Last weekend I participated in the 9th Annual PNC Bank Miles for Moffitt race, which takes place at the campus I spend so much of my time at, the University of South Florida, Tampa. And even though I've spent roughly 40 hours a week for the past 12 years on campus, racing on campus is still exciting to me. It feels territorial, like it's somehow my race. But the thing about this particular race is that it's very much not my race; this race--or its proceeds, rather--belongs to everyone who can benefit from cancer research, and that pretty much means everyone . The race itself was a good one for me. I haven't had the spring race season I'd hoped for; even though I started off with a great marathon , the ensuing injury and nagging pain from it have kept me in running flux--trying to maintain miles but not really able to push very hard. But this was a shorter race (shorter than the last "trial" race I did), and I felt I was ready to push. Of course, I ha...

Joe and I played in an intramural faculty/staff softball game at USF last weekend. We were in the "fun" division, rather than the competitive division, which was the only way I would join. It turns out that in the fun division, there are just as many rules and emotions involved as in competition, but far less skill. We were fortunate to have experienced players on our team, such as Joe, who compensated for weaker players, such as myself. The rules in this particular softball game were centered around female participation. For example, either the pitcher or the catcher must be female; females must bat in the order 2, 4, 6, 8; a female can opt to take a base walk without hitting if the male hitter preceding her is walked; etc. While my instinct was to be offended (especially at the latter rule), I didn't make any great efforts to stand out as a player. In fact, Joe and I both sat out of the first four innings, until we were then subbed for two other players. I "played...