Sports thoughts
Imagine running a marathon through the dense forests of Alaska and in the back of your mind you are thinking about the guidelines given to you by the race officials: “If confronted by a moose, rule No. 1 – Run, rule No. 2 – hide behind a tree.” Think that’s dangerous, the day before the Alaska marathon a 16-year-old was mauled by a bear.
This is just one of the adventures Yuma’s Tami Harmon has faced in her trek across the United States. I think it’s time to mention Harman has run marathons in each state of our great country – twice. Now folks that’s 26,100 miles on our odometers. Throw in 75,000 miles in training, most of us would get a new vehicle, but Tami keeps running.
How many of us would like to run 26.1 miles in Leadville, Colorado, elevation 10,000 feet? No, the race wasn’t downhill, runners had to climb to 13,000 feet where they were given Tylenol and Diet Coke to keep them from passing out. At 13,000 feet I have trouble walking across the street.
Harmon loves running marathons so much that she ran three in three days – Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. If that’s not enough, in 2017, she ran six marathons between September 3 and September 24. I’d love to have her frequent flyer miles.
But for Tami Harmon her journeys across America have brought fear, sadness and injury along with the joy she gets from running. Let’s start in Boston, where Harmon qualified for the Boston Marathon; yes, the year was 2013. Crossing the finish line and receiving her medal, Harmon heard the first of two blasts. Just two minutes before Harmon had passed in front of the bombing sites and the terrorists on that infamous day.
WASHINGTON — In his first home Stanley Cup Final game after 13 long years checkered with as many disappointments as milestones, Alex Ovechkin was not going to be denied the opportunity to do something special.
He played with an edge. He played with joy. And he played with the leadership his Washington Capitals have come to expect.
Ovechkin dived to the ice to score his 14th goal of the playoffs, laid down to block shots, dished out hits and, along with Evgeny Kuznetsov, muscled the Capitals past the Vegas Golden Knights 3-1 on Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Showing the kind of emotion on the ice and the bench from his younger days, Ovechkin led the way and now has Washington two wins away from the first championship in the 43-year history of the franchise.
“It’s the Stanley Cup Final,” Ovechkin said. “What do you wanna do? It’s all in for everybody.”
The Capitals suddenly look in complete control of the series thanks to Ovechkin and Kuznetsov, who fired a wrist shot past Marc-Andre Fleury that made it perfectly clear the injury that knocked him out of Game 2 was not bothering him. Invoking Michael Jordan’s 63-point game on a broken foot and 38-point game with the flu, Kuznetsov said: “When you’re hurt, you play a lit-