9/29/2013

Big Ten Awards - Week 5

Team of the Week : Iowa -- Iowa went on the road and pounded Minnesota, allowing the Gophers only 30 yards rushing and the only threat offensively came after the Gophers returned a kickoff to the 37.  Mark Weisman rushed for 147 on the year and the Hawks are now 4-1 on the year.

Game of the Week : Ohio State 31 - Wisconsin 24 --  The Badgers made it interesting int he end, scoring 10 fourth quarter points, but in the end the Buckeyes won their 17th straight game.  Braxton Miller returned to the Buckeyes starting lineup, and accounted for the 4 Buckeye TDs.  The Buckeyes now take their streak to Evanston for the biggest regular season game in Pat Fitzgerald's tenure at Northwestern.


Player of the Week : Nathan Scheelhaase - QB - Illinois -- This is fast becoming the Scheelhaase/Guiton award this year.  Scheelhaase is definitely the leading candidate in the Big Ten for comeback player of the year.  The senior QB threw for 278 yards and 5 touchdowns in the Illini's 50-14 win over MAC foe Miami (Oh).  The Redhawks didn't stand a chance, the Illini QB threw all 5 of his scores in the first half.  

Jimmy John's Big Ten Challenge:
Matt : 4-0 10pts | 45-5  281pts
Kyle : 4-0 10pts | 44-6  276pts
Chad : 4-0 10pts | 42-8  275pts

9/05/2013

Warrior Dash

10 days ago I was able to cross Warrior Dash off my bucket list.  I didn’t get to run and train as much as I wanted to for it and going into it was kind of dreading it thinking, “I’m dead”, but as I drove out to Rubes in Waukee to meet up with my group and getting parked there I felt a little bit better about it.  Getting registered we saw the “Warriors” from the previous starting times.  A lot of mud!  About an hour after getting registered we got in line for our heat with a bunch of other runners.  The countdown was on and then the flames blew and our run started. 

The first stretch wasn’t so bad, outside of having to look down where you were running due to it being basically in a pasture and the ground was uneven and holes and beaten up by cows.  Then we turn the corner and the first hill.  I was warned about them that they suck.  I got the run in about halfway up the hill then it was rough with the crowd and also the ground being uneven I had to walk, and for those who ran it completely and the whole thing props to them.  I saw a few rolled ankles and I’m sure there were many more.  There were two more hills that sucked, one up was straight up it seemed, from a dried out creek.  Most of the other stuff was ok running.  

The obstacles though were FUN and made up for the running.  My favorite was probably the big rope climb.  Get a running start, grab the rope and climb up, flop over and then go rappel down the other side. There were a couple others I liked that you were on your knees for doing army crawl and up hills and down trenches that I liked too.  Finally the mud was cool too, just a huge pit of mud that seemed a couple feet deep and you kind of floated more to the end of it then having to crawl it. 

Finally getting to the finish my group didn't recognize me I was so mud covered, that was kind of cool.  Looking at pictures Warrior Dash took I looked like a giant human chocolate.  I had mud in my ears and nose for about a week after still showing up (yes gross I know)  Afterward got partially showered and cleaned up some, went back for a few beverages and to check out our times.  Really glad I did it, finished in the top 40% which I thought was pretty good.  A lot of people we talked to said it was a harder course this year than last year, and I wasn't going for time or anything and it was just fun. 
I don’t know if I’ll do it again next year, I may put something on the bucket list like one of the paint/color runs, but who knows I may get talked back into.