I’m exhausted and my body aches. All over. As I mentioned in my inaugural post, I am a soccer official. This weekend, my town hosted a regional tournament for teams wishing to play in the Louisiana State Cup, the state championship for Division-I soccer (traveling squads–more serious than rec soccer). Saturday and Sunday, I officiated soccer matches between some of the best teams in this region. On Saturday, I “centered” (the Center Ref–the one who runs on the field with the players) two games in the U-14 and U-15 Boys brackets. I ran my fanny off. Plus the sun was oppressive and the sunscreen–waterproof and sweatproof my foot!–melted off of me within 20 minutes.
Sunday, I AR’ed one game (The linesman, the guy who runs along the sideline (touch line) with he flag) and Centered another. To add tension to the situation, a former national referee and current state level referee and assessor served as the Tournament Referee, the ref in charge, as it were, who mediates complaints and disputes. He puttered all over the soccer complex in a golf cart watching and critiquing us. He gave great feedback and wonderful advice, but still, I found myself looking for the golf cart during stoppages in play.
Well, to make a long story longer, I had registered to run a 5K this Sunday as well. I decided I would go ahead and run, thinking that with all the sprinting and multi-directional running I had been doing, running in a straight line for 30 minutes might be fun. So, I ran. I saw a good friend and we decided to take it easy and run together. But in a classic case of male miscommunication, I though I was keeping pace with him (which I thought he was a little fast) and he thought he was keeping pace with me (and thought me a little fast for him). Nevertheless, we ran a pretty good race for a couple of older guys, and I once again broke 33 minutes (32:23) on a 5K, even with all that running that I had done over the past two days. It was very hot and the sun was rough. I found that even though I had consumed what I thought were adequate amounts of gatorade while reffing in the morning, I still was deficient on fluid. I was actually dry-mouthed when I finished the race.
My dear friend Lisa gave me my training program for the half-marathon and today’s scheduled run was 3 miles, so the 5K met that and the reffing took me a little farther. I’d guess that in the game I AR’ed, I ran an easy mile and a half, sprinting down the sideline. In the CR game, I probably ran 2 miles, maybe. Lots of play in the center of the field. I ran an easy 4 miles, if not farther, reffing on Saturday.
This Running Life 