I am not the most competent marathon runner connected to the EFL. No, that honor belongs to Ron’s wife, Melanie. She has run over 50 marathons and still does not seem satisfied. Isn’t that awesome?
The owner of the Pears, Phil Smith, has also run a few marathons in his day. I am not sure how many, but I believe it is more than one.
Later on this year Brookland’s owner will run a marathon (perhaps his first?) with his wife – how fun is that?
I, myself, have also run a few marathons – and maybe others in the group have, though I know for sure that at least three other owners have never run one nor do they intend to run one (though running one is quite an accomplishment, I can’t blame them for not wanting to run one. They take quite a toll on your body!
A lot of people run marathons just to cross an item off their bucket list. After I ran my first marathon, which was a bucket list item, I decided that I wanted to do another. Except this time, I wanted to improve my time. And each subsequent marathon was an exercise in improving on my PR. But running 26.2 miles in one shot makes it important to strategize if you do indeed want to improve upon your time. You can’t just decide, “I’m going to run faster!” and then go out and do it. If you begin too quickly, you will fade at the end. If you start too slowly, it will too difficult to make up the time the longer the race goes on.
But one piece of advice I heard while training for one of my marathons was to focus on two things: a comfortable pace that while comfortable is also one that can be sped up if needed, and 2) once you get to about mile 20 you should begin to look at just the person in front of you and try to pass them. Once you pass them, pick the new person in front of you and work on passing them.
This helped me tremendously in my most recent half-marathon that I ran, in which I was trying to set a PR. I knew there were at least 20 people ahead of me, and the thought having to pass all of them made me feel overwhelmed. And then I remembered this great piece of advice, and slowly began to pass just one person at a time. My mind was off the larger task, and therefore free to focus on a smaller, much more manageable task.
What might be the smaller, more manageable tasks right in front of you team this final month of the season? Well, let’s find out!
PS: The BP site is being interminably slow so I am not posting your daily stats from yesterday, just your scores. Sorry!
EFL | ||||||
TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
Portland Rosebuds | 89 | 48 | .650 | — | 861.7 | 631.9 |
Flint Hill Tornadoes | 84 | 52 | .616 | 4.8 | 836.3 | 657.0 |
Old Detroit Wolverines | 81 | 55 | .596 | 7.4 | 793.6 | 648.4 |
Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 74 | 60 | .553 | 13.4 | 721.6 | 638.5 |
Peshastin Pears | 72 | 65 | .528 | 16.6 | 716.1 | 677.9 |
Haviland Dragons | 70 | 66 | .513 | 18.7 | 757.0 | 730.2 |
Canberra Kangaroos | 68 | 68 | .502 | 20.2 | 757.1 | 757.2 |
Kaline Drive | 66 | 70 | .487 | 22.3 | 650.1 | 669.6 |
Bellingham Cascades | 60 | 74 | .449 | 27.4 | 628.8 | 700.2 |
Brookland Outs | 58 | 74 | .442 | 28.2 | 662.8 | 748.0 |
Cottage Cheese | 58 | 74 | .438 | 28.7 | 744.1 | 828.1 |
D.C. Balk | 54 | 82 | .398 | 34.4 | 600.8 | 742.7 |
AL East | ||||
TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
New York Yankees | 88 | 48 | .647 | — |
Flint Hill Tornadoes | 84 | 52 | .616 | 4.3 |
Old Detroit Wolverines | 81 | 55 | .596 | 6.9 |
Tampa Bay Rays | 78 | 58 | .574 | 10 |
Boston Red Sox | 73 | 62 | .541 | 14.5 |
Toronto Blue Jays | 54 | 82 | .397 | 34 |
Baltimore Orioles | 45 | 89 | .336 | 42 |
NL East | ||||
TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
Atlanta Braves | 82 | 54 | .603 | — |
Washington Nationals | 75 | 58 | .564 | 5.5 |
Philadelphia Phillies | 69 | 64 | .519 | 11.5 |
New York Mets | 68 | 66 | .507 | 13 |
Canberra Kangaroos | 68 | 68 | .502 | 13.7 |
D.C. Balk | 54 | 82 | .398 | 27.9 |
Miami Marlins | 48 | 86 | .358 | 33 |
AL Central | ||||
TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
Minnesota Twins | 83 | 51 | .619 | — |
Cleveland Indians | 79 | 56 | .585 | 4.5 |
Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 74 | 60 | .553 | 8.9 |
Bellingham Cascades | 60 | 74 | .449 | 22.9 |
Chicago White Sox | 60 | 74 | .448 | 23 |
Kansas City Royals | 47 | 89 | .346 | 37 |
Detroit Tigers | 39 | 93 | .295 | 43 |
NL Central | ||||
TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
St. Louis Cardinals | 73 | 59 | .553 | — |
Chicago Cubs | 73 | 61 | .545 | 1 |
Milwaukee Brewers | 68 | 66 | .507 | 6 |
Cincinnati Reds | 63 | 70 | .474 | 10.5 |
Brookland Outs | 58 | 74 | .442 | 14.7 |
Cottage Cheese | 58 | 74 | .438 | 15.2 |
Pittsburgh Pirates | 58 | 77 | .430 | 16.5 |
AL West | ||||
TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
Houston Astros | 88 | 48 | .647 | — |
Oakland A’s | 78 | 56 | .582 | 9 |
Haviland Dragons | 70 | 66 | .513 | 18.2 |
Kaline Drive | 66 | 70 | .487 | 21.8 |
Texas Rangers | 66 | 70 | .485 | 22 |
Los Angeles Angels | 64 | 72 | .471 | 24 |
Seattle Mariners | 57 | 79 | .419 | 31 |
NL West | ||||
TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
Portland Rosebuds | 89 | 48 | .650 | — |
Los Angeles Dodgers | 88 | 49 | .642 | 1 |
Peshastin Pears | 72 | 65 | .528 | 16.6 |
Arizona Diamondbacks | 69 | 66 | .511 | 19 |
San Francisco Giants | 66 | 68 | .493 | 21.5 |
San Diego Padres | 62 | 72 | .463 | 25.5 |
Colorado Rockies | 59 | 77 | .434 | 29.5 |
I don’t even want to talk about the fact that most teams in the league there is a small margin they have to overcome to pass the person in front of them than I have facing me to catch the Rosebuds. Let’s just ignore that for the time being. Thanks.
This is pretty good advice, I guess, but I am still trying to pass two teams. If today’s games go well I might be back under 7 games out. The Rosebuds gained almost that many against the Wolverines last September. It’s time for the universe to bend back toward distributive justice!
Ron, you would be well served to stop trying and just enjoy the final few weeks. Otherwise you might get too stressed and then that won’t be good for any aspect of your life…
Jamie, I’m please to tell you that for the first time your words played a prominent part in the beginning of my sermon on Sunday. In short, I shared your advice to keep your eyes on the person ahead of you. I then noted that this might be excellent advice for running a marathon, but is terrible advice for running our spiritual race, where we are instructed to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.