It was truly an amazing day, Marathon Monday. I’ve never seen anything like it. The kind of energy that was being expended by these 22,500 runners, but also the energy of the crowd that was there to cheer them on. I can only imagine how it must have felt for the runners to be feeding off that energy for 26.2 miles. Truly amazing.
It was a lot of fun watching my little sister run, so much so that I might try to do it next year. GO HOOPS!!!
Got them via FedEx today! They felt really comfortable and look like a creamcicle. They are the Tecnica Diablo Magma Hiperfit Ski Boots.
Mortierbrigade, a Belgian ad agency, created a website which allows you to put your own in Materazzi’s mouth. They have a sample on the website, which isn’t half bad. But you can create your own dialog, and share it! Go now…materazzisays.com
My source in Germany just sent me this top secret video of the Italian national team training in preparation for their opening world cup game against Ghana.
Right now I am still just collecting and looking at the data from my rides and runs. As I learn more about my fiteness level and how my body reacts to various exercise, I will be programming specific workouts into the watch. Then instead of defining a workout as 1 mile easy, 2 miles up-tempo, 1 mile easy and guessing where each of those mile markers are, I will be able to know exactly when I’ve covered each mile at what pace and at what heart rate.
If you want one for yourself, check out the deal at Campersland. They have it for $60 less than most places are selling it for, and they upgraded my shipping to 2nd Day Air for free due to the fact that my order was backordered for so long.
Check out this Nike Video out of France, some crazy footwork, the urban soccer environment is pretty interesting right now. I wonder if these types of games happen in the US. It would be fun to check one of these games out live if anyone knows where to find one.
This week Red Bull purchased the Metrostars of Major League Soccer and changed their name to Redbull New York. Red Bull is well known for their creative marketing, which includes air races, sky diving, F1, Nascar, Raves and now soccer. While certainly not the first company to self brand a sports team, this is one of the first in the US and the first in the media capital of the world. The question is will fans embrace the new team or will they see this as corporate marketing gone too far? For my money Red Bull is a fantastic brand, that certainly follows through on its events, crazy ideas and marketing plans. If that energy extents to the soccer team then I am sure it will eventually a smashing success, I still can’t seem my self cheering Lets go Redbull, here we go redbull…some how it just doesn’t seem right.
So I got around to watching the closing celebration of the XX Winter Olympic Games. Overall I really liked them, and I enjoy how all the athletes mingle. I want to know who is in charge of picking the artists. So I assume Canada was responsible for picking Avril Lavigne since she is from Canada, but did Italy really want Ricky Martin to perform hits from his 1999 album? Ricky hasn’t performed on stage in 4 years according to his own press release, and he just launched himself on a world tour. He is promoting a new album, and Sony BMG is giving away the single to get attention. The Puerto Rico singer’s Latin America tour was sponsored by VISA and would you believe me if I said the Olympics were sponsored by the very same company? Still remember all those commercials for safe checking? Corporate America at work at the Olympics where all the athletes care about is equality, fair play, loyalty and respect for one another. I enjoy the games, competition, and know it would not be possible without corporate sponsors. I just wish more of the celebration was controlled by the local people instead of influential corporations in the USA.
PS: I loved the clowns, acrobats and history behind the Torino/Italy. But do people from Italy really sing YMCA?
The world’s largest, most important sporting event is happening this summer. Are you ready? That’s right, coming this June from Germany is the World Cup. The best 32 nations will gather to battle over soccer supremacy in front of a television audience in the billions. To get you ready to cheer on the red white and blue check out the video below made by one of the US team’s rising star, Clint Dempsey. Thats right a rapping soccer player, and you know what I must admit the beat is kind of catchy. Alright, alright it’s a bit cheesy but I can’t get enough of it, call it a guilty pleasure. Whatever you do prepare for a great summer of soccer and click below to get on the bandwagon.
Super Bowl XL. It was an XL party at my apartment this year with drinks for guys and girls, XL subs, nachos, chex mix, shrimp, new Kettle chip flavors, and the normal vegi plate. We watched the game in HD on ABC (KOMO 4 in Seattle) on my 42″ Fujitsu HD plasma. The game looked great (Gizmodo reasons), but there were issues. First, all of the pre-recorded black & white clips of star players holding the trophy were choppy and ended up cutting out. They had to pull out of them and cut them short. I bet that was a lot of work that went down the tubes, but didn’t change the game.
On the other hand, the officials for this HD XL Super Bowl had a major impact on the game. Holding calls, pass interference, a goal line play, and a rediculous chop block call all caused the Seattle Seahawks to lose momentum, yards, and points. The worst thing is I lost faith in the NFL. The officials missed calls yesterday, and the league has done nothing. NFL.com has no mention of the calls, and that includes the “Analysis & Opinion” section, while it is the cover story over at ESPN.com. In the day of blogs and open exchange of information I fully expect the NFL to be frank and talk about the mistakes. They should do it now, and not wait for it simply fade away. The Seahawks organization is taking the high road and not making any claims or statements, but what I want to know is: Where is the technology to fix these bad calls?
Why can’t the judges in the booth review flags quicker? Why can’t the booth official call down to the ref who has an ear bud and tell him he is about to make a mistake? It wouldn’t take but 15 seconds to see that Locklear didn’t commit a hold, and to wave off the flag. It wouldn’t take but 5 seconds to see that Hasselbeck was unjustly punished 15 yards for a below-the-waist block when he was obviously making a tackle on Taylor. Why isn’t there a rule that a touchdown must be undisputible upon review? Why don’t we have technology to identify the football under a pile of players, or one that places the ball in a virtual 3D field? We have invisible first down lines, but no way to tell if the ball crosses a plane. If your interested in starting a technology company and love sports (i.e. football), it appears the sports technology market is really vacant.
