In my mind’s eye, I remember it like it was yesterday.
I’m 14 years old, standing on third base. It’s my first summer of little league baseball, and it’s the first time I’ve actually made it to third base in a game.
That’s because I haven’t gotten many hits — none at all, in fact, all season. But this game, for this at-bat, I’ve made it to third base, after I walk on four pitches and the boy who hits after me strikes a single into left field.
I’m there, standing on the base. It’s a hot Georgia summer, the temperature is still in the eighties, even at seven o’clock at night. The bugs are swarming in the air, you can watch them pass in front of the lights craning over the field.
I try not to get distracted by any of that, because I’m watching the pitcher and the batter from my team, who’s in the batter’s box. One pitch, another. Then another, fouled off.
I’m jumpy, all nervous. Because if he makes good contact with the ball, I get a chance to do something I haven’t done yet all season – actually, in baseball at all yet: cross home plate. My first chance to score a run for my team, my first chance to get a “W” in my not-so-great-looking-so-far stats.
The count is one and two, and the pitcher gets set. I’m on third and another teammate is on first, so he starts from the stretch, his body unwinding as he throws toward home and the batter. In the blink of an eye, it’s there and my teammate swings…
Ever had an experience like that? There’s something about being on third base; you’re almost there. Home plate, the place that’s both where you left and where you’re trying to get back to, is just ninety feet away. You can see it, almost touch it. It’s right there.
And yet, you’re still ninety feet away. Far enough that if you just ran for it, the pitcher would throw the ball to the third baseman, who would then either tag you out or catch you in a rundown with the catcher. So you can’t throw caution to the wind and just go for it.
If you’ve been training along with us these past three months, we’re in exactly the same spot: we’re a little less than one month out from the half marathon we’ve been training towards, the Richmond Half Marathon on November 11. (There’s still time to sign up for it and run with us, by the way!)
We have just three more weeks of training: one more big long run, then a couple weeks of tapering, and then it’s race day. We’re almost there.