Yesterday started outstanding and included a nice 10+ mile trail run at Noxubee Hills trails. The Dawgs kicked it off against the #1 Florida Gators at 6:30. All of the pieces were present: 57,000+ people on hand, fired up team, and an energy around Starkville and Davis Wade Stadium I haven't seen since the 90's and perhaps not even then.

After a 60 minute battle, the Gators left Starkville with a 29-19 win.

The day was capped with a rockin' post game party, including Mr. Disco and the DJ. All-in-all a solid day even without the win. But playing the #1 ranked team in the country will give the Dawgs confidence the rest of the way.

Today I get to play in my first soccer match with my new team. We play in Tupelo around 3:30. Considering I haven't played in years and have never played with this team, today should be interesting to say the least. I will make the solo trip around 2:00 p.m. today and should roll back into town around 7:00 I think.

Fletch Runs . . . the weekend edition

I'm looking forward to starting Friday by teaching two more classes at Mississippi State. I will teach an 8:00 and 9:00 o'clock a.m. Business Law class for a friend. It's nice to park at Barnes & Noble and take the easy stroll to McCool Hall.

Friday night is Homecoming at Yellowjacket Field as the Starkville High School Yellowjackets host the Olive Branch Conquistadors at 7:00 p.m. As always, air time on 96.1 is 6:45 p.m. Just like last week, a win and the Jackets are in the playoffs.

Saturday looks like a trail running day. Several of us are going to meet at the Noxubee Hills trails at 6:30 a.m. and be running by 6:45 a.m. Hope to get up to a couple of hours in.

Then Saturday night the Florida Gators come calling. Gametime is 6:30 p.m. Also, our tailgate group is hosting our annual DJ after the game. It is usually a lot of fun especially since most people tend to "let their hair down" a little. I have a little surprise in store this year that should prove pretty funny.

The Starkville High School Yellowjackets went on the road last night to Southaven to play the Chargers in a Division 1-6A game. A win for the Jackets and they lock up a spot in the playoffs. Unfortunately the Jackets just could not get out of their own way, turning the ball over 4 times and several snaps over the quarterback's head. As a result, Southaven went to 7-1; 3-1 on the year winning 27-16. The loss dropped the Jackets to 3-5; 3-1.

Broadcasting the games is a lot of fun, but admittedly getting back to town at 1:00 and to bed around 1:30 a.m. was tough, especially since I haven't been sleeping well lately. Not sure I am any good providing color commentary but I really enjoy doing it. It is a great way to relax and not think.

Got up today and got a P90X workout in before the Mississippi State game, and hope to get a 7 or 8 mile run in later today. Still looking for a late '09 race or an early '10 race.

Training is going fairly well. I got a short early morning run in yesterday that was really nice. Then I got another cardio workout in last night with plyometrics on P90X. Was hoping to get 5-7 miles in today, but the weather is not cooperating.

I was bummed to hear that Mountain Mist 50K was already full. This was the race that Brian, Mann, Damien, and I did last year. We had a blast. We went up on Friday and stayed at one of the CCC cabins. The race was awesome and the companionship better. So now we will just have to switch our focus to another race. Mann and I talked briefly this morning about doing Bel Monte outside Charlottesville, Virginia in March 2010. It is put on by Russell Gill and Bad to the Bone Endurance Sports/Charlottesville Running Company. This is the sister race to GEER that I ran last September. The countryside is absolutely gorgeous. I highly recommend this race to anyone on the east coast or anyone willing to travel to the east coast.

Some of you already know this, but for those that do not (it's funny how I write this blog as though someone is actually reading it - maybe it's just therapeutic), I am now the radio color commentator for the Starkville High School Yellowjackets' football team. If you are in the listening area of Starkville, Mississippi, tune in to 96.1. We usually go live about 6:45 p.m. CDT for pre-game and then wrap up about 15 minutes after the game ends with post game. Interestingly, one of my law partners is the voice of the Starkville Academy Volunteers. Surely that's newsworthy right?

Have a great Thursday.

USA Soccer . . .

Congratulations to the men's US Soccer Team. With the recent 3-2 win over Honduras the boys in red, white and blue qualified for the 2010 World Cup. If you've never been to a World Cup game you owe it to yourself to try to attend one. I went to the quarterfinal match Brazil v. Netherlands at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas during the 1994 World Cup. Brazil won 3-2 and went on to win the Cup. It was amazing.

I've been back running for a couple of weeks. Had an unbelievably good start back with a couple of incredible runs. Unfortunately my last few haven't been nearly as good and in fact seem hard and laborious. I am also doing P90X for general fitness and especially core work. That has gone fairly well except I skipped yesterday. Yesterday was as bad day all around as possible I think and I just couldn't get the workout in. In fact I fell asleep in the chair in the den.

From a workout standpoint at least, today was a solid day. I did P90X this morning for 1:15 then got a 7 +/- mile run in midday and I am about to start my second P90X workout shortly.

I was disappointed that I didn't do the Arkansas Traveller earlier this month. I intend to train like mad between now and July 2010 and do the Vermont 100. Would like to find someone to go with me and crew for me and maybe even pace me. The area is gorgeous. It will be a blast and I will absolutely be ready.

Back? Really?

It's ironic that the last post is one about how I'm back on track and ready to gear up for the Arkansas Traveller. Ironic because I didn't run it. I thought I was mentally focused and ready to put in the hours of training needed to do a 100 mile race, and do it well. I wasn't.

I missed a week of training and never got back on track. I went to Memphis, Tennessee to run a fairly easy 50K, but even that went badly. I went out strong and was in 7th or so place when two other guys and I made a wrong turn. That wrong turn cost us a good 20 minutes plus and I never recovered. For the first time in just about anything I've ever done I DNF'd at 20 miles. I was walking back to my truck to feel sorry for myself and drink a couple of cold, dark beers when I realized that the top to my cooler was off, the ice melted, and the beer was fire hot. Just one more slap to the face.

But to give the whole story, let's go back one night to the night before the race. I decided to camp alone in a state park about 30 minutes from the start/finish line. I am fairly methodical when it comes to packing before a race. I make a list, check it several times, and then pack and load. Well, I overlooked two very important things: 1) bug spray, and 2) the fact that it would be close to 350 degrees inside my tent on an August night in Tennessee. I was eating dinner at my campsite around 7:15 p.m. It was a race. I was racing to get the food into my mouth before the mosquitos carried it or me away. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer and had to get in my tent. At 7:30. In daylight. I tried to settle in and watch Entourage on my iPhone (btw, if there is a better show than Entourage - ever - I haven't seen it. That show is pure gold baby). It was hard to even do that because it was so freaking hot.

Finally around 9ish I started to doze off. Just about the time I was falling asleep a group of kids cut through my camp. I thought I was under freaking attack until I realized that genius over here set up camp right next to a trailhead. Nice work sucko. So I finally fall asleep, if you can call some semi-conscious state asleep. I woke up, just happy that the battle was over.

Now fast forward to the race, getting lost, and finding hot beer. Just not my day. I returned home to Starkville and realized I was not ready for the Traveller.

So instead I took 3 weeks off in September and had a great start back running this past Saturday with a nice 10+ mile run followed by a fairly quick 5+ miles on Monday. Both runs were awesome. I am glad to be back, hopefully for good this time!

As for the Arkansas Traveller, good friend Cade Smith ran it. And ran it well. Cade finished his first 100 in 20:49, good enough for 3rd place overall. Great run by Cade.