Running Shorts

I have been watching a bazillion bowl games over the past few days.
I rooted and tooted and squeezed my stuffed Gobbler, but I wasn’t much help to the ACC.
I tried.
I thought I was off to a good start with Wake and Boston College, but then the wheels came off of the bandwagon.
Lucky for me, I had my running-eating-drinking-biking-kayaking-sumo wrestling-book club buddies to share in the misery.
Fast Kathy was kind enough to offered her home to serve as the tailgate party all day Saturday and again Thursday night.
Four of us are Hokies. There was a Razorback. Sorry, Easy Deb, no luck with that one either. (Did you know that the Arkansas players had VTs on the back of their helmets?) 
We also had representatives from William & Mary and Radford, to name a few. But we all joined forces to help cheer each other’s favorite teams.
It was really neat to see Prince don borrowed Tech-wear for the occasion. Loved the hat. Rocket even found some orange socks.
Fast Kathy served up turkey chilli. (Are we the only college that feasts on its mascot?) Anne, now known as Her-Mix-A-Lot, brought a portable bar. A mean game of Trivial Pursuit broke out at halftime.
Except for the final scores, it was a great bowl season.
Still, I can’t seen to shake this sadness, especially for my Hokies.
Those young men shouldered more than their share this year. They played their hearts out to help the college, the community, the alumni and a world of friends heal from the events of April 16.
We will never forget our 32.
We will never forget our ACC champs.
And we will never forget our world of friends ... especially the running-eating-drinking-kayaking-sumo wrestling-book club right here in Charlottesville.
I’m bowled over to be a part of this group.
Maybe I’m a little sad, too, to see the season end. One less reason to get together, wear funny hats and laugh.
But we’ll think of something.
Say, isn’t there another game Monday night?
Oh, Kathy ...