KRAC Blog

While I was slogging up and down the hills at the Ridge today, fellow Geneseo alum Melissa White was doing all right at the women's marathon Olympic Trials. Melissa (I call her Melissa) trains with the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project. She didn't make the team, but finished 14th, with a 2:37:53. She's a Boilermaker regular (1st American finisher last year, 51:48), one more reason to work those hills. Melissa is well positioned for the Trials in four years.

Just a note on last Sunday at the Ridge-- there was snow in the air and on the trees, and it was colder than April should be, but the track was clear, and once we got going it wasn't really cold at all. Poor Winnie must have run the equivalent of two loops, or close-- after Jim dropped me at about the two mile mark Man's Best Friend kept looping back to try and get me to catch up. Reassured that I had not been absconded with by coyotes, she'd rejoin Jim.

I suppose Stuff White People Like has already had its 15 minutes, but I still think it is hilarious. Today it is about Rugby: "Many white people first acquire a love of rugby during their high school and college years by playing either for a school team or in the case of highly advanced white people-part of an intramural league. In fact, many white people will continue to play the sport into their early 30s at local parks on Saturday morning. If you are looking to expand your group of white friends, you would be wise to get yourself invited to one of these games. However, you should be prepared to have your crotch grabbed."

I have to do something to move the pregnant transman down the page, cause he's freaking me out. So how about this? The NYTimes reports that when Ron Darling made his MLB debut, pitching at Shea Stadium, the first three batters he faced were Joe Morgan, Pete Rose and Mike Schmidt. He did all right, too, striking out Morgan and Rose before retiring Schmidt on a groundout to third. Darling was always a pleasure to watch. On a staff that included Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez, and Rick Aguilera, when you came to the park and saw that Ronnie was pitching you knew that you were going to see an intelligently pitched game. He lost that game, by the way: 2-0, one run on five hits. Tug McGraw got the win for the Phillies in relief of Tony Ghelfi; Al Holland picked up a save.

Is he gone yet?

The story about the pregnant transman who was a guest on Oprah yesterday got stuck in my mind like a caraway seed. I mean, okay, cool, good on ya, mate, but somebody should make a joke about it, right? So then I thought, 'Finally, someone who can confirm that the pain of running a marathon is the equivalent of giving birth!'

I tried the line out at home, and LCA was all over it. "Like women don't run marathons? What are you saying, that we can only trust the transmen on this?" So yeah, I guess we can't take Paula Radcliffe at her word. Or at least I can't.