Humidity in February

This weekend was memorable, fun and relaxing.

Will's basketball team played hard and well, losing 33-25 after leading late in the game. We just ran out of steam and our best players fouled out. That said, we would have lost by 20 to that team five weeks ago, so I'm proud of those boys. Kathryn's team continued their win streak, winning 26-14. At one point, K-Girl snatched a ball away from another girl whose father played NFL football. I thought I heard Kathryn growl, but maybe I imagined that.

My sister Anne cooked dinner for my Mom to celebrate her 65th birthday. Anne's gorgonzola polenta stole the show, and we drank high-end wine to honor my Mom. It was nice to drink the good stuff and laugh and laugh and laugh. Y'all know how I feel about my Momma.

Sunday morning, Dori OK'd my trip to the Caney Fork River, where I managed to snag three healthy brown trout. All three are back in the river, thank to intense lobbying from my daughter. Last night, I finished reading an interesting retrospective of World War II. The author is a Vanderbilt professor whose son is on the 3rd-4th grade basketball team I coach. The book really challenged some sociological positions I had formulated over the years. I'm a history buff, so I recalled many of the incidents the author described. However, I felt like I learned much and walked away less sure of my view of Allied bombing of civilian Germany and other parts of the war. Ruminating on this and preparing for this morning's run, my eyes shut before 8:30 last night.

And what a good run it was. I was out of the house before 4:30. It was 50, quite humid (85%) with a dewpoint near 50. That's juicy for February around these parts. My first three miles were slow, above a 10:00/mile pace. The evening before, I caught some of the Reebok Run in Boston where Shalane Flanagan set an American record in the Women's 5,000 meters (14:47). I was not running like Shalane this morning.

My body woke up around mile three, and I started to speed up. By Mile Six, I was running a sub 9:00. I felt great, passing two other nuts who were running before 5:30. Runner's highs don't come often early in the morning, but I snatched one. That makes me feel good about the busy week I'm about to have.

It's off to the next competition.