Woooo Pig Soo -- oops! :(

The Arkansas Razorbacks played the #1 ranked team in college football, the Florida Gators. Arkansas was a 25-point underdog. 25 points!! This, after we beat Texas Tech in Dallas, and then beat #19 ranked Auburn at home. OK, so we were in Florida. OK, so they have (arguably) the best quarterback in all of college football. We put on a helluva game. Final score 23-20 Florida. We didn't even let them score the 25 points they were favored by!! Our one screw up? Tejada missed yet another field goal. Then we allowed Florida to take it down the field and score one of their own with 9 seconds left. What confuses me is why after we took the kickoff and got decent field position did we not let Mallett throw the hail mary 60 yards (he's capable of throwing it 70 yards in the air) and hope for a miracle catch or a pass interference call. No, we decided to try the "throw the ball backwards forever until someone tackles us" routine. That is so played out! Hell, we threw it backwards two or three times, then got tackled from BEHIND! How stupid did that turn out? Well, I'll say what everyone else will probably say about this loss...it was a great game, our defense played well, and we'll use this game to build on the rest of our season and next season. Been there, heard that. Unfortunately, it's yet to work!

Also, today my son ran the Chile Pepper 5k in Fayetteville. I decided to go, even though I knew my knee (still cracked) would be reminding me later that the walk between the car and the race (back and forth is about the same as what they ran!) would hurt. Well, I walked, and it does. Anyway...I found Anthony near the start line about 1/2 hour before the race. He, however, did not find me until about 10 minutes before the race. LOL! He was doing warm-ups with the rest of the team, and I was not about to interfere. I talked to him a little before the race, helping to boost his confidence. He is SO capable of running under 7 minutes for a mile. And yes, this one is 3.1 miles, rather than the 2 mile runs he is used to. But it's a good course, he's done it before. I told him, you can do this in 21, and I'd like to see it. BUT, if you finish in under 22 minutes, you can pick where we go for dinner tonight. "Really?!" he asked. "Really!" I replied. I also told him, if you pass a marker (1 or 2 miles) and hear a time OVER 7 or 14 minutes, you're running too slow, and pick up the pace. The gun went off, and off they went. I was able to see him run a couple of times, as they pass by so you can applaud, yell encouragement or times, and yelled for him to pick up the pace and such. He got to the straight run towards the end in 20 minutes and high change, and then had a double turn and the stretch to the finish. I hoped like hell he would make the 22 or less, and yelled to him he's got 1 minute to finish. Blue! Red! Blue! (You yell the colors in front of them, and they know it means to pass them). I got to the finish line a moment before he did, and watched as he crossed the line. He wasn't able to see me, and I wasn't able to yell encouragement, but I think one of his coaches were there, so that was good. He crossed in 21 minutes 55 (or 56 -- it's up for debate) seconds! YESSS! He beat his best time in a 5k run by almost 2 full minutes (previous best 23:44)!

Ten days from now, they have their final race of the season. It's in Rogers (next town over) and last year, while he ran 2k in 16 minutes or worse every race, this race he did in 14 minutes and some. Everyone says it's the easiest course there is. Well, Van Buren was easy this year and he did it in 14:37, which sucked! But after this, he's got all the confidence in the world. And I know the coaches will not ease up on them this week because there is still one meet left. I am fully expecting him to finish that race in UNDER 13 minutes (hey! one can dream right?). Will let you know how it turns out.