Race Review: 2017 Big Sur International Marathon (4/30/2017), or: “Secluded in the canyon, lost within a turn of fate…”

“So here’s the deal, Hokeydude. Are you in any way interested in running what could be THE most beautiful marathon on the planet? Oh and by the by, it will also be one of the most trying, challenging, and arduous courses you will ever run? They’ve got strawberries…” The things we do for fruit… The…

Race Review: 2017 Gate River Run (3/11/2017), or: “Early morning sunshine, tell me all I need to know…”

NOTE: I’d love to include lots of photos of the race in this race review. I mean, that would be 37 flavors of awesome, am I right? Sadly as it were, 904 Fitness was hired by the Gate River Run race organizers to take and upload all race photos, and here we are 11 days after…

Race Review: 2017 Best Damn Race Orlando Half Marathon (3/4/2017), or: “Keep your head still, I’ll be your thrill…”

So I returned to Orlando on the weekend of March 4th, 2017, to run the 2017 Best Damn Race Orlando Half Marathon, but I wasn’t all too enthused about it. And believe you me, it had NOTHING to do with the race itself. To put it bluntly: I’ve been having a pretty weak running season,…

Race Review: 2017 Publix Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon (2/19/2017), or: “Lord, leave me if you can…”

The 2017 Publix Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon! That’s a cheap writing trick, isn’t it? If you can’t come up with a suitable opening line to act as a “hook” to attract the “attention” of your “readers”, you simply list the subject of your presentation with a great big exclamation point at the end of…

Album Review: “Changes” — The Monkees (1970)

Sometimes you can tell things are really off, just by looking at the album cover. And Changes, the ninth album from The Monkees, is clearly no exception to that particular manifesto. Where is everyone, and why is everyone decked out like Variety Show extras? And did I say The Monkees? I meant What Was Left…

Race Review: 2017 Town Of Celebration Half Marathon (1/29/2017), or: “I’ll run in the rain ’til I’m breathless…”

OK so, surprising absolutely no one at all, but I’m like a massive wuss when it comes to cold, rainy weather. I’m not even kidding. I spent most of the first half of 1997 working as a consultant in the Bay Area — San Ramon, to be specific. All I remember of January through March…

Race Review: 2017 Walt Disney World Marathon (1/8/2017), or: “Sky blue flight on a cold wind to Valhalla…”

I’ve wanted to run a COLD marathon since like forever, man. And by cold, I mean “Cold to someone who has lived in South Florida” for 90% of his existence, and the entirety of his formative years and most of his adult life. I want the Ice Age experience, and by that I mean something…

Running the 2017 Walt Disney World Marathon, or: “If the shoe fits I want you to wear it…”

And we’re back. January is a pretty nifty time around all points Hokeyblog, and I’m not talking about any of that “New Year, New Me” idiocy. Everyone is pretty much the same nozzle they were weeks ago, and we (you, me, everyone reading these words) are no different. Except we’re much better looking. Cheers to…

Buttkickin’ Holiday Songs: “What Is Life” — George Harrison (1970)

Tell me, what is my life without your love Tell me, who am I without you, by my side? Like this song needs any introduction from me, amirite? And here comes the next question: how in the wide, wide world of sports is the great George Harrison’s What Is Life any measure of a holiday…