on reading, running, red sox

firstly, i'd like to thank our generous readership for voting me best blogger on the reading, running, red sox team. much appreciated and a honor i will carry with me throughout the rest of my life.

secondly, it's not a long stretch for us to have this blog...  my email has gotten so intertwined with our threads on the subjects, it just plain makes it easier to sort it all out to have it in blog form.

i think the following things, initially, about this blog, which could alternatively be titled "my healthy escapes":

about reading:  i've been a lifelong addict of books (including a degree along those lines and many somewhat wilted thoughts of becoming one of the lot who write those dang things)...  generally tending to read those you could consider "literature", or "literary fiction".  more recently, i've including a healthy dose of non-fiction, covering a wide range of topics, not least of which is....

about running:  a team-sport athlete through high school and college, what was i supposed to do when i was launched into the absurd condition commonly referred to as "Adulthood", with no clear athletic endeavors to speak of?  until that point, i never understood why someone would just go out there and run...  but being of a somewhat restless nature, and after my bike was stolen, that's what i started doing.  not fast and not far, at first...  but it didn't take long to get hooked.  before long, i started running races, and if you aren't hooked on running before you do that, surely you will be afterward.  after expanding to triathlon, getting injured multiple times and giving it up for a year, i am slowly working my way back up the fitness ranks and once again embracing the thing i have surprising many things to say about.... running.

about the red sox:  much akin to the torture i've endured over many long runs...  NOOOOOO.  i'm not going to be another one of THOSE fans, am i?  sometimes, maybe... but the best reason i write about the red sox with my friends is because they are thinkers and athletes at the same time (readers and runners).  it's not JUST the jock mentality (yes, i believe we all do hate the yankees), BUT the analysis...  isn't that what baseball is about?  much more data than your average texas hold'em poker hand is a single at bat, with the "plate personalities" (read todd's mention of pedroia below) you've grown to know and either love or love to hate.  the mental game of pitching...  the overall cerebral approach to baseball.  love it.  (oh and i like it when the red sox WIN, and especially when they WIN the world series).

about reading, running, red sox:  the fact that i've got such intelligent, good friends who share my interests is really the point of it all.*  it makes the enjoyment of it that much better, that much more important.  our agreement on subjects varies (not always on reading, neutrally on running, and usually on red sox), but each of us have a unique point of view...  certainly bringing to light a lot of things i wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

and that's that!!

* it's also interesting to note that, if i ever had a drinking problem, these two guys cured me of it by introducing me to alcohol.