Santa Ana Winds

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Spent yesterday relaxing with my wife, watching movies on HBO while poring over cross-country stats from races around California. My team had a bye weekend, and it was nice using the time to recharge and gird for the coming weeks of racing. The championship races are almost upon us. Now is the time to look for the details in the training program, tweaking and fine-tuning in order to get the very best taper out of everyone.

 Santa Winds are howling like a freight train outside my window right now. I see a mighty sycamore whose trunk is leaning back and forth, and great dust clouds from desert air being shoved pell-mell into the Pacific. It's one of those days that will make my own run a chore (this is not a day for biking, not unless one enjoys being hurled Kenny Souza-like from the bike). But this is something of a Southern California version of a snowstorm -- a chance to put on another pot of coffee, close the windows up tight, and enjoy being snug and protected while outside bedlam reigns.

A couple things have caught my eye this morning: the first is the behavior of Ironman triathlete Rebekah Keat at this weekend's Ironman World Championships in Kona. Race leader Chrissie Wellington suffered a puncture, but was unable to refill the spare, thanks to two faulty air cartridges. Keat gallantly pulled over and offered one of hers, knowing very well that Wellington would waste no time in repaying the favor by leaving her in the dust. I am a huge fan of good sportsmanship. Moments like that are beyond priceless.

The other thing that caught my eye has to do with the Armstrong comeback, but let's set that aside for today. The Keat thing got me thinking.

Why do we love sports? Not just the competing, but the viewing and attending and the wearing the gear as a symbol of personal identity. There's mania, like that guy who chopped off his own nuts last year as an homage to his favorite rugby team. He was a little drunk, and has been characterized as mentally unbalanced, but that's taking the passion to a whole new level.

I personally think we love sports because it involves a search for what's best in all of us. We train to become the person we all, deep down inside, hope we will someday be -- or at least a better version of ourselves. We race because it's a horrible thing to suffer so much, but in that suffering we experience the deep personal joy of perseverance and attendant hope. And we watch events like the Olympics and the Super Bowl, not just to see people push their limits, but also hoping for those displays of humanity and personal excellence that uplift us all. Keat's behavior was one such moment. Sure, it's easy to slam Ironman competitors for their self-absorption, as I did in20this space last week. But when an athlete takes the time to step outside themselves and help another -- wire services are tossing out the term "Samaritan" which is overused in most cases, but apt here -- I see that golden sunbeam of humanity that makes the race special.

This is a random jump in logic, but here's where I take things a step further. What are the world's great sporting events? There are no Olympics next year, and no World Cup. But of the biggies, what really stands out? I made a list. A wish list, perhaps, because I haven't been to many of these events. I left out auto races and anything involving an animal, because then you open a whole new subset of events. But here's what I came up with:

BCS College Football Title Game
Tough Guy
Boston Marathon
Masters Gold Tournament
Super Bowl
Six Nations Rugby
Champions League Soccer Match
Wimbledon
Tour de France
British Open
Track and Field World Championships
World Series
Hawaiian Ironman World Championships
Sydney to Hobart Sailing Race

OK. That's my list. What's yours?

Keep pushing... always.

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