On Wednesday night, my beloved Philadelphia 76ers played the despised Miami Heat in a one-game playoff as part of the NBA Play-in Tournament (if you don’t know what that is, I’m not going to bother to explain it to you. I tried to give my wife an overview of the Play-in Tournament last night, and the more I talked, the more confused she looked.)
It was an ugly, physical game, with the 76ers struggling to execute on offense and falling behind by 14 points. As usual, I handled it poorly. At different points in the game, I:
- Switched the TV to the Phillies game (they won, yay!)
- Left the TV room to walk around downstairs muttering to myself
- Texted my son, “Maybe they can beat Chicago” (their likely next opponent if they lost the game)
- Told my wife that we could watch something else (she was not watching the game with me. I had to go downstairs and interrupt her from whatever she was doing and inform her that we could watch something else. She did not take me up on my offer.)
- Turned the TV off entirely and swore I wasn’t going to watch anymore, while constantly glancing at the score on my phone
- Finally settled on turning the game back on, but with the volume off
Despite all of my inanity, the Sixers were actually fighting back and keeping the game close, which made it even that much more painful to watch as every possession was agonizingly crucial. At one point, a friend texted me, “This is exciting!” to which I responded, “This is awful.”
I love sports!
(Epilogue: Our story has a happy ending as the good guys pulled out a one-point victory and I spent the next two hours trying to calm down enough to go to bed.)
I have the same sort of love/hate relationship with running. I’ve run a few 5Ks, 10Ks, and half marathons over the years and every time I have those two dueling thoughts: This is exciting/This is awful. Fortunately, distance running — or running of any kind — is not required to participate in the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge. You can walk or run as fast or slow as you like.
Let this serve as your reminder that the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge ends Sunday. Click here for all the details.
Good luck, and happy stepping!
CMEPALOOZA 