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Wanderers Warding off Injuries
Wanderer fans will be holding their collective breath this month as Simon Newman competes in the Hare and Hounds run in Glasgow, Scotland. Fan favorite Newman has been on the shelf for more than a year with strained knee ligaments, and this will be his first race back.
Dixon Harvey was knocked out of his Wanderers debut at the Reach the Beach Relay with a sprained ankle sustained in training leading up to the event. His status for the upcoming Baltimore marathon is listed as uncertain.
Otherwise, the usually extensive Wanderer injury list is remarkable short with only substitute mascot Raspberry on injured reserve. The pug Raspberry, who serves as backup to Snowy when he is out on field trials, suffered a sprained elbow this fall. The vet attributes the injury to an old football injury. Rasberry is recovering nicely.
Humphrey Pep Talk Ignites Wanderers
The trip to Hell, Michigan, for the Dances with Dirt relay is always about the toughest fixture on the Wanderers running calendar. More than once, Wanderer runners have been tempted to call in sick rather than face the demanding 100-mile course, considered one of the toughest in the country. In fact, a number of Wanderer runners this year already had excuse slips from their doctors in hand when Tom Humphrey e-mailed his leg assignment directive to the team. These notes, reprinted verbatim sent to Susan Branson, Dean Bredenbech and Dan Gordon were so inspirational the Wanderers immediately went into attack mode.
“Dear all, I have traced out the legs, and apologize in advance. Everyone runs an easy leg, a medium leg, and a hard leg. Dean, please forward to Bernie, or maybe we should just spring this on him at the last minute so he can’t back out. I will bring plenty of copies for race day to minimize squabbling.”
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Leg 1: |
The Stampede-Dean will start us out for this 3.3 mile run. |
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Leg 2: |
Rave Run-Tom will lose dozens of positions while he slogs through this one. |
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Leg 3: |
Riccochet-Susan will have to make up what tom has lost. |
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Leg 4: |
Go to Hell-Dan gets the prestigious run to Hell! |
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Leg 5: |
ACG-Bernie starts his day with his hardest run. Sorry, really, I am, but it just worked out that way. |
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Leg 6: |
Horsey hell-Tom then loses more time as he embarks pathetically on his middle run. |
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Leg 7: |
Pinckney-Susan, poor Susan, this is fully-dipped DWD. |
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Leg 8: |
Just Dirt-Bernie, this should make up for the earlier run. |
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Leg 9: |
Dirt’s Revenge-Dan! Dan! Dan! It is a bit long, but most trails. |
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Leg 10: |
Don’t Get No Better-Susan ends her day with an easy lope-along. |
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Leg 11: |
The Stupid Leg-Dean’s Fun Run! At this point, I am wondering if Dean and I will remain friends. |
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Leg 12: |
Leg “X”- Tom ?!? Who made this stupid chart anyway? Good God, what was I thinking. Please, for all that is holy in the world, shoot me in the leg before I wander out on this trail! We’ll be lucky if I come back alive! Rated: Beyond classification, or as they say in the Tour de France, Hor’s Categorie (roughly translated means, “this is where Lance drops the field like a brick off a bridge.”) |
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Leg 13: |
Trigo Summit-Assuming Tom makes it back, Bernie gets this sweet run. |
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Leg 14: |
Mortal Sin-Dean, your day is done once you finish. |
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Leg 15: |
Zoom to Glory-Dan, again you get to finish the race, collect the broken bodies and dreams of your teammates and head to a bar. |
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| Susan Branson on Leg 7, legs before... |
...and legs after (dancing with dirt)! |
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