I am Batman. Would you like to be my sidekick?
As it turns out, the tread mills that I run on at our little fitness center are not invincible. This is best illustrated by the fact that both of them are broken…one of the elliptical trainers has trouble with the timer; the fake bicycle-thingy is falling apart…yeah; it’s time to go outside. And as luck would have it, there is a perfectly accessible football stadium across the road from me.
So, at the expense of my knees, my previously torn ligaments and tendon, I’m doing the bleachers and stairs of our little stadium. Which I should say, has an upper deck, so it’s not vertically little, just capacity-wise…ain’t no big house. But then, what is? (Ohio sucks).
There is also a track, which is, I think, a quarter mile track going around the field, so I run all the stairs, and then I do maybe three miles on the track depending on how I’m feeling. I know that right now all the freakish marathoner’s are scoffing at me, but don’t lose track of the fact that I’m not training for anything, save intramural soccer next semester. The best part of this improvised work out of mine is the ending: ten or so 100 yard wind-sprints across the football field. It’s been so long since I have pushed my legs that hard, that it’s kind of like revisiting the past. Blood gets forced deeper and higher into my quads than I can remember, nor can my muscles for that matter. There is great ambiance in our football stadium. And being that I’ve been able to get out on to several fields and run I feel like I can say with some certainty that working out on the field that comes to mean something to you is worth the effort.
I’ve played soccer in Spartan Stadium, I’ve played touch football, and run the stairs at The Big House, I’ve done snow angels on the Lion at Ford Field, and now I’ve streaked across the field at night in Bobcat Stadium. All of these have an air to them that is inspiring. I mean, so many of you who might read this are in some way or another affected by college football. Many of you like to watch it, and have emotional ties with what the teams represent. Most of you even refer to your favorite teams as “us” or “we” without really thinking about it. So if you get a chance, make the effort and go to the stadium that your favorite team plays in, and work out on the field. Run the stairs, go out on the field and do wind sprints from goal line to goal line. That vast emptiness of seats is powerful. The surface is topnotch for running, and it’s just as much yours as alumni or a non-athlete student as it is theirs. Even if you live in Ohio, and run the risk of God swallowing the stadium whole with you in it because it is truly an unholy abomination against all that is right and true, (Cher and Milt…this means you) it’s worth the risk to feel the connection with something you love.
After dark, the bats that live in our stadium come out to do what they do. So as I’m sprinting from endzone to endzone, there are small bats swooping back and forth snatching up insects that I can’t even see. I like to think that when I go running past, the bats around me think “that’s a big fucking dragonfly, maybe I’ll wait for the next one.” For a person who doesn’t get high on running, this is what keeps me exercising.
As for this Saturday, I’ll be at work for most, if not all of the game. The Bobcats are playing for an SLC championship, and a birth in the playoffs, but I’ll keep an eye on THE game while I’m at work. Here’s to Penn State, may they represent the big ten well in the BCS. And here’s to Ohio State, without whom we might never truly understand the depths of the fallen.
Shit yeah! I love this time of year! Even in Texas.
Go Blue, Go Cats.
So, at the expense of my knees, my previously torn ligaments and tendon, I’m doing the bleachers and stairs of our little stadium. Which I should say, has an upper deck, so it’s not vertically little, just capacity-wise…ain’t no big house. But then, what is? (Ohio sucks).
There is also a track, which is, I think, a quarter mile track going around the field, so I run all the stairs, and then I do maybe three miles on the track depending on how I’m feeling. I know that right now all the freakish marathoner’s are scoffing at me, but don’t lose track of the fact that I’m not training for anything, save intramural soccer next semester. The best part of this improvised work out of mine is the ending: ten or so 100 yard wind-sprints across the football field. It’s been so long since I have pushed my legs that hard, that it’s kind of like revisiting the past. Blood gets forced deeper and higher into my quads than I can remember, nor can my muscles for that matter. There is great ambiance in our football stadium. And being that I’ve been able to get out on to several fields and run I feel like I can say with some certainty that working out on the field that comes to mean something to you is worth the effort.
I’ve played soccer in Spartan Stadium, I’ve played touch football, and run the stairs at The Big House, I’ve done snow angels on the Lion at Ford Field, and now I’ve streaked across the field at night in Bobcat Stadium. All of these have an air to them that is inspiring. I mean, so many of you who might read this are in some way or another affected by college football. Many of you like to watch it, and have emotional ties with what the teams represent. Most of you even refer to your favorite teams as “us” or “we” without really thinking about it. So if you get a chance, make the effort and go to the stadium that your favorite team plays in, and work out on the field. Run the stairs, go out on the field and do wind sprints from goal line to goal line. That vast emptiness of seats is powerful. The surface is topnotch for running, and it’s just as much yours as alumni or a non-athlete student as it is theirs. Even if you live in Ohio, and run the risk of God swallowing the stadium whole with you in it because it is truly an unholy abomination against all that is right and true, (Cher and Milt…this means you) it’s worth the risk to feel the connection with something you love.
After dark, the bats that live in our stadium come out to do what they do. So as I’m sprinting from endzone to endzone, there are small bats swooping back and forth snatching up insects that I can’t even see. I like to think that when I go running past, the bats around me think “that’s a big fucking dragonfly, maybe I’ll wait for the next one.” For a person who doesn’t get high on running, this is what keeps me exercising.
As for this Saturday, I’ll be at work for most, if not all of the game. The Bobcats are playing for an SLC championship, and a birth in the playoffs, but I’ll keep an eye on THE game while I’m at work. Here’s to Penn State, may they represent the big ten well in the BCS. And here’s to Ohio State, without whom we might never truly understand the depths of the fallen.
Shit yeah! I love this time of year! Even in Texas.
Go Blue, Go Cats.
posted by texas_wolverine at 10:26 PM
1 Comments:
I have run in Ohio Stadium and it is awesome. More so because you can feel the ghost of Jesse Owens and think of all the records that he set there. One of the coolest runs thru there had me being accompanied by the OSU marching band. They were playing just for me.
Heck, I enjoy running in my old high school stadium. Something about those places. At least I must not be the only one that visits college stadiums while on vacation.
Go Bucks!
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