2-2 with Atlanta when I fell asleep, but they went on to score 4 more runs for a 6-2 victory. Meanwhile, the Mets were busy losing to the Cubs, allowing a grand slam to Jason Marquis in the process. Ouch. So, the Brewers are now one game behind the Mets in the Wild Card race, and the Mets are 2.5 games behind the Phillies in the NL East.

As for the football game, I see the Chargers beat the Jets 48-29. Second loss in a row for the Jets after winning their first game against the Dolphins.

Eagles win battle of PA teams

The Eagles played the Steelers yesterday in Philadelphia. I watched a little bit of the game at my brother's house near Harrisburg and was surprised to see the Eagles win. The final score was 15-6. So now the Eagles are 2-1, which ties them with the Redskins for last place in the NFC East. The Cowboys and Giants are both still undefeated. Next weekend the Eagles will play the Sunday night game against the Bears in Chicago.

I did not get a chance to follow the Cubs over the weekend, but I did see that they won on Saturday to clinch the NL Central title. I bet Pat Hughes and Ron Santo were very excited about that (as they were with Zambrano's no-hitter a week ago). It's too bad I don't get to hear those guys broadcast anymore. I know my dad still listens to them. Anyway, the Cubs won again yesterday, beating the Cardinals 5-1. Next up is a series against the Mets. It will be a great opportunity for them to help out the Phillies.

Cubs, Brewers, Phillies all lose

The Cubs' magic number is now down to 1, but not because of anything spectacular they did yesterday. They let the Cardinals jump out to an 11-0 lead before they scored any runs and ended up losing 12-6. The Brewers also got hammered, letting the Reds run all over them in an 11-2 rout. This is good news for the Cubs because it means they only need to win one more game to clinch the NL Central. Or, if the Brewers lose one more game, they won't have to win at all. The Cubs play St. Louis again this afternoon at Wrigley, and I sure hope they win. It would really be anticlimactic for them to clinch the division title with a loss.

The Phillies lost to the Marlins 14-8 last night. I listened to a little bit of the game on the radio before falling asleep. Florida scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 5th to break things open. The Mets won their game, so now the Phils are relegated to second place in the NL East. The good news is that since the Brewers are struggling, the Phillies are in good shape to win the wild card if they can't beat the Mets.

Cubs magic number down to 2

As a Cubs fan living in Philly, there's not much better than seeing both the Phillies and Cubs make the playoffs. It happened last year, although both teams were swept in the first round, and it's quite probable it will happen again. The Cubs are almost a shoo-in, having won their 92nd game yesterday after the Brewers blew a 6-2 lead. I followed the game (albeit not very closely) on the internet and was happily surprised to see the Cubbies score 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th to tie and then go on to win in the 12th. Apparently Derrek Lee had the game-winning hit.

As for the Phillies - well, they won too, but so did the Mets, which means their lead remains at half a game. Of course, the Phils could still win the wild card even if they end up behind the Mets, but that depends on how badly the Brewers choke. I am not a Mets fan, so I'm definitely pulling for the Phils to win their division.

Looking ahead to Baltimore half-marathon

I stumbled across this blog the other day and figured it might be a good idea to start posting again. I think the main reason I quit was because I had dial-up internet service, so it was always a pain to go online just to post something. But now I have DSL which eliminates that problem.

I've been running for the past few months now and am setting my sights on the Baltimore half-marathon in a few weeks. That will be my only race of the year, so I hope it goes well. I won't be running the JFK 50 in November because I had some Achilles problems over the summer, and by the time they got better the race had sold out. I'm not too disappointed, and in fact I actually knew I wasn't going to be able to run if I didn't sign up right away. Anyway, I'm running about 30mpw now with a long run of 10. I may try to get in a 12-miler before race day, which is October 11. We'll see.