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Fire

I was standing atop Reservoir Hill this past Saturday, watching hawks wheel in the thermals and enjoying a morning of cross-country racing. Off in the distance I could see not one, but two new fires. Strange how you become a brush-fire expert here in Southern California, but it was obvious from the angry black color of the smoke (turning to an ash-gray as the plume rose and drifted on the Santa Ana winds), that these fires were serious. Something large and laden with fuel was burning.

Silly Season

This is the silly season of endurance sports, that end-of-season time of rest and reflection that follows months of hard training and racing.

Vote

I put off doing Mondays with Marty this week. A Monday column during election week didn't seem to matter as much. Thus here is a Tuesday, Election Day column. I feel especially inspired to write because I just got back from voting. Although I'm still on the fence about computer voting, believing that they must somehow be susceptible to hacking and vote tampering, I nonetheless get a big swell of patriotism whenever I push that "Cast Ballot" button. It seems mildly miraculous that with all the hoo-hah and commercials surrounding the election, that I actually get to be an active participant. So there's my exhortation to get out and vote: as athletes, we are conditioned to be people of action, not passive observers. Voting is no different. In fact, it's better. We get the chance to change history.

Ventoux

So the Tour de France is shortening time trials at the 2009 Tour to the lowest level in modern history to soften the "bonus to the time trial specialist?" And the penultimate stage is an assault on Mont Ventoux? Sounds like someone's trying to Lance-proof their course. It's a shame, but we should have seen it coming. Tour officials are terrified of Lance hijacking their race again, and throwing in Mont Ventoux is their way tripping Lance at the goal line. The Texan has been notoriously stymied on Ventoux, so this is their very public gauntlet throwdown to remind him that they control the race.

Fading Into Anonymity

In watching the Track and Field Olympic Trials this past week, I was constantly struck by the inordinate amount of attention dedicated to the sprint events. Tyson Gay's cramp in the 200 received more air time than the Men's 10,000 meter final, Alyson Felix's desperate desire to qualify in the 200 after failing in the 100 was treated as a national emergency, and NBC just couldn't get enough of those sprint heats, showing every last one of them ad infinitum.