Closing up shop

I was in Michigan this past weekend at the Ryan Shay Memorial Mile and had an absolute blast. The race is in the little town of Charlevoix that’s set on a peninsula with Lake Michigan one side, and Lake Charlevoix on the other. The town and surrounding area is filled with some of the most amazing houses and boats you’ll ever see. My two highlights were seeing one house with four enormous fishing boats parked out front (the smallest one had 1050 horsepower of outboard motor on the back) and a 26,000 sq/ft mansion painted red and green like it had a Christmas theme.

Jeff See and I were staying with a local family, the Bergmanns. They have a beautiful house looking out over Lake Charlevoix that they share with their two dogs and four cats. One cat Henry, was an orange Maine Coon who was the biggest cat I’ve ever seen and a real treat to meet. He has a fascination with being up on high points and the Bergmanns have had to remove all decorations and objects from on top of any cupboards. He gets up there and quite happily pushes them off. While we were there he still managed to take out a photo frame as well as open doors for himself.

While in town, myself and a few of the other guys went for a swim in the lake, watched fireworks, and played carnival games. Sam Horn and I had plans to cuddle but unfortunately I had to leave before that. There was a carnie worker with a radar gun so Jeff and I went head to head seeing who could send down the fastest pitch. I decided to go with the more unorthodox choice of using a cricket bowling action and sent down a solid 56 mph fastball (from a 5 step run-up mind you). Jeff casually rifled off a 71 mph fast ball though and won the prize.

Speaking of prizes, I guess we should talk about the race where Jeff came out top dog also. It wasn’t a great day at the office for me. I never really felt good and although I managed to stay in it until about 300 metres to go, once the kicks started, I got left in the dust. I held on for 5th, but to be honest I think most of us outside of the top four were spectating the last 200. It was awesome to see Jeff win in a kick and great that he’s back and in fine form as he’s had his struggles this year but it looks like the See-Man is ready to roll.

For me though, the race was a good indicator that the horse needs to be sent to stud for at least a week. It’s been over 10 months since opening my senior campaign at the Dolan Duels Cross Country race, and it’s time now to pack up shop for the year and stop with the racing. Since that opening race I’ve run 36 races in 13 states and 3 different countries and I’m ready for a break! I’m going to try and take a week and just fully rest up, heal up the nicks and bruises that I’ve been carrying the last few months, and work on honing my snooker skills. It’s important to take a break periodically to rest up physically and mentally, and I’m going to try my best to make it a week without running. I’m not very good at pumping the breaks and taking it easy but I’m going to try my best to not do anything for the whole 7 days.

If anyone sees me out running anytime before that, holler at me to get home cause while I might not want to take it, I know deep down that the body needs rest.