No Maggie, now it's REALLY HOT outside

I like this photo of the K-P bat boy. He takes a fair amount of good-natured abuse, but he does a good job retrieving bats, balls and whatever else is deemed retrievable.

We probably should have skipped Monday.

I don't really know what a heat index is, just like I didn't really know what humidity or wind chill was before I moved here either.

All I know is that I only remember playing ball when it was this hot once in my life and it certainly wasn't in Western Washington.

But I did play two game in 105-degree heat in Kennewick, Wash. (in Eastern Washington) during my junior American Legion days.

Like that weekend tournament in 2002, I was drenched in sweat in a matter of minutes and by the time I was taking photos, I looked as though I were far too nervous for whatever I was supposed to be doing.

Anyhow, Monday marked the end of a busy weekend where I got to cover the J-Club tournament and ran in my first competitive race since eighth grade.

Not only was the Second Annual Tom Skram Memorial Fun run my first race in literally a decade, it was also about 2.3 miles further than any race I ran in eighth grade.

I've been running 2-3 miles with Maggie (Titus will often tag along for a quarter mile or so) for a month or two now, but that's nothing like a race.

I've always thought it funny when Olympic announcers talk about the vast strategy that goes into distance races.

"Here's my strategy," I would say to anyone in earshot. "Run faster."

But as I turned down the final straightaway, I nearly hit my wall. I realized running faster was not an option. But I finished in 19 minutes flat and I hope to become a regular in these shorter "fun runs" in the future.

I'm looking forward to Tuesday as the Le Mars baseball team hosts Heelan. We'll have to see if the crowd is as contentious as when Western Christian visited.