Busy Weekend

What a hectic weekend! I was photographing a soccer tournament in Tiverton and Pawtucket on Saturday and Sunday. It consisted of 9-10 year old kids, girls on Sat. and boys on Sunday. There were 2-3 games every hour and i had to get photos from them all which means a lot of hustling around, 34 games in 13 hours between 2 days. It was fun to watch the kids playing, but equally annoying to listen to some of the parents. They seem to forget that there are actual coaches to tell the kids what to do. Why confuse the kids? They have people yelling at the from both sidelines, just shut up, sit down and enjoy the game. If you are going to yell, try some encouragement. I'm not a parent, so you can take my opinion for what it's worth. I'm just an outside observer.

See a few soccer photos here

Before Sundays games started, i stopped by the Rhody 5k NE Grand Prix in Lincoln. I would have thought it was Lincoln, Ma. or NH when i looked around at the lack of RI talent that shows for this race. Being that it is the USATF-NE Grand Prix and gets almost 800 runners is great, but why aren't there more good RI runners at this race? I counted 6 RI men in the top 100 and 12 RI women in the top 100. I realize that there were two other races in this tiny state on Sunday and that real Rhode Islanders have a problem with traveling across the state without making hotel accomadations for the weekend. This is a good race on a somewhat dull course, but it is a 5k race and you aren't here to sightsee. The post race feed is great and they even have good, deep competition here, all the better to drag you along and get a good time out of it. I know that hosting a Grand Prix will boost a races numbers greatly, but i do wonder why they even bother considering holding one in RI. It would be nice to only hold the GP Series where the locals are going to support it. Runners drive hours to get here for such a short race, it just doesn't seem right.

You can check out a few photos from the race here.

The photo above is DJ Principe, son of Tuesday Night Turtle Prez Dave Principe. DJ ran 20.41 @ 6.40 pace, not bad for a 10 year old!

Next up, Northfield. See you there.

Scott