Playing my own kid games

Having survived my 5K in the spring, I was ready for new challenges. After learning of a charity cycling event that would benefit a local United Methodist agency in June, I decided to take part. Okay, it was a little wacky to join a 3-day, 255-mile bike ride to the beach, but, now that I'm over 39, I realize that not only is life short, it's really short and good, long-lasting health isn't guaranteed to anyone.

I made new friends and re-learned how to be a kid now that I am cycling some. Here are a few things I've remembered:

• Brakes are nice but usually not necessary;
• You never know who you will meet (my new friends range from a Master Sergeant who finished 2 tours in Vietnam to a graduate student at WFU);
• Don't be afraid to try something new -- mapping the course is not necessary if you have a friend along;
• People like you if are kind and positive rather than just fast.

Playing Sports = Having Fun?

I grew playing sports -- some pick-up basketball and sandlot baseball then organized league play in basketball and softball. I finally settled on swimming (summer league and AAU). I had some natural abilities and liked the individual aspect of the sport as no one in my peer group would get terribly upset if I made a mistake, unlike a team sport. In high school, I joined the track team and though was not a superstar, I enjoyed the team camaraderie and managed to earn a varsity letter (score one point and you're in). I was an RA in an athletic dorm (residence hall) at UNC and there came across kids who played at the collegiate level (obviously) and some who went on to professional sports. I have also trained with Olympic swimmers. So, anyway, I have a general idea about what it takes to excel in sports.

As a young adult and well a bit older one, I have coached swimming and more recently, an Odyssey of the Mind team (not sports but very team oriented).

My sports experiences have taught me that winning is better than losing. My life experiences have taught me that if you're not having fun, you ought not to do it.

I had dreams about the Odyssey of the Mind competitions, mainly, I think, because I felt an obligation to the kids. Okay, I did want to win but I had learned enough about the program prior to the tournament to realize that our team may not place in the top 3 in its first competition. We didn't.

During the day of the event (teams make presentations all day), I heard about a middle-school kid who had succumbed to the pressure of the day (easily done) and had thrown up during his team's presentation. I realized then that, in coming years, as a coach, I would need to make an effort to keep things fun for the kids. Really, truly, if they are not having fun, I don't want to be a part of it (not that every moment is glorious).

My kids have been playing organized sports several seasons. They are not gifted athletes, at least I don't think so and at least not necessarily in the sports in which they have chosen to participate. I would encourage them to practice incessantly or at least occasionally but I also realize that no amount of practice, or fitness training, or great coaching, or camps are going to turn them into great athletes with endorsement opportunities. I'm fine with that.

But are his coaches and teammates? Some of them are; some, not. I have noticed that some coaches seemed a bit impatient with the kids who were not stellar athletes. Of course, the coaches are hearing from parents who want to win; perhaps I should be more vocal and tell them which kids they need to spend more time helping and encouraging. On the upside, I have never did see any of my kids' coaches say anything out of line. Still, I have observed that some did not seem to understand that the just-wanna-have-fun kids could make decent athletes, given tremendous patience, a sense of humor, gentle correction, and encouragement along with fundamental skill development and game situation practice.

Not too long ago, my husband and I were discussing the upcoming fall baseball season. I was encouraged by a letter from the league promoting development play and lots of opportunities for skill development. I thought that was great. I considered talking to my child about how he should get serious about the sport (he's in elemntary school).

My husband, who never played organized sports, didn't think the emphasis on development, practice, and more skill development was terrific. At first I was puzzled by his reaction. The problem to him, it seems, is that our youngest just wants to have fun. So I never had the let's-get-serious-about-sports talk with my son and am getting reacquainted with the idea that games should be fun.

Sizing up the 5K Competition

I decided, after about 20 years or so, to re-enter the world of community track races (aka 5ks and 10Ks). After getting in reasonable shape via strength training, laps around the indoor tracks, an occasion jaunt on the outdoor tracks, and 30-minute or so sessions on the Precor, I figrured that I was ready to try a 5k. I had run in my late teens and early 20s, and managed to have a personal best of something like 55:38 (a nine-minute mile) in the Charlotte Observer 10K.

Two babies (now 12 and 9) and lots of responsibilities later, I hadn't had much time to train. But when I started to realize that the Y membership was going to run me less than long-term care insurance, I decided to start working out really regularly. I did walk and run some before, which I think helped alot, but the stats that the Y machines give you helped me to measure my progress and keep me motivated.

Anyway, I had wanted to run in a race for a while but didn't think I could handle a 10K. So when I saw that a private school less than a mile from my house was offering a 5K cross country race (which meant not getting up too terribly early on a Saturday), I decided to enter it.

My first order of business was making sure that I could actually run 3 miles. I lightened up on the weight training, and increased my mileage over the course of a few weeks steadily to 3 miles the week of the race.

Then, I decided to see just how competitive the races were. My memory, which can still be good on certain subjects, was that the races were fairly competitive. Fortunately, the local track club (Twin City Track Club) posts race results for nearly all the area races. I checked it out.

There was bad news: nearly all the runners ran in 13-minute miles or less; I was hoping for a 15-minute mile or just a little less depending on how I did on race day. There are even some runners, much much older than me who can run a 5K in say 25 or 30 minutes.

And there was good news. There was little competition in my age and gender group (interestingly, the competition was stiffer in older groups, in some cases) and since many of the race organizers give trophies to the top three finishers in designated age groups, male and female, I figured I could possibly look good for trying.

I was glad to have the information that I tapped into from the 'net. It helped me plan my strategy (go faster than I was planning to originally) and stick around for the awards ceremony (because I just might win something!!).

The day of the race I sized up the competition not by athleticism but by possible age.

The course was truly cross country, and there were hills!! A 76-year-old man passed me, but I managed to run faster (overall) than a few of the under 14-year-olds. I finished with a respectable 39:38 and was most glad that a search party was not necessary to retrieve me.

And the most fun? Accepting my 2nd place trophy.

TAKEN by a freecycle member

My item has been taken!!

I am so pleased -- the transaction took a bit longer to be completed due to the ice storm last week, but I am glad that the process was not too difficult and I've saved one item (fairly bulky item) from the landfill. Also, I am glad to give someone the use of something and avoid paying the junk guy from hauling it away just in case you might think that freecycling is just about altruism.

Tech helps me and the environment

When I think of technology, the Internet more specifically, as benefiting the environment, I think of the possibility that people will use less paper and more broadband.

But human imagination has found yet another use for the Internet--this time, reducing landfill waste by recycling used items.

Of course, I have been re-using and recycling items for years and years. My current sources of disposal (besides the trashcan and eventually the landfill) are: my church's semi-annual toy and clothing sale; Goodwill; the Rescue Mission; Habitat ReStore (just once but it still counts); friends and neighbors for kids' stuff. I tend to wear out items before ultimately disposing of them so they are typically unsuitable for consignment shops. I have, however, received credit for used books at a local book exchange shop. Unfortunately, I have also used a guy with a truck who hauls away stuff for a fee.

A few weeks ago, I read in the newspaper (still clinging to my print version by the way) about "freecycle" -- and was intrigued. It is an Internet-enabled way to dispose of and gain (otherwise) unwanted items rather place them in the trash. People post their items in a classified-ad-sort-of-way and then make a connection to either a giver or a wanter.

So, when I decided to (finally) get rid of a large piece of fitness equipment (deemed unwanted not only by me but also the local Play It Again Sports as well as the Rescue Mission), I looked up freecycle. There are a few sites with similar names and/or ones that appear in a Google search but I think that www.freecycle.org is the one that I read about in the paper. It seems to be powered by Yahoo Groups, which I am somewhat familiar with. I found my local group, got a username and password, and then read the rules of free-cycling engagement. Main rule: everything is free so don't go around trying to charge for anything. Other rules are listed to make things easy for skimmers, though group members don't seem to pay terribly close attention. I tried to follow them to make them easy on me also: that is, I posted my offer as, well an OFFER, with as brief but clear description as possible. The posting had to be moderated but once it was listed on the site, I had a taker within an hour. I promised it to the first contact not just because I wasn't sure of the demand but because, well, any other way seemed to be a bit elitist--even though receivers may possibly sell a free item to someone else.

I am awaiting pick-up, that is the item is PENDING. If something falls through, I have other takers, which is comforting to me.

Let's see what happens and hope that the landfill growth slows down a bit.

Thanks for the moderate-comments tip

Thanks to an alert reader (maceyr) for telling me about the new “moderate comments” feature on blogger. I am pleased that Google quickly added this feature but disheartened that it had to. Discourse is good; censorship, not. Sploggers, though, are interested not in discourse but in cash, theoretically generated via click-throughs and customers who purchase products or services after visiting their websites. A splogger hopes to raise his or her site's search engine ranking by placing comments on blogs referring readers to their blogs.

When do you think that “search engine optimizers” will be considered the used-car-salesmen equivalent of yesteryear?

SPam on BLOG (SPLOG)

I've had my blog for about a year now and just recently (the past week or so) I started receiving comments from bogus bloggers. They leave comments on my blog and invite me (or my readers if there are any) to visit their sites. I find this practice very annoying and although I first labeled it cyber-begging, I now know that it is splog-ing or perhaps splogging, the equivalent of spamming blogs.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, splogging is an automated process, much like spamming is. Apparently, there is software that creates the bogus blogs (those who leave comments are registered blogger users) and then leaves the comments. The practice exploits the search engine ranking system as well as users like me who try to uncover culprits but may give them profits by clicking through on their websites.

The article mentioned a blogosphere protecter, who I've linked to here.