As of last weekend, my softball season has officially come to an end (well except for the team I manage, but don't actively play on...that tournament is over Labor Day weekend.)

But for all intents and purposes, my season is over.



My Maryland alumni team played so-so in the elimination round of our tournament on Saturday. We won our first game, but got knocked out in the next round by a Tufts team that was just crushing home runs.

It didn't help that we weren't hitting the ball well that game, and we made some mistakes in the field. Not the best way to end the season, but what can ya do?



Overall softball was probably some of the most fun I had this summer.

I'm sad to see the season go because it means summer is pretty much officially winding down. I can already tell the days are getting shorter because it's dark again when I wake up to run. Boooo.

With my grad classes set to start next week and football slowly pushing out baseball on ESPN, it seems like summer is really starting to wind down as fall approaches.

And the start of fall means the start of fall racing season!

Here's a peek at what I'm signed up for this season:

Navy-Air Force Half Marathon - Sept. 14, Washington, D.C

Emily and I signed up for this race back in March or April when we were riding out post-Shamrock highs. It's one of the few DC-area races that we haven't already run, so it seemed like a good addition to our race calendars. The course doesn't look fantastically exiting, but that's OK. I'm sure we'll still have fun.

Army 10 Miler - Oct. 12, DC

This is another DC race that I've never done because it either normally conflicts with another race I'm running or football season. But luckily this year, it conflicts with neither. My mom is coming in to town to run the race too, which will be fun. The only thing I'm a little worried about is the very, very strict no headphones rule. It's been a long time since I've run a distance that long without my jams.

MCM 10K - Oct. 26, DC

I've done the full Marine Corp marathon, but never the 10K, and I thought it would be fun to race something shorter later in the season. Plus, you still get a medal and a congrats from a Marine for finishing the 10K. And maybe I'll actually be able to enjoy the latter miles of the course, since I pretty much hated every minute of it when I ran the full a few years ago.

(So you may have noticed the military theme for the first three races of the year. And it's true...and a little bit intentional. Part of the reason I signed up for the MCM 10K was so that I could hit a race from all the major military branches that host races in DC.)

Across the Bay 10K - Nov. 9, Annapolis, MD

Driving across the Bay Bridge to get to the beach pretty much terrifies me, but the chance to run across the 4-ish mile bridge that spans the Chesapeake Bay and connects Maryland's Eastern Shore to the western part of the state seemed wayyy too awesome to pass up. Let's just hope race day isn't ridiculously cold and windy. That would make for some pretty awful race conditions.

Other races that are potentially be considered, but I haven't slapped down an entry fee yet:

• 9/11 Memorial 5K


• Philly Half


• Rehoboth Half

What are you racing this fall? Anything fun?

This weekend I had another softball tournament -- this time for my Maryland alumni team.

The tournament for this league actually spans two weekends. This past weekend, 72 teams are broken into groups and play three games over the course of two days. Much like the World Cup, two teams advance out of each group to make it to next weekend's elimination round.


(Shamelessly borrowed from CAN's FB page)

We had two games on Saturday (8:10 and 10:30 a.m.) and then one game on Sunday (2 p.m.).

I'm so, so glad we had the late game on Sunday because after waking up really early, playing softball and then spending the rest of the day baking in the sun at what amounts to a 72 team epic tailgate, I was exhausted.



In good news, we won all three of our games -- beating two of the teams in our group by the mercy rule and knocking off the team ranked #1 over all.

So we've advanced to next week, and we'll find out today what time our quest for the championship begins.