Friday, March 02, 2007

Another 5


Around 5:30 pm I made my way to Kiwanis Park in Tempe. It is one of my favorite places to run. I parked near the softball fields and ran to the lake. A few laps around the lake as the sun was setting and then back past the softball fields down towards Guadalupe road.

5 miles in 57:28. an 11:27 pace. I like walk breaks, so I can drink, take pictures and rest. But, tonight I just took one at 1.6 miles. I was going to take another around mile 3, but I was enjoying the run and before I knew it I was so close to finishing, I just kept running(kind of like this sentence).

I got back to the softball fields to watch the start of the 6:30 game. I watched a half inning and then headed over to the batting cages. Mike, our coach was there and I took turns in the cage with him. I used my free pass that I got last week. Strange story. I was hitting in the cage last week and I noticed a man 2 cages down hitting softballs. He had his 4-5 year old son in the cage with him. The kid was standing behind him and a few steps back near the gate to the cage. He was jumping up and down every time dad made contact. Ok, this isn't safe. Should I talk to the dad, volunteer to watch the kid while he hits or tell the batting cage operators? Before I decided, the man put a helmet on and started hitting fast pitches with his kid in the cage. I couldn't take anymore of this so I told the guy selling the tokens. He ran out there and immediately got the kid out. I thought the dad had the kid in the cage because he didn't want to leave the kid alone and unattended, but it turned out his wife was sitting on the bench watching both of them. As I was leaving last week, the attendant gave me 6 free tokens.

Back to this week. Our 2nd place team played the first place team tonight. We led 12-9 going into the last inning. I was pitching and between my pitching and our fielding we gave up the lead and headed into our final at bat behind 14-12. This was the kind of game in which whoever bats last wins. And we did 15-14. Now both teams are 4-1 with two games left.

Run 5 miles, batting cages and softball. What a night and we finished it off by having a team party at Chuey's. I hope your Friday night was just as much fun.

4 comments:

Irene said...

Once again, another great picture! It seems like everything is falling into place for you, your running seems like it's such a joy for you (as it should be) and your team won the game. Nice!

Phil said...

Great Arizona Sunset picture! and another great run.

It's always hard to tell what goes through some people's heads when dealing with their own children. Great reaction on your part.

Congrats on your softball team's win.

bigmike600 said...

Nice photo Pat. I bought an I pod plus and had a question. Read my blog and let me know if you know why I do not get the voice feedback during the run. I hope your softball team goes all the way.

MNFirefly said...

I am SO glad that you said something. I would have done it too.

Great run!