Tuesday, November 18, 2008

FROZEN IN TIME

Hi again....The past week of training went very well.... I upped the total mileage to 27 miles.. My longest run was 10 miles. I ran 3 times on trails...the rest were on the treadmill and the pace is getting better as I have shed a couple pounds. I did 2 upper body workouts.. One leg workout. My shoulder still bothers me. I have not swam since the second week in October. I may have to get the darn thing looked at. I have not set any events for 2009, other than the 50 kilometer Trail Ultra. I really appreciate the offers of assistance from Daisy, Aimee, Eric and others for the Winter Ultra. Thanks alot and I hope to take you up.

Frozen in Time

Strolled down a frigid memory lane Monday when I went back to Buffalo, New York to do a t.v. special and cover the Browns and Bills game. I worked in Buffalo from 1978 to 1980. THE BRIDE and I had two little kids then. Those kids are now 31 and 29, plus our baby Joe came along in 1982. I had not been back to the city in quite some time.

Photographer Ron Mounts and I went to the famous Anchor Bar where chicken wings were born, and had lunch of a beef on weck and a few wings. The place was packed. I remember how we used to order buckets of chicken wings with the Blue cheese dressing. You can order all the stuff on line!!!

Ralph Wilson Stadium had thousands of rabid fans...many of whom wanted to get on t.v. right before the game.. Stupid of us to be set up right in the middle of the throng. At one point in the special, a guy walked up to me and yelled "Fox 8 Fu@*king sucks" Yes folks, we needed a 7 second delay.
When the special was over at 8:30, I scrambled to get up into the press box and I ran into my old mentor. Van Miller. Van was the long time voice of the Buffalo Bills and was the sports guy at WIVB TV back when I was there. We had alot of laughs, and he taught me alot. I will always remember fondly those days when he played tennis all the time and greeted just about everyone with "whats cooking good looking". But here is where I was frozen in time. Van is a much older man, whose voice is very meek, a far cry from when he boomed play by play to legions of Bills faithful. I felt bad that I saw him in this state. I know that time marches on and you don't stay young forever.
The Browns did not quit as was alleged by a few players recently. They won on a late field goal kicked by the most humble of Browns, Phil Dawson. Most of the comments I got from the players stemmed from their belief that it was great things worked out for them and that they really got too caught up in looking into games and the hoopla from being on alot of Monday Night Broadcasts. Braylon Edwards admitted that "You can't get ahead of yourself"
Braylon has a point. Too often, I am thinking of events far into the future, I can't appreciate whats right in front of me.

Of course there are Browns fans that would just say to Braylon.."Skip the philosophy and just catch the damn ball" His point is valid. My mind is racing about how I can get cranking on triathlon training when I should just focus on handling the ultra.

Speaking of Buffalo. I really fell in love with distance racing in Buffalo. We jogged at Delaware Park all the time and the running community was so big that I was even able to talk the bosses into letting me go to Boston in 1979 qnd 1980 and cover all the Buffalo runners in the marathon.
I saw Billy Rodgers fly to victory in 1979 and in 1980, the legit runners took a back seat to the cheater..Rosie Ruiz. I ran the Skylon International Marathon twice which starts in the USA and finishes in Canada right by Niagra Falls.
Those were fun times..the so called good old days....but funny me.. I happen to think just about every day is...Another Good Old Day
Happy trainingLife's a Blast

21 comments:

Missy said...

You said football - my tri season and training revolves around TN Titans football and how I can swim before the games!

Shannon said...

You only as old as you feel. Memory lane......

Rainmaker said...

If only my Seahawks didn't suck so much this year, it would make the football season good again.

beth said...

sounds like an awesome trip down memory lane! and great keeping your run up too!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you had great time on Memory lane...what would our lives be like without them? It's funny to see how far we've come when looking back....keep running one race at a time

Mike said...

Awesome post!!! I love the Anchor Bar, I was there over the summer! My Grandparents live in Lackawanna and my Uncle and his family live right up the road in Hamburg! Awesome wing sauce as well!!! Totally worth the stop if you have the time! :)

ShirleyPerly said...

I remember running through Delaware Park during the Buffalo Marathon back in '04. Visited Niagara Falls afterward for the first time, very impressive. Thanks for reminding me!

jahowie said...

The Anchor Bar sounds like a great place. It sounds like it was a great time in Buffalo. My Lions are still on track. ;-) Good luck with the ultra training. I agree that you really should just concentrate on that for now. You've done plenty of tris, and it sounds like that shoulder could use the time off.

Marcy said...

Ahhhhhh memories. Have myself some good memories of Buffalo myself. The weather however, I could do without LOL

Wes said...

ha ha ha! I was looking for you on Monday night football :-) Nice job up-ing t he mileage, especially on the trails!! Stay warm!

Trishie said...

Love trips down memory lane <3 // (hey, how do I create my own header w a picture? I can't figure it out!)

Viv said...

Looks like it was a nice trip down memory lane except for that guy screaming stuff on live tv. Even though I would be rolling! The years fly by and JT is only getting betta folks!

Marci said...

Sounds like a nice trip back down old memory lane!

Keep rockin' on your running!

Jeff said...

You talk about Van Miller and I can't help but to think about the great local play by play greats of my youth from the other side of the microphone: Chuck Thompson -- O's and Colts, Bill O'Donnell -- O's and Vince Bagli -- Colts.

These guys were like gods to me and it always felt like a knife in the heart when my dad said he didn't like a particular guy. I've been very careful not to do that with my kids.

Thanks for helping bring back those memories.

Lily on the Road said...

Always nice to walk down memory lane!

I remember when I kept some of my Show Horses in Niagara-on-the-Lake, we'd drive to Buffalo and have wings at the Anchor!

Steph said...

Great memory...the Anchor Bar. On a bleaker note, Brady Quinn and his broken finger? Please tell me we don't have a Romo!

Jerry said...

I grew up in Buffalo and had seasons tickets to the Bills for years so this post was like a little trip down memory lane for me as well. Thanks for making my day....Van was the greatest voice the Bills could have had and I will never forget his trademark "folks this is fandemonium (sp??)"

Kevin said...

I've been dealing with shoulder pain also. My MD said it was tendonitis and the most important thing to do was to strengthen the arms and shoulders. I am doing a swim-specific workout that is killer

Steve Stenzel said...

Nice job on those runs! Congrats!!

And fans can be such idiots sometimes...

Sarah said...

We're both behind, JT!! How about that?

In any case, thanks for bringing us down your memory lane. Sounds like it was a great trip.

And as for focusing on here and now - agreed - just keep your thoughts on your ultra for now! The rest will come. Congrats on keeping up with your running.

Funny what you said about the 'good old days' - I mentioned that in my Turkey Day post. Always great to reminisce, but also always great to be moving forward with life.

Thanks for all of your insightful and inspiring posts, JT. Always a pleasure to read!

Formulaic said...

I like the new pic