Oh gosh. It would be so easy to
devolve this post into gratuitous “ass” jokes … but I’ll try to stem the tide
of my usual immaturity for a few paragraphs. My good pal Bob Sweeney, a loyal
program follower from afar in Colorado, just finished his pack burro racing
season earlier this month, along with his loyal donkey named Yukon. Alert
followers of this blog will recall that Bob has forged one helluva great ultramarathon
career, having represented the USA at 100km, and having run some very fast and
competitive times at ultra distances all the way up to 100 miles. Bob’s a
competitive dude, and he has turned those competitive juices to the admittedly
unique fringe sport called pack burro racing. Check out this outstanding CNN article and video on it. It’s a fascinating sport, combining ultra endurance,
ultra patience and ultra luck in taming the wild beasts that accompany the
humans. Here’s what Bob said in a Facebook post that accompanied this picture: “Yukon
and I took most of the season to figure each other out but finally started
running as a team the past two weeks. He usually slows and stares at
photographers so I was happy to see this shot of us running relaxed while
leading the race in Victor. We didn't get the win but Yukon showed he still has
the competitive spirit.”
In a subsequent email, Bob pointed
out that our Marist Running world has cornered the market on these bizarre outlier offshoots. Some examples: It’s been well chronicled how we are a true
friend to the racewalk community, and we’re proud of that; my trance-like fixation
on fixed-time ultramarathon races; loyal program follower Peter VanAken (hammer
throw school record holder), who has branched out into the eyebrow raising
pursuits of dragon boat racing and sculpture parks accompanying our cross
country course at Vassar Farm. I’m sure I’m forgetting some other oddities out
there. Anyway. There. I did it. A whole post about donkeys without any “ass”
puns. If you bother to check out the CNN piece, you’ll notice they showed far
less restraint.
1 comment:
just to give Blog readers more background on DRAGON BOAT RACING--
the sport is "local"- in Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson River, third Saturday in July, each year- http://www.dutchessdragonboat.org/history/ (This page mentions Marist College graduate Bob Creedon ('74), who was extremely helpful in starting the event here in Poughkeepsie, and continues to be involved).
"national"- whatever state you are in, you should be able to find a competition to be a spectator, or actually join a team and paddle for fun and exercise, or for winning- http://usdbf.org/about_us/our_story
and "international"- the ICF sponsored World Championships, which just finished, had on the US National team roster a Vassar College senior, Matthew Au, who won gold and bronze medals for steering two boats, during this multi-nation elite event. International championships and multiple countries participating in Dragon boat Racing can also be found from the international dragon boat federation website: https://www.idbf.org/
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