A glorious weekend

My weekend plans were brilliant.\nThe weekend after the first week of classes I planned on going hard, relentless and without abandon. Coach Hep would say I was living with "dispatch." I was going to squeeze in as many IU athletic events into two and a half days that time and space would allow. And I did.\nOne cross country meet, a volleyball match, a football game and three soccer games (two men's, one women's) later, I took the time to reflect on a 60-hour stretch where, if I wasn't watching sports in person, I was watching them on TV, arguing about them with friends or playing them for my own athletic glory - however inconsequential to the rest of the world that might be. You can only speculate on the final scores recorded in my dreams this weekend.\nI only doubted my plan once -- and only for a few seconds at that. "Why are you doing this?" a buddy of mine asked. The answer was quite complicated. I paused, took a breath and explained:\n"I am doing this for my own sheer enjoyment," I said. "This pilgrimage is a homage to the first person who came across a sphere and saw possibility, to the first person who ran a distance and felt self-gratification amidst the pain. I'm doing this because I see beauty in a body in motion -- running, leaping, heaving -- against the forces that oppose him, real and imagined.\n"I'm doing this so I can finally say I've been to a collegiate cross country meet -- even if it was only a 5K community race -- to hear the crack of the gun at the start line and follow the cluster of runners with my own eyes until the last one disappears over the hill. I'm doing this to learn of a cross country runner's hidden enemies (gopher holes) and simple weapons (shoes, socks, rope and Gatorade), to listen to the heavy breathing of the lead runners rounding the bend and to watch as a Santa Claus-like man in red Under Armor makes that same bend 10 minutes later. I'm doing this to imagine how many nibbles of cookie and sips of milk that man sheds with each stride.\n"I'm doing this to take in the smell of the new hardwood floor at the University Gym," I said, "To attempt to decipher the high-pitched chatter of the Hoosier volleyball team before each serve. I'm doing this to feel sympathy for the opposition every time junior middle blocker Annie Moddrell winds up and slams a spike over the net, to see if there are crater marks left in the aftermath. I'm doing this to learn that a volleyball that ricochets into the rafters is still in play and that a fake spike can be just as dangerous as the real thing.\n"This quest is about defending the Rock on a Saturday night," I said. "It's about standing out, like the lone male in the Western Michigan University flag crew at Saturday's game. And it's about blending in, about losing yourself in a crowd of like-minded Hoosier fanatics. This quest is about songs and cheers that everyone knows (Go! Big! Red!) and no one knows ("Hail to Old IU"). It's about highs and lows, recovering a Bronco fumble, then throwing an interception on the very next play. This quest is about rushing to a women's soccer game at halftime and witnessing the third Hoosier goal before rushing back to Memorial Stadium just to say, 'I watched futbol between halves of football.' It's about anticipating the outcome of the Bucceto's pizza race and becoming the most popular guy in section 24 for exactly 5.6 seconds. It's about greasy fingers and no napkins.\n"I'm doing this to keep a tally on the number of times I hear the 'Ole! Ole! Ole! Ole!' song from the self-proclaimed 'Super Fans' of Bill Armstrong Stadium (four times, to be exact), to watch Hoosier freshman forward Darren Yeagle hug strangers in the crowd after scoring a goal. I'm doing this to witness goals scored in the same minute twice in one game on a dazzling Sunday afternoon, to hear the roar of the crowd after a game-tying goal with 11 ticks on the clock left. I'm doing this because the men's soccer team keeps saying, 'It's one of those days' after a wild ride of a contest. I never want to miss 'one of those days.'\n"I'm doing this to stand alone on a putting green with a good friend and hear him say, 'I love it when I'm the only one out here. It gives me some kind of inner peace' as the sun dips closer to the horizon and understand him completely. That is why I'm doing this."\n"I see," my friend said. "So what are you doing next weekend"