Well it’s Monday again J
A little bit of a training update: (I forgot I updated
earlier in the week last week than usual so I need to play a little catch up)
Wednesday- I ran the usual 5 mile loop on the road,
nothing to up or down about this run…just the “casual” pace to get some miles
logged in. I’m thinking in another week
or so I’ll start increasing at least 2 days a week the usual daily mileage
total.
Thursday- 5
mile run up and back along the road. As we say, just logging in some miles.
Friday- I ran about 5 ½ today, I pro-longed my turn
around spot a little bit to enjoy the evening run and get just a tiny bit more
in the run tonight. We had some high
water and I think it brought some of the “creek” creatures out to move
around. Today I discovered a lost
snapping turtle on the wrong side of the road and tried to have him make his
way back in the right direction. I joked
and said I passed a turtle on my run, but I really don’t think that is much to
brag about.
Saturday- I
ran about 5 ½ today, I tried to switch out the route a little bit and add back
and forth at another point in the run. I
think my legs are so tired as much as they are because the usual route I run
has a longer then you think casual upgrade hill that just drains the energy in
my legs, and I need a flatter course to work on my milage upgrade. Today’s interesting creature was the biggest “creek”
crawl dad I’ve ever seen (and I played in the creek a lot growing up). It was almost a mini-lobster. I had to push him back towards the creek
because I didn’t think the middle of the road was a good place for him.
Sunday- We went out to have a longer run, and Brock
went with me on the bike, but we got a little side tracked discovering knowing
one of our neighbors we didn’t realize lived there and was chatting with them a
little while. About a mile into the run
I got startled this time by a long black snake (I didn’t have my camera with me
this time, nor would I get close enough or stay around long enough to take a
snake’s picture). Apparently for a little
while I need to find a new route, I don’t want to know what comes after seeing a
snake J Once we turned around this time, it was
quickly approaching darkness so I had to pick up the pace, so I suppose I’ll claim
this run as the tempo run for the week J It felt good to feel like a faster pace all
to beat daylight to get home, so besides soreness I’m sure it was good for me. I would have to add though, if you counted the "mileage" of having to chase the dog today who has apparently discovered the world outside our yard...then we should tack on a mile or 2 for today's training.
The last time I shared a “baseball
story” I suppose it highlighted my younger tee-ball years. Today, my most vivid memories of baseball was
when I played little league. Dad and
Rick Davis coached us for the “Pennsboro Cardinals” team. I remember my first year playing I was the
only girl of course at that time in the whole county playing little
league. Dad left it up to me if I wanted
to play softball or baseball, for some reason I was all about baseball. (#7 of course,
which for those who know dad, it was his football number) I don’t ever really remember thinking it was “weird”
for me to play baseball and people would always ask why. We just had fun. From the beginning I’d jumped around several
places from 2nd base to shortstop, to first base and even attempted pitching
but I’ll be honest, that wasn’t what I was made for. J During my older years of little league dad always
would tell the story of how I became a catcher.
Our usual catcher Jason Leasburg we had since I started was going to
high school so we were out a catcher.
Dad asked the first day at baseball practice for that year if anyone was
interested in catching. (Dad later tells
me when he said that he was thinking in his head, does anyone other than Missy
want to play catcher) I raised my hand
and figured I’d give it a shot that may have been one of the few times dad was
resistant of me wanting to do something.
I geared up and off to practice we went (I really should have thought
though how hot that position with gear would end up being in the later months of the
summer). I actually fell in love with the
position, dad learned to accept it. It took a little bit of getting use to from
coming from a position you “reach out” to catch the ball as soon as you could
to protect a base, to having to let the ball come to you so you didn’t get your
arm ripped off from a batter swinging the bat.
Typically, I never thought too much
about being a girl until we went outside the county to play. People would always
gasp when I took the catchers helmet off to catch a foul ball or something and
realize I had a ponytail all knotted up and was a girl. It actually became pretty funny. When we would play for the traveling teams, I
would usually catch for the Pennsboro pitchers.
There was an umpire who kept making the biggest deal about if I had a
cup in or not (we chuckled about this story often), and we were mid inning and he
asked me if I had one, I said no I didn’t need one, I’m a girl so forth. He stopped the game for a bit calling a
timeout to talk to me, and I took my helmet off and said I “don’t need one”,
and he quickly realized what I’d been trying to say and resumed the game. Nothing like causing a scene for being a girl
J
I absolutely loved playing baseball
(the batting part of it always made me nervous because I would stand and think
at the plate all the time, but I’m sure you’d figured that by this time into
the blog of how I am). We had some of
the funniest memories with the group of players we had, sometimes we’d even
hope for a rain-out game because at least by that time we’d all gathered at Isahiah’s
house with Jay Cronin and had created some sort of sock throwing war in the
basement. Isahiah’s mom (Nancy) always kept
me hidden during the bad playing games.
She would always tease dad he was too hard on me. We
would joke about how Ryan Jones could never pitch to me, he was a great pitcher
but for some reason literally every practice he’d hit me at some point during
batting practice. I think we just got
use to it after a short while and kept on going.
From champions to picnic/fishing parties
at the lake celebrating the season, it’s hard not to smile thinking about the
little league stories and the group we had along with how much we truly loved
baseball. Many of you may not know, but
dad was really good at baseball too. He
had several opportunities to go pro, but we’ll save those stories for another
day. I think being driven crazy by a bunch of kids and to be selfish, I wouldn’t
have wanted it any other way.
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| Dad, Jeremy Ross, Isaiah Davis, Jay Cronin (hidden), Nancy |
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| Me playing Shortstop and Ryan Jones (I think) at 2nd base |
