Andrew Schrauben

Wednesday evening was hot and humid for our weekly softball game. I captain one of the two co-ed rec teams at my company and this we played our arch rivals, a team with which we had split our two season meetings. The game was sluggish as neither offense could really get going in the calm heat of the evening - everyone seemed almost sleepy!

In the top of the 7th (and final) inning we were down by a run. We managed to get runners on 2nd and 3rd; with two outs and two strikes, our pitcher hit a soft liner that landed right on the chalk of the left field line - fair ball! Two runs scored, and then we fielded a scoreless bottom half of the inning to get a one-run victory.

Sound familar? Perhaps you watched the MLB All-Star game this week - the exact same scenario took place! The AL was down by a run in the top of the 9th with runners on 2nd and 3rd; with two outs and two strikes the batter hit a 2-RBI triple. Pretty cool.

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The next day I convinced Amanda to join me and the dogs on a run. There's an old scout camp nearby with river access and lots of trails. I drove 1.5 miles to the entrance where I stashed the car, then jogged along the trails and exited out the "back door" of the camp which is just half a mile from home.

I made this run a very tough one along 2.5 miles of sand and dirt. The dirt part was OK because it was usually shaded by the forest, but the sandy sections of trail were exposed in a power line right-of-way. The sun had baked the sand all day long and now the sand was radiating that heat back onto me as I charged up the steep hills. Boy did I get hot!

I ran back home where Amanda was waiting for me with the dogs, all leashed up and ready to go. Haven ran with me while Beacon had sled-dog duties with Amanda, pulling her up the first hill. Once on the trail and away from the road, we let the dogs off leash and followed behind them. Amanda wanted to walk but I kept pushing her to jog, saying things like "Run the downhills; the gravity is free energy!" and "It's just short uphill; blast up to the top and it'll be over sooner!" She bravely trusted my coaching and ran much of the ~2 miles to the river.

By the time we reached the river, Haven and Beacon were "dog" tired and very hot. They waded in the cool water and even tried to lie down in the shallows, so we all just stood there and recovered some energy. Soon the deer flies found us so onward we hiked up a very large and steep hill. Another half mile of running/walking brought us to the car with a very welcome air conditioner! We drove home with the A/C at full blast and a car full of twelve sore, worn-out legs!