Browsed by
Month: May 2019

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday

Comments 0 Comment

This evening, while ripping through my Facebook feed, I had one of those Throwback Thursday moments.  I was stopped by a post titled “Highway One 5K dedicated to memory of Doug White.”

Since Kim and I haven’t been back to the Delaware beaches in few years, I was unaware that Doug White had died of a cerebral hemorrhage in December of 2016.  Kim and I met Doug in 2014 when we were running a lot of races and spending some time at the beach in South Bethany.

Here is a blog post I wrote in September of 2014:

Tomorrow is the last race of the Ten Sisters race series for this summer. The series will conclude with the Barry P. Lister Bottle and Cork 10 Miler and 5K in Dewey Beach. Kim and I are signed up to do the 10 miler and we are sweating it. We haven’t done more than a 10K since the Spring.

My cousin Art messaged me this week. He has been following my posts and said I should talk to his son Charles because he is preparing for a 100 mile race next weekend in Colorado.

Excuse me? Hey Artie, your finger must have slipped buddy! You added an extra 0 on there by mistake! You said 100 miles (chuckle); we are talking about sweating 10 milers here!

 Nope………no finger slips, 100 miles.

 Somehow I don’t associate 100 miles with running races. I relate it more to articles in travel magazines like “Ten Great Day Trips Less than 100 Miles from D.C. by Car” or something like that.

 I can’t imagine putting on my running shoes on a Saturday morning and saying to Kim:

“Hey honey, I am going to RUN over to my mother’s, don’t wait up.”

 I live in Herndon, Virginia.

My mother lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Next Friday, my cousin’s son Charles will participate in the Run Rabbit Run in Steamboat Springs Colorado and run 100 miles. The following is from the Run Rabbit Run website:

“These are not beginner’s runs. The uphills and downhills are fairly steep. You’ll spend a lot of time at an altitude of nearly two miles. There may be snow, rain, sleet, wind, or then again, it may be hot. Please do not try to run this course if you’re not completely prepared.”

No kidding!

 

We love the running community out here at the beach. We ran into some old friends and expanded our cast of characters more. We saw Ambrosia Mike; and Joey Noodles, who is from New York City and comes to Rehoboth every weekend; and Leo who we met at the Irish Eyes race in Lewes in June.

And then there is 72 year old Doug White. Doug decided 41 years ago he wanted to run the Boston Marathon and hasn’t stopped since. He has run 41 consecutive Boston Marathons. He was planning to stop at 40 but with the tragedy of last year’s race, had to go back.

“Last year was just not the time to end my streak,” he said. “It just wasn’t right.”

 

Amazing.

One hundred mile races? 

Forty one consecutive Boston Marathons? 

And Kim and I are trying to figure out if we should opt out of the 10 miler and just run the 5K? 

Dictionary.com defines “wimpish” as an adjective that means “Having the traits of a wimp; soft; weak” 

What’s it going to be, wimps?

 

I guess we will find out tomorrow.

 

I remember Doug as a really nice guy, eager to talk, and easy to like.

After the race, upon receiving his award for winning his age category, he promptly gave the glass to Kim, explaining he had enough of these awards already.  Doug went on, by the way, to run forty three Boston Marathons in a row before the 2011 Delaware Sports Hall of Fame inductee passed away at the age of 74.

 

This evening we also had the honor of remembering another great athlete close to our hearts.  Tonight was the Herndon High School awards ceremony where Kim presented the Donny Soberdash Athletic Scholarship to two young athletes who displayed a similar drive to play three sports and also manage to be a good student and citizen outside of athletics.

Donny packed a lot of sports into his 15 years.  His freshman year he played football, wrestled, and soccer for Herndon High while managing travel soccer, indoor soccer, and league basketball in his spare time. He ran some races too though he never ran a marathon, but I can tell you it was like running a marathon trying to keep up with him.

So,  on this Throwback Thursday, we honor the lives of two great athletes now gone, our Donny and Doug White.

And congratulations to Riley Ball and Azhar Ramadham, the young woman and young man who helped to keep Donny’s competitive spirit alive by earning this year’s Donny Soberdash Athletic Scholarships.

 

Oh, and in case you were wondering, we ran the 10 miler.

 

Doug White in 2014
Kim and I before the race
Doug’s Gary P. Lister 10 Miler award given to Kim

 

One Of Those Kinds of Guys

One Of Those Kinds of Guys

Comments 2 comments

I am exhausted.

It’s my brother’s fault.

My brother Gary turned 58 last Monday.

He is one of those kinds of guys that turn 58 but look like they are 38.

I hate those kinds of guys.

When I called him to wish him a happy birthday he says to me, “yeah…I’m back riding my bike and doing 100 push-ups a day.”

Excuse me? What was the part after “riding my bike” I thought to myself?

“Five sets of twenty,” he went on to explain.

One hundred push-ups a day?

I am not sure I could do one hundred of anything let alone push-ups.

But not to be outdone, the next morning I got up and said to myself, well if he can do it, I can do it.

But I couldn’t.

I did five.

And then an hour later I did seven.

The next day I was at it again. Though this time on my first attempt to get down on the floor my back gave out and I had to regroup for a few minutes.

Once stabilized, I did seven.

And then an hour later I did seven more.

Today, a week later, I am up to two sets of twelve, greatly assisted by my belly which tends to help me reach the bottom of the push-up faster.

I am not sure what my goal is with this.  To do one hundred a day?

Maybe.

 

It was a good weekend. Keeping with the theme of not to be outdone by my younger brother, Kim and I did a 20 mile ride on our bikes on Saturday.  And, I got five compliments on my new Yuengling cycling jersey that Hayley gave me for Christmas from other riders.

The Preakness was this weekend also.  After the debacle of the Kentucky Derby, the anticipation of the Preakness generated about as much excitement as a $2500 claiming race at Charles Town.  But I watched. And it was not without controversy either since a horse named Bodexpress, who probably had as good a shot as any of them, lost his jockey coming out of the starting gate.   It looked to me like the assistant starter forgot to let go of the horse when the gate opened.  Thankfully all were okay though I am sure all Bodexpress’ humans were greatly disappointed.  Bodexpress however looked like he had fun and finished the race like he thought he was supposed to.

Then On Sunday, to mix up the routine a little, Kim and I walked 10 miles on the bike trail.

The result of all of this activity is however…

I’m tired.

And my legs are reminding me that I am 62, about to be 63 in a month.

And I am realistic enough to know that I will probably never do one hundred push-ups a day.

In fact right now my primary goal is to get down on the floor and be able to get back up again.

I don’t want to set my sights too high.

And like Bodexpress, I may not be the winner but I will finish the race and have fun, like I think I am supposed to.

 

And besides, I have a cool bike jersey.

I’ll bet my brother doesn’t have one of those.

The X Factor and the Greatest Twenty Two Minutes in Sports

The X Factor and the Greatest Twenty Two Minutes in Sports

Comments 0 Comment

Dr. Thomas Swerczek, head pathologist at the University of Kentucky, did not weigh Secretariat’s heart, but stated, “We just stood there in stunned silence.  We couldn’t believe it. The heart was perfect.  There were no problems with it.  It was just this huge engine.”

According to Wikipedia the average horse heart weighs 7.9 pounds.  Though they do say it could weigh twice that weight.

An extremely large heart in a horse is a trait that occasionally occurs in thoroughbreds.  It is hypothesized to be linked to a genetic condition referred to as the “x factor” and is traced to the historic racehorse Eclipse.  After his death in 1789 Eclipse’s heart was found to larger than most and weighed 14 pounds

Secretariat’s heart was estimated to weigh 22 pounds.  Secretariat was a freak.

It is said that pedigree research traces Secretariat’s lineage on his mother’s side to a daughter of Eclipse.

Yesterday, for the first time in the 145 year history of the Kentucky Derby, the winner was disqualified for a racing foul.

The winner was a horse named Maximum Security.

Maximum Security ran his first race in December as a two year old and won a $16,000 Maiden Claiming race at Gulfstream in Florida.  From that humble beginning he went on to win three more races including the Florida Derby wire to wire.  In other words he led from start to finish.

Wednesday evening I sat down with my printed copy of the Racing Form to begin my studying as I would typically do before derby day.  After watching his performance in the Florida Derby, next to Maximum Security’s name I wrote the word Freak with a question mark.

This horse in my opinion was potentially a freak.  Another Secretariat maybe.  Another possible Triple Crown winner. He was undefeated in his young life, his running style to go to the front and win wire to wire.

If he could win the Kentucky Derby in this fashion, maybe he would prove to be something special, something historic.

 

In my forty years of following thoroughbred horse racing, a jockey’s objection rarely led to a change in the finish in the race.  A racing stewards’ inquiry generally did however.  But in this case there was no stewards’ inquiry.  But twenty two minutes after “the greatest two minutes in sports” the racing stewards agreed with the jockey’s objection and Maximum Security, number seven in the race, was disqualified from his first place finish and placed 17th.

For me that was a long 22 minutes.  You see, the 3, 7, 19, and 20 (Country House who finished second was number 20) were the horses I chose to be in my exacta.  At least at the time that’s what I thought.

Because this morning when I was writing this, I decided to look back at my account and revisit what could have been.  To my surprise, I learned that the actual numbers that I boxed were 3,8,19, and 20.  Apparently I had made a mistake and punched in 8 instead of 7.  Another Sir Sydney moment for me, only this time it didn’t have the happy ending.

When I showed this to Kim this morning she said, “See, God spared you the disappointment.”

My wife is right about many things, I think she has the x factor.

Because the only thing I think that would be more disappointing than having your winning exacta disqualified, would be having your winning exacta not disqualified and then learning that you mistakenly bet the wrong numbers.

The sad thing about all this is we may never know how good this horse really is.  How would he have compared to Secretariat?  Would we have had a new national obsession?  Another Triple Crown winner?

It is true Maximum Security will now be something historic, but unfortunately not for the reasons that might have been.

 

A Sentimental Racetrack Journey

A Sentimental Racetrack Journey

Comments 0 Comment

Since the time I mucked my first stall fifty years ago on the “back side” (stable area) of Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey I have had many racetrack related experiences.   Most good, some not so. Some of those I shared in a post called A New National Obsession in February of 2017.

But as a result,  this is one of my favorite times of the year, the first Saturday in May, the Kentucky Derby, the first of the Triple Crown races.

The sport of horse racing has had a rough winter with the deaths of 23 horses at Santa Anita Park in Southern California since December.   Efforts are being made to try to determine why that unfortunate situation occurred there.  Some blame the unusual amount of rain and unusually cold weather changing the racing surface.  I remember a similar situation at Monmouth Park in the 70’s when the entire racing surface was peeled off and replaced resolving the problem. But beyond correcting the racing surface, efforts are also being made industry wide to make changes to the sport that will make it safer for horses and riders nationally.

The following is a story I mentioned in  A New National Obsession, that I wrote in 2014, one of my favorite racing stories:

 2014 Horse of the Year

(Written May 23, 2014 and edited for this essay May 1, 2019)

 

Sir Sidney is the 5 year old son of Ghostzapper.

Ghostzapper was the Horse of the Year in 2004.

Sir Sidney, at five years old had only raced three times in his life and had never won a race. In fact it had been almost two years since Sir Sidney had even been entered in a race.

Sadly, Sir Sidney was five years old and still a “maiden”…horse racing’s term for a horse who has yet to cross the finish line first.

The third Saturday in May, famous for the second jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown, The Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, was to be Sir Sidney’s coming out party after a two year break.   He was entered in the 13th race, the last race of the day, the race after the big attraction. The race after the Preakness. It was the race that no came expecting to watch, the one that would be run while everyone was leaving the infield, the grandstands, the parking lot and sitting in traffic as they made  up “horse stories” to tell their friends about what could have been, what should have been… if only I had done this or bet that.

The thirteenth race, just the sound of it made you want to skip it, like not having a 13th floor in a high rise, or staying in bed on Friday the 13th.  But there was Sir Sidney, the only five year old in the company of nine three year olds reaching the starting gate for the first time in a long while.

The twelfth race, The Preakness, had proven to be just what everyone had expected or hoped for. California Chrome who had won the Kentucky Derby so convincingly didn’t disappoint in the Preakness. He won the race as the overall favorite, the crowd letting him go off at odds that would only return 50 cents on every dollar bet. Now, the only question that would remain, could California Chrome win the Belmont Stakes and be the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978?

While everyone was pondering that and heading home, the 13th race went off at 7:10 PM, Sir Sidney broke well from the gate and took the lead on the backstretch. However, going into the turn, three horses passed him and he fell back to fourth. Coming out of the turn and into the stretch Sir Sidney dug in deep as a hole opened up in the leaders and he charged into it. Now three horses head to head charging down the stretch! As they approached the finish line Sir Sidney pulled away and won by a length! The unlikely runner, the old guy in the race, never having won before, finally was a winner.

Thrilling stuff right?

C’mon I am getting goose bumps writing about it!

So right now you are wondering “okay Curt, where are you going with this? Why should I care?”

Well maybe you shouldn’t.

 

But let’s just say hypothetically you are me and a passionate fan of the sport, and an occasional recreational bettor. And let’s also imagine that you/me, like a lot of other people thought California Chrome was the best bet of the day, maybe the best bet of the year. And let’s just say you/me thought real long and hard about making that recreational wager on California Chrome to win, number 3 in the twelfth race, the 2014 Preakness Stakes.

But let’s go a step further in our hypothetical situation. Let’s just say that wager that you/me thought long and hard about, the one that you/me so carefully and confidently placed on number 3, California Chrome in the 12th race , and cheered loudly for as California Chrome crossed the finish line in spectacular fashion only to find out………

That your/my horse didn’t win, because, by mistake, the horse that you/I  bet was actually number 3 in the 13th race!

 

I think you/me are probably feeling pretty silly right now huh?

 

Silly that is…until about 7:12 pm.

 

I don’t know about you, but Sir Sidney, number 3 in the 13th race, would be my vote for 2014 Horse of the Year.

 

The End

 

That betting mistake, instead of returning $3.00 on my $2.00 California Chrome bet, returned $26.20 on the win by Sir Sidney.

The following year Kim and I would stand under an infield tent at Pimlico and watch American Pharoah win the Preakness in a downpour. Unlike California Chrome,  he would go on to win the Belmont and be the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.   Coincidentally, my horse of the year for 2014, Sir Sidney was on the card that day.  For sentimental reasons I felt inclined to place a bet on him.

And as a result of those sentimental reasons, I lost that bet.

Horse racing is a sentimental sport.  The beauty of the animal, the lure of a name, the story of the journey, the memory of a past encounter.  That is part of what draws me to it.

Sir Sidney is now ten years old and he is still racing. As a gelding there would be no cushy stud future for him.  In fact he ran this past Sunday at Philadelphia Park and finished fourth going a mile in a claiming race.  Going off at odds of 20 to 1, he earned his owner $1,400 and could at least say he beat the favorite, who finished last, earning him some track cred the next time he sees that guy out on the track exercising in the morning.

It’s hard to not get sentimental about Sir Sidney.

I feel reacquainted, he is part of my journey.

The old guy, in spite of the aches and pains of growing older, he is still out there working.  Having to prove himself to the young guys, doing something he still enjoys, having fun.

I get it.

I hope you take some time this Saturday and watch the Kentucky Derby. I hope you pay attention to the stories, enjoy the majestic beauty of these animals, get caught up in the drama.

I hope you find something sentimental in the experience that makes you want to return.

I hope you find your Sir Sidney.