Ok, no run again today. Too much softball and work and not enough sleep. I'm putting in a lot of time at work so I'll be ready for a 10 day trip to Illinois and back. Next week is going to be hard to get the runs in as well. I was worried about finding time to run while on vacation (I even put up a request for ideas on the forum) but I don't think it will be a problem. However, I will skip the big 10-12 hour travel days. It is now official. I am signed up for the Top of Utah marathon. My wife and I decided to add a day to our trip and stay in a bed and breakfast to celebrate our 14th anniversary a month late. I don't think there has been a single time in all our 14 years when we were a away from the kids for 2 nights in a row. That's just not right. In other other non-running related news, the softball tournament was great. I was so proud of the girls. The progress they made over the last 2 months has been incredible. This is a 3rd and 4th grade league with 8 teams. I coach with my brother-in-law and both of our daughters are on the team. We let the girls try out whatever positions they wanted during the season and had a lot of fun but finished 6th or 7th. Once the tournament started we put the girls where they fit best and still lost our first game (up 5 runs and then gave up 7, ouch). So we entered the looser bracket and started to win. We won the next 3 games giving up 1 run and scoring 15-20. Now there are 3 teams left and we are playing the Rays, team that beat us the first time (and twice during the regular season). We had a great first inning and scored 6 runs. We had a bad bottom half and gave up 7. Those Rays can hit up and down the order. We did have one play with several errors that allowed 4 runs to score, ouch. Because the first inning took so long this game was only going to go 2 innings. We needed some runs but only managed to score 2. That's when our pitcher started throwing some serious fire. This girl is only in 3rd grade. She struck out one of their best hitters on some high heat. We then gave up a single, had one more strike out, and two walks. So, 2 outs, bases loaded, in the bottom of the last inning, a real nail-biter. This girl hit a grounder to first where our first baseman scooped up the ball and beat the runner to the bag to record the last out. WE WIN! So the next day we play for the championship but have to beat the team twice to win the tournament. This other team has a dominant pitcher. They haven't lost all year. When we faced them during the season, the eyes of our girls were as big as saucers watching the speed of these pitches. The stood at the plate just watching the pitches go by. We got no hits, and never even put the ball in play. We lost 7 to 0. This time wasn't much different. The girls were still intimidated. There is a rule that only allows 4 walks per inning. After that, balls are not counted, only the strikes. They get a couple of hits in the bottom of the first and we give up 3 walks and two runs. The second inning is scoreless for both teams. The third inning one of our girls gets hit by a pitch and we collect 4 walks to score 2 runs and tie the game. We still haven't put a ball in play. After 2 more scoreless innings our girls are playing terrific defense but no hits. The overtime rule puts a runner on second to start the inning. We get a walk and couple of strikeouts. Our best hitter finally puts the ball in play but it was a grounder to 1st to end the inning. We give up a walk then a hard hit grounder past the 3rd baseman to score their 3rd run. We lost 3 to 2. But what a season. And what a book I've written.
| 