Winning, but not really

The mob of red jerseys at home plate at the end of today's Nationals game seemed an oddly familiar sight.

Today's walkoff victory was their 8th one this season. They have 33 wins, total.

Walkoffs are inherently home wins. They only have 18 home wins.

Nearly a quarter of their wins were earned in the final pitch? Doesn't sound like something to boast about. And 25-58--their record had those opposing pitchers been one or two strikes more effective--is dreadfully low.

As fun and dramatic as walkoffs are, I'd so much rather see a nice boring game where we just score consistently during the game and keep the other team's scoring to a minimum. Tall order, I know.

Made a Difference

I've been having trouble with the running mojo, especially with getting out the door more than two or three times a week. So I inquired with a Surfrider buddy about going for a run together. Megan's training for MCM and had a few obstacles in her training recently, so I figured it would be good for both of us.

So we did about 5.5 miles in Rock Creek Park yesterday evening. We don't know each other all that well, so the conversation included a lot of get-to-know-you stuff. I asked her about her running history, and what prompted her to try MCM last year. Turns out, indirectly, it was ME!

One of the first volunteer projects I created for DC Surfrider was working at a water stop at the National Marathon in 2005. That went well, and we've worked with National for all three years of its existence. In 2006, we also worked MCM. Megan was friends with a regular Surfrider member, Nicole, and tagged along to help out. She had been running more already to work out some life stress, but watching the tens of thousands of runners stream by inspired her. Later that day, she ran into her ex, and announced that she was going to run MCM in 2007. A promise to herself that she kept.

I dug up a photo that shows her pouring water for the thirsty runners (right).

I get a lot of joy out of Surfrider, and out of running (most of the time). I love seeing my Girls on the Run girls fall in love with running and know that I had a hand in it. And hearing that someone was so inspired through an activity I organized that she spent a year preparing for a huge challenge, and now has stuck with it and made it part of her life...wow.

RCP Trail Construction

NBC4 is reporting that a section of the Rock Creek Park trail will be closed for more construction, starting Wednesday. The affected section is from Pennsylvania Avenue to P Street. Presuming the weather isn't epic, the trail should reopen on Saturday. And that will be the end of the construction affecting runners and cyclists. Huzzah!

At least the detour is easy, and gets everyone some important hillwork: Rose Park's trail starts on M Street just east of 28th, and deposits you at the top of the RCP ramp for P Street. So after crossing the towpath, follow the ramp up, cross Penn and M, cut through Rose Park, then run down the P Street ramp, and you're good to go.

My stint as a sanitation technician

A Surfrider event next weekend prompted G and me to go down to Georgetown on Saturday, intent on picking plastic water bottles out of the trash. The largest 10K in DC was being held along the waterfront, so it seemed logical that we could get the 250 bottles needed for this exhibit from the 10,000 or so that were being distributed.

I just saddled up next to a trash can and started digging, bare-handed. I was sweating buckets from the heat and humidity anyway. The race had only started about 50 minutes prior, so the the picking was slow. As we moved from can to can, we filled one bag with only 50 bottles, and I'd only brought three bags, so we'd end up about 100 short. So I swiped a big extra bag that had been tied to a trash can. Resourcefulness. ;) Then we found a box of rubber gloves! Even better.

As we continued our work, digging through cans, navigating around the throngs of sweaty people, watching the medical cart go by with another victim of heat exhaustion, strange things began to happen. Encouraging encounters. People would bring their bottles up to us and put them in our bags instead of the trash. They'd thank us for recycling. One woman even preached the benefits of a bottle deposit.

Only a couple of people threw trash in our bags. And likewise, only a very few people put bottles in the trash can when we were working next to it.

In the end, it only took us 20 minutes to collect the bottles. The big extra bag held more than 100, so we got what we needed. A bit of a pain to carry home, but it's done. It was kinda hard to walk away, knowing how many other bottles were just destined for the landfill, and how willing people were to help if just given the chance.

I now firmly believe that races should have recycling receptacles, and that people will use them wisely. Fewer than 20 percent of the 60 billion plastic bottles Americans use annually are recycled. Races use a HUGE number of bottles. (There must be a way around that, too. I acknowledge that most people are not willing to carry a reusable bottle like I am, and reducing the support is dangerous.)

DC Surfrider is participating in a 10K next month that purports to be "green." I'm curious what exactly the planners are going to do differently.

Photo via Creative Commons, by Trinitas on Flickr.

Longest. Yardwork. Ever.

The Washington Post is reporting that the Georgetown Waterfront Park will not open until 2010. Work has already been going on there for at least three years (to lay sod and sidewalks, as best as I can tell), and it's another two years? To build a park? While hundreds of people run, walk, and bike in vehicular anarchy on their way to the Capital Crescent or the towpath? Can't they at least open one of their fancy new sidewalks for pedestrian use? Especially on Friday evenings, when everyone from everywhere is descending on Georgetown for their night on the town, and the last thing on their mind is to look out for anyone else?

I've watched buildings be torn down, the site excavated, and a new building, complete with parking garage, built and leased out in less time than it has taken these rubes to lay some grass.

Dog Days

My 4.5-mile run in the hazy sunny heat this morning turned into my second run interrupted by returning a dog to its owner. I had seen the dog following (off-leash) one of my neighbors on the towpath, and coming back, the dog was whipping itself into a frenzy, alone, in the grasses along the river. I was able to corral it with the help of some other runners, and proceeded to walk back toward home, hunched over, holding his collar.

This neighbor has a history of not paying close attention to the dog, and blowing off any transgressions as no biggie. So even before I saw the dog in the grasses, I had a gut feeling it was hers.

Over the course of 15 or 20 minutes and with the interventions and assistance of a dozen or so other people, I got the dog back up onto the towpath, resting in the shade, and borrowed a phone to leave a message on Neighbor's voicemail. The phone passerby helped me try to give the dog some water, and was about to make a leash out of my shirt when Neighbor wandered up. She snapped a leash on the dog and said "thanks," and that was that. I'm sure she has no idea how much trouble we all went through. Even if she had witnessed the whole thing, I'm sure to her it was still "no biggie."

Oh well. I hope she was clued in enough to get that dog some water. Poor guy was way overheated.

The Sorry State of Nats Baseball

So the last Nats game I went to was on May 4. That's stunning. Granted, they were on the road for half of that month, and I was away for almost two weeks, but we still actually just skipped a few games. Like both games in the horrid Marlins series. And one right before our big hiking trip, because we just had too much work.

So when we were late getting home this afternoon and had to have snacks instead of dinner, and it was hot, and I'm still in pain from a hiking fall on Friday (details later), and lots of rain in the forecast...Man, I just did NOT want to go to tonight's game.

We opted to take Metro instead of bike, given my...injury, and the weather. And that was a pain in the neck as well.

The rain started in the middle of the reading of the Cardinals' lineup. And it kept raining. Through the abysmal 1st inning. The umpire finally called out the grounds crew a bit after 8, and we headed for the exits. It was just embarrassing. What an awful game to watch. Five of the eight position players who are on the All-Star ballot are on the DL. So are two of our top pitchers. What's even the point?

It's raining again. Everyone's just now hoping they call the game and we can have a redo. But it's already the top of the 5th, so even that is probably going to be a disappointment.

And it bums me out to no end that I'm this down on my boys.