WNBA finals - Game 2

The Indiana Fever and Minnesota Lynx met for Game 2 of WNBA finals Wednesday in Minneapolis. The Lynx were able to tie the series by defeating the Fever 83-71.

Seimone Augustus lead the way for the Lynx with 27 points.  Augustus scored 23 of her points in the second half. She also had six rebounds, two assists and three steals. Maya Moore also chipped in with 23 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals. The Fever committed 24 turnovers for the game. Fifteen of those turnovers happened in the second half. Leading scorer for the Fever was Tamika Catchings with 27 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.

The Fever was playing without guard Katie Douglas. Douglas suffered a sprained ankle in the Eastern Conference finals against Connecticut. The Fever lost another player in the game last night. Jeanette Pohlen left the game after hurting her left knee.

Game 3 will be played in Indiana on Friday. The game starts at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.

Photo Credits:
Top — Minnesota Lynx forward Rebekkah Brunson (32) goes up to the basket against Indiana Fever forward Erlana Larkins (2) in the first half of Game 2 of the WNBA basketball Finals Wednesday in Minneapolis. (Associated Press/Stacy Bengs)

Bottom —  Minnesota Lynx forward Maya Moore (23) and guard Lindsay Whalen (13) celebrate after a scoring play against the Indiana Fever in the second half of Game 2 of the WNBA basketball Finals Wednesday in Minneapolis. The Lynx won 83-71. (Associated Press/Stacy Bengs)

Books read in 2012

I read Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath by Mimi Alford in a day. It was such a great read. Alford was only 19 years old when she started interning at the Kennedy White House. Soon she was getting invited by Kennedy's special assistant, Dave Powers, to go for a midday swim in the White House pool. There she met Kennedy in the pool and had a chat. Later that day, she was invited upstairs for a staff get together.

Alford had a drink with co-workers then Kennedy entered the room. Soon Kennedy was giving Alford a tour of his private residence. The tour went to his private bedroom and that was the start of their two year affair.

The book was not all about the physical aspect of their affair. It was about how Alford was feeling and what happened to her after Kennedy was assassinated.

This was a very good book. I recommend it as someone who is fascinated with the JFK presidency.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling 
Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal, Toni Bentley 
Chasing the Runner's High, Ray Charbonneau 
The Perfect Mile, Neal Bascomb 
Cleopatra, Stacy Schiff 
The Carrie Diaries, Candace Bushnell 
Summer in the City, Candace Bushnell 
Forgotten, Cat Patrick 
Deja Dead, Kathy Reichs 
Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard 
Flawless, Sara Shepard 
Perfect, Sara Shepard 
Unbelievable, Sara Shepard 
Wicked, Sara Shepard 
Killer, Sara Shepard  
Heartless, Sara Shepard

Wanted, Sara Shepard

Twisted, Sara Shepard

Ruthless, Sara Shepard

Fairy Tale Interrupted, Rosemarie Terenzio

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

Pronto, Elmore Leonard

Riding the Rap, Elmore Leonard

Raylan, Elmore Leonard

The Coffin Quilt, Ann Rinaldi

A Life Without Limits, Chrissie Wellington

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, John Le Carre
Eat and Run, Scott Jurek

Clearing Hurdles, Dan O'Brien

The Sugarless Plum, Zippora Karz

Girl in Motion: A Novel, Miriam Wenger-Landis

Breaking Pointe, Miriam Wenger-Landis

The Cranes Dance, Meg Howrey

The Eighty-Dollar Champion, Elizabeth Letts

Renegade Champion: The Unlikely Rise of Fitzrada, Richard R. Rust

That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, Anne Sebba

The President's Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity, Nancy Gibbs

Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir, Clint Hill

Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever, Martin Dugard and Bill O'Reilly

Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath, Mimi Alford

Currently Reading: Mary's Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer and Their Vision for World Peace, Peter Janney

Random things

This past weekend was my 15th high school class reunion. Some of us met up on Friday. We went to a local restaurant. Turnout was not so good. Only five of us. Along with our spouses we used a large table and two small tables.

My husband and I arrived around 9 p.m. We decided to wait until 9:30 p.m. to see if anyone else would be coming. At 9:30 p.m. I was going to tell the waitress that we were ready to order. Then like a miracle, I looked out the window and a few on my classmates were walking in.

I was a little disappointed that more people didn't show up. I do understand that people are busy and live out of state. For the group that did show up, we did have a good time. We stayed until the restaurant closed at 11 p.m. Most of us thought that the restaurant stayed open to midnight. Not anymore. The workers turned on the houselights and started cleaning. That was our cue to leave.

The reunion continued on Saturday afternoon. We gathered at house and ate lunch together. This time a few more classmates showed up. This was a family lunch, so everyone brought their children. My husband and I and another classmate with her boyfriend were the only one's without kids. I talked to everyone that showed up for lunch. I had a good time. I always look forward to our class reunions. It is always nice to see everyone again and catch up.

The WNBA finals started on Sunday with Game 1 between the Indiana Fever and Minnesota Lynx. Since Detroit doesn't have a team anymore, I have to root for someone. I actually like both teams. So whatever the outcome is, I'll be happy.

Indiana went to Minneapolis and defeated the reigning WNBA champions Minnesota 76-70. Indiana played without their leading scorer Katie Douglas. Douglas went down with an ankle injury in Game 3 against Connecticut. Tamika Catchings was the leading scorer for Indiana with 20 points. Seimone Augustus scored 23 points for Minnesota. Game 2 will be in Minneapolis Wednesday in the best of five series.

I noticed recently that my hair is now parted on the right side of my head. Hanging on a wall in my living room is an engagement photo with my husband. In the photo, my part is on the left side of my head. Somehow between 1999 and today, I switched my part. I don't remember doing that at all.

When I was drying my hair Sunday morning, I decided to switch my part back to the left. I wore it over there for the day. As I was washing up for bed that night, I was looking in the mirror at my hair. I really didn't like my part over on the left. It didn't look right to me. That is when I switched back to the right side. I guess whenever I switched in the first place, it was the correct decision.

Photo Credit:  Indiana Fever forward Tamika Catchings (24) goes up to the basketball after charging through Minnesota Lynx forward Maya Moore (23) in the second half of Game 1 of the WNBA basketball finals Sunday in Minneapolis. Catchings lead her team with 20 points as the Fever won 76-70. (Associated Press/Stacy Bengs)

Favorite photos from October 8-12, 2012

Class reunion

I will be meeting with my high school classmates for dinner tonight after work. This weekend marks the Sand Creek High School Class of 1997 15th year class reunion. We are having dinner tonight at a restaurant. A family lunch will be Saturday afternoon and a bonfire for adults later.

I graduated in a class of 67 people. Going to a small school and you know everyone. I didn't talk to everyone in my class, but that is not because I was ignoring them. Those classmates weren't in the same group of friends. We were all like that. Not ignoring people on purpose. As a class, we all got along.

I attended my 10 year class reunion five years ago. A mix of classmates showed up with their spouses. I talked to everyone. Even the people I didn't say much to in high school. It was great to catch up with everyone. We are all spread out. Some people live in Northern Michigan or out of state. A few of us are still in the area.

Another five years has gone by. We all of living our lives. My sister graduated one year ahead in 1996. I don't think her class has had a reunion in a while. I'm really glad that our class still has reunions and I can't wait to see everyone. Tonight should be fun and pleasant evening.

Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association District 10 Equestrian competition V - Adrian, MI

Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association
District 10 Equestrian competition

Adrian, MI - Lenawee County Fair and Event Grounds
September 16, 2012

Books read in 2012

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling 
Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal, Toni Bentley 
Chasing the Runner's High, Ray Charbonneau 
The Perfect Mile, Neal Bascomb 
Cleopatra, Stacy Schiff 
The Carrie Diaries, Candace Bushnell 
Summer in the City, Candace Bushnell 
Forgotten, Cat Patrick 
Deja Dead, Kathy Reichs 
Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard 
Flawless, Sara Shepard 
Perfect, Sara Shepard 
Unbelievable, Sara Shepard 
Wicked, Sara Shepard 
Killer, Sara Shepard

Heartless, Sara Shepard

Wanted, Sara Shepard

Twisted, Sara Shepard

Ruthless, Sara Shepard

Fairy Tale Interrupted, Rosemarie Terenzio

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

Pronto, Elmore Leonard

Riding the Rap, Elmore Leonard

Raylan, Elmore Leonard

The Coffin Quilt, Ann Rinaldi

A Life Without Limits, Chrissie Wellington

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, John Le Carre
Eat and Run, Scott Jurek

Clearing Hurdles, Dan O'Brien

The Sugarless Plum, Zippora Karz

Girl in Motion: A Novel, Miriam Wenger-LandisBreaking Pointe, Miriam Wenger-Landis

The Cranes Dance, Meg Howrey

The Eighty-Dollar Champion, Elizabeth Letts

Renegade Champion: The Unlikely Rise of Fitzrada, Richard R. Rust

That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, Anne Sebba

The President's Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity, Nancy Gibbs

Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir, Clint Hill

Currently Reading: Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever, Martin Dugard and Bill O'Reilly

World Half Marathon Championships

The IAAF World Half Marathon Championships took place Saturday in Bulgaria. Universal Sports Network had promos during other broadcasts saying it would air the same day. I set my DVR to record it and planned on watching it Sunday.

When I played the broadcast, I saw that the men were at the start line. The men started and I figured that the ladies would start about 10-15 minutes after the men. What ended up happening was the women actually ran their half marathon first. The men ran second.

Universal Sports broadcasted the entire men's half marathon. During the course of the men's half, a clip of the women's race was shown. That clip lasted about 30 seconds. I was very disappointed. I wanted to see both the men's and women's race.

Universal Sports always does a great job of showing coverage of men's and women's sports. I love to watch the network for their track and field, triathlon and equestrian coverage. For their ITU World Triathlon coverage, each gender has their own braodcast from each race. Usually the women's race will be shown on a Saturday and the men's race will be aired on Sunday. I was wondering why they didn't try that method with the World Half Marathon?

I sent a tweet to Universal Sports saying I was disappointed in the 30 second clip of the women's race. In a second tweet, I asked why they didn't show the men and women's races like they do with the ITU triathlon series? I don't know if they saw it or not. I just wanted them to know that I wanted to see the women race too. Maybe other running fans would have liked to also watch the women's race.

Women's Half Marathon results
1. Meseret Hailu - ETH - 1:08:55
2 Feyse Tadese - ETH - 1:08:56
3. Paskalia Chepkorir Kipkoech - KEN - 1:09:04
4. Lydia Chermei - KEN - 1:09:13
5. Emebt Etea - ETH- 1:10:01

Top 3 U.S. Women
13. Meagan Krifchin - 1:12:29
18. Adriana Nelson - 1:13:30
25. Shalane Flanagan - 1:14:41

Women's Team results
1. Ethiopia
2. Kenya
3. Japan
4. Great Britian & N.I.
5. United States

Men's Half Marathon results
1. Zersenay Tadeses - ERI - 1:00:19
2. Deressa Chimsa - ETH- 1:00:51
3. John Nzau Mwangangi - KEN - 1:01:01
4. Pius Maiyo Kirop - KEN- 1:01:11
5. Stephen Kosgei Kibet - KEN - 1:01:40

Top 3 U.S. Men
15. Augustus Maiyo - 1:02:33
17. Luke Puskedra - 1:02:46
28. Ian Burrell - 1:04:37

Men's Team results
1. Kenya
2. Eritrea
3. Ethiopia
4. United States
5. Uganda

Photo Credits:
Top: Meseret Hailu of Ethiopia celebrates her victory as she crosses the finishing line during the 20th IAAF Women's World Half Marathon on October 6, 2012 in Kavarna, Bulgaria. (Getty Images Europe/Scott Heavey)

Bottom: Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea celebrates his victory during the 20th IAAF Mens World Half Marathon on October 6, 2012 in Kavarna, Bulgaria. (Getty Images Europe/Scott Heavey)

 

Favorite photos from October 1-5, 2012

Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association District 10 Equestrian competition IV - Adrian, MI

Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association
District 10 Equestrian competition

Adrian, MI - Lenawee County Fair and Event Grounds
September 16, 2012

Other racing news

Photo credit: Nils Nilson/XTERRA

Max King from Oregon is on an awesome winning streak. King has won three titles in less then a week.

King won the USA 50K Trail Championship in Bend, Oregon on September 22. On the very next day, King won the 21K XTERRA Trail Run National Championship in Ogden, Utah. On Saturday, Max King won the Ultra Race of Champions 100K (UROC) in Virginia with a time of 7:57:02. In the women's UROC race, Canadian Ellie Greenwood won the title in 9:04:09.
 
Also racing on Saturday was the University of Michigan women's cross country team. The ladies ran in Rim Rock Farm Classic in Lawrence, Kansas. Michigan senior Rebecca Addison was the overall 6K winner with a time of 20:29.20. Michigan teammates Jillian Smith (20:51.60) was fifth and Shannon Osika (20:54:10) was sixth. Rounding out the top 10 was Wolverine Lindsey Hilton in 21:00.40. Michigan won the team title with 33 points. Runner-up Toledo finished with 43 points.

Photo credit: University of Michigan

Michigan's women's cross country team will run next in the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky on  October 13.

Sunday was the BMW Berlin Marathon. Geoffrey Mutai was trying to break the world record on this course (2:03:38 WR) . Mutai won the race, but did not break the world record. Mutai finished in 2:04:15.

The second place finisher, Dennis Kimetto, is Mutai's training partner. He finished in 2:04:16 and set the fastest marathon debut in history. I read a bunch of articles stating that it looked like Kimetto let Mutai win. Kimetto stayed right on Mutai's shoulder until the finish line. I watched the marathon and I thought that too.

Photo credit: PhotoRun

The other thing about the marathon was that the clock on the car behind them was incorrect. I noticed that the pace car clock and the timer on the screen were a couple of seconds off from each other. If the pace car clock was off, it could have cost Mutai the world record. According to this, the clock on top of the elite pace car froze on 2:50/kilometer read-out early in the race, giving the runners the impression they were under their 61:40 first half pace. Actually the elite runners were 32 seconds slower then they wanted to be.

Geoffrey Mutai just missed breaking the world record this year in Berlin. I hope he gets another opportunity to try again and successfully do it.

Bulldog 5K Run

I ran the Bulldog 5K Run Saturday. Coming into the race, I had already run 91 miles. I really didn't have a goal coming into the race, except to have fun.

The race crowd was small, probably about 60-70 people. I started the race a couple of rows behind the very fast runners (the overall men/women's winners). The first strides of the run, my legs felt funky. I was thinking it was all the miles I had on my legs coming into the event. I kept going and eventually that funky feeling went away.

By the first mile, which was the only mile marked on the course, I was running alone. I always seem to end up by myself no matter the race distance. I knew I wasn't really alone as I could hear two guys behind me talking. I was working hard to keep them behind me. Probably around the 1.5/2 mile mark, the guys ended up pulling beside me and passed me. The guys also pulled along a college girl with them. I was step for step with her for a bit, but she pulled ahead of me also.

After they passed me, I really didn't want their lead to grow more. They were about 10-15 seconds ahead of me. The space in between us really didn't grow or shrink which made me happy. All of us did catch a teen girl and pass her. I saw her before the race warming up. I really thought she looked tough and fast. I'm thinking she actually went out too fast. While I was catching up with her, I noticed she was taking walk breaks.

The final stretch of the race had a long straightaway, a turn on a short uphill, a turn onto a service drive leading us to a lap around a football field. I picked up my pace on the straightaway. I used my arms running up the final uphill and ran as fast as I could around the football field. When I turned the final corner on the field heading to the finish line, I looked at the clock. It read 25 minutes. I was a little disappointed. Only the first mile was marked. Since the other two miles weren't marked, I didn't even look at my watch. I felt I was running faster then I actually was. I finished the 5K in 25:52. With all the miles I ran before the race, I was happy to finish only 51 seconds off my 5K PR.

This year the age groups were separated into 10 years instead of five. I was unsure of how I finished against a larger age group. The final results were posted online and didn't list anyone's ages.  I was hoping to find out if I placed in the top three in my age group. Now I will never know. According to the results, I finished 22nd overall out of 70 runners and was the 6th overall female.

Favorite photos from September 24-28, 2012