i’ve never been big on team sports because fundamentally i’m not a people person. i was also the fat kid for a while so i didn’t get picked for shit. at the onset of puberty i got tall and thin but i’d already been burned so i took up distance running and i like it. you kept your own counsel and you were entirely motivated and driven by yourself. i like it so much i ran and 5k and 10k races, the one thing they don’t tell you about road running is how much it destroys your knees. and that when i stopped besides this long before the ipod when sony walkmen was still ridiculously expensive and the only thing accompanying your run was the sound of your own laboured breathing. this weekend was the country music half and full marathon and i’m seriously considering participating next year. i don’t have anywhere near the body i had in my late teens and early twenties and my knees are likely to hate me for months after, but i’ve never done a half marathon and i don’t have to run all 13 miles. we’ll see.
when i first started this post i was planning on talking about the sports that i watch on television and some how got sidetracked. i am first and foremost a formula one fan. forget nascar, forget irl, this is a good as it gets in motor-racing. i get up early or stay up late to watch races and qualifying, i’ve stuck by my team through thick and thin although during my current fandom, my team has done pretty well. there are two comparisons i like to draw between formula 1 and all other sports particularly in the last year. the first was the patriots got caught and fined for cheating about the same time as mclaren (one of the premiere teams in f1), the patriots fine? $500K and a first round draft pick. construed by most as a slap on the wrist. mclaren’s file? $100M which includes a portion of their tv revenues as well as their race winnings and forfeit of their constructor points for the season (effectively putting them in the worst garage at each event). f1 doesn’t operate in half measures.
the other comparison was the weekend nascar got cancelled in richmond because of rain, f1 was racing in japan, wait for it, in the rain. open wheel racing, 20 odd inches off the ground races in the rain, but stock cars can’t race in the rain, there is a disconnect somewhere.
i am also without shame an oakland raiders fan. i have been for over a decade. i’d never seen a game, i’d never seen a uniform and all my information about the team was based on the writings of hunter s. thompson and i was hooked. i actually watched the superbowl in ’01 i think and wrote about it here (somewhere in the archives, too lazy to look) for the singular reason that they were play. ‘football’ amuses me, because i grew in a country where we play rugby which makes this bunch of well padded athletes look like a bunch of pansy waists, but still i’m fascinated by this team run by a man who marches to the beat of his own drum come hell or high water.
