Tag: ESPN

Happy New Year To Those Youthful Souls Who Know No Age Limit

In the upper right corner, the date: 12/31/11 (last night)
Cheryl and Chapin bundled up on New Year's Eve 2011 watching Katie's soccer game.

Yeah, it’s April Fool’s Day on the calendar, but it’s New Year’s Day as I write this post. Click here for details. (hint: I’m conducting a blogging, and life, experiment).

Last night (New Year’s Eve 2011), we attended Cheryl’s cousin’s daughter’s 16U soccer game at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex. They drove down from Jacksonville earlier and are staying a few days with us during the tournament.

I can’t help but wonder how far those young women have come in 90 days, now that it’s April Fool’s Day 2012.

And couldn’t help but wonder how far any of us have come since New Year’s Day.

Next Blog

Wrong Is Easier

Doing it wrong is easier than doing it right.  You can screw it up by doing it wrong.

And doing it wrong, is as easy as doing nothing.

Ya with me?  Let me say that again.  Doing it wrong is as easy as doing nothing.

Doing nothing is easy.  Maybe that’s why so many do nothing.  Doing it right, is hard work.

The people who do work hard are also tempted to do nothing.  Most don’t believe this, but it’s true.

Take me for example.  Last night I made plans to run five miles this morning.  Instead, I’ve made a few rationalizations so I can do nothing instead.  Actually, I’m very busy this morning.  But not physically.

And so it goes….

Lane 8 on Sunday

Lane 8 on Sunday.  Today is not a day of rest. 

Why?

Because there are 38 days remaining until I step up to the starting line.

The World Championships!

Can you believe it?

I can’t.

I watched the USA National Track & Field Championships last night, on ESPN.

LaShawn Merritt, the 2008 Olympic 400 meter champion, easily won the 400 in 44.50.

His rival, Jeremy Wariner, ran his semi-final 200 meter race.  Jeremy is not running the 400 this meet.  He automatically qualifies for the World Championships in the 400, because he is the reigning world champ.

Jeremy has completely dominated the 400 for the past decade, until last year at the Olympic 400 meter finals, when he lost to LaShawn.

LaShawn has emerged as America’s next great 400 star.  He turned 23 yesterday.

By the way, America dominates the world stage at 400 meters.  We took Olympic gold, silver and bronze in 2008.  It was not the first Olympics where we swept the top three places.

Jeremy is working on his 200 speed, in order to work on his 400 speed.

I can’t wait to see the showdown later this year at the world championships in Berlin.

In Track & Field circles, we haven’t seen a showdown like this in quite some time.

Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂

National Champions Texas A&M!

The 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field National Champions are Texas A&M.  Go Aggies!

Not only did the Texas A&M women win the National title, but so did the Texas A&M men’s track team.

Here’s the aricle on this amazing feat that hasn’t been done since 1990.

My thoughtful wife actually saw the meet being televised.  She knows that Track & Field is the one sport I try to make time to watch.

While writing several blog posts yesterday, I was able to follow the action.  It’s always special and inspiring to me, to see something significant and rare happen.

Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂

When and where was the HS Mile record set?

Alan Webb You Tube video, breaking the USA National High School record for one mile, at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, May 28, 2001.

Here’s an article with Alan Webb’s story from that day.

By the way, the great Jim Ryan held the previous record for 36 years.   This was a monumental day in High School Track & Field.

The winner of the race was Hicham El Guerrouj, from Morocco, the world record-holder, who ran 3:49.92, the fastest mile ever run in North America.

Amazing things happen all the time.  We often forget that they can also happen to us, and do happen to us, but we don’t recognize them because they are not record-breaking feats.

Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂