The trip is happening soon. Everyone seems to be at the beach. We are providing meaningful silence, in a way, honoring the journey that begins our yearly devotion. We are two days into College football fall pre-season practice. Every crisis is magnified. The betting is rampant in Columbus as folks put their lunch money on when Urban will take his first "Leave of Absence." The certain anticipation is palpable. I don't know what that word means, exactly, but, having seen it in use, I think that it may apply.

Sorry, just too wrapped up in NBC's milli-second-by-milli-second coverage of anything having to do with the ancient Greek Olymipc sport of beach volleyball.

Actually, Herve, it's only Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh-Jennings.  NBC showed their entire match yesterday in prime time.   The other Americans upset the #1 seed Brazilian team -- and NBC showed exactly one point of thier match.   That said, I do like beach volleyball and think it's actually a very made-for-tv sport (like football) becuse of the pacing and quick bursts of action.

A question for you, Herve, is NBC's coverage of track unusually bad?  I'm finding the sprints and some of the other track coverage fairly boring (love the 1500 meter, though).  That announcer is awful and the coverage just doesn't have the same excitement as, say, swimming races did.  Is that because of something in the way they are covering it, is it because track doesn't work as well on TV, or is it just me? 

I'm pretty certain I saw a point lost while a gal was pulling her bikini bottom out of her buttcrack. It was riveting "sport." You should be more open minded about it, herve.

we have the same discussion at home every 4 years, with mrs. ziik turning on the Olympics to humor me with the beach sports, and me having to remind her, "that's really not why I watch."

I had a parttime secretary once, who was an alternate on the women's volleyball team. but that was pre=sand. She was a real big girl, so I did pay attention when an announcer gave the heights and weights of the women for one match I caught.(Idle curiosity.) My secretary was hyperactive, and ate non-stop while she typed, at the fastest rate I ever have seen. She also had sex with every male client who walked in the door, and did not last real long in the office. My guess: the sand would have slowed her down considerably.

Herve, I may be in DC next week. Want a pie?

What, Herve -- You don't like ass-crack volleyball????

 What is this NBC you speak of? In the Civilized World (ie every part of the planet NOT ruled by NBC) we get to watch the Games. Loved the German shot putters celebration after taking gold yesterday, and got to watch it in its entirety and live. Women's 100m hurdles final was epic, and might have broken a world record if the English weather had not been a factor. Then there is Oscar Pistorius, the Costa Rican triathlete who suffered an awful fall but still got up and finished (well out of medal contention), the South Sudanese marathoner running as an "independent" competitor because his country does not have an Olympic committee yet, the South Korean fencer screwed out of a medal by a timing error, etc... Of the entire American team, the only compelling stories I see are the female boxer who had been a childhood abuse victim (and was knocked out in the prelims) and the women's volleyball team which may be better than the Flo Hymen era team. Go NBC! Wave the flags! (especially the white parts).

The Twitter world and gwhoops.com blasts NBC and vows not to watch their Olympic coverage. 

In other news, NBC yawns and then calculates it's record TV ratings for the London Olympics.

NBC has done a terrible job of covering track during the only time when track "matters" a little bit to most people If it's not "fast" then they don't cover it. I've watched almost ALL of the track coverage online where they have the BBC announcers covering and they show things in their entirety.

There have been plenty of great and historic track events this Olympics: Rupp's 10K silver, Manzano's 1500 silver, Dibaba's awesome 10K finish, Justin Gatlin's medal back from the dead, Jen Schor's women's pole vault gold upset medal, Reece Hoffa's medal on his final throw, the freakin' fastest top-to-bottom 100 meters of all-time, etc. These are all good stories when covered correctly.

Sadly, track does NOT lend itself to the quick-cuts and short-attention spans of the American audience so we get what we have now which is whatever gets coughed-up from NBC's slice-and-dice machine. I don't know what market research suggested to them that every second of beach volleyball and/or the opening syncro dives of the Uzbekhs is vital to selling ad dollars, but their research firm certainly didn't call my house, nor anyone in family, nor my friends.

Maybe track athletes wear too many clothes?

 You obviously haven't been watching the women's pole vault or high jump. hervette asks why they compete in their underwear and is scared someday she'll have to wear that stuff if she keeps running track.

They let women exert themselves like that? Who knew.

I hope hervette is well, and grows fast, strong, and smart.

Did you ever try the pole vault, herve? I think it's the toughest single event, but I guess the decathalon beats all. Mr. Khardashian ran track in a town near mine, and turned out to be a pretty big deal. But he was more manly back then.

I'm WAAAAY too short and too weak to do pole vault (not to mention too chicken). In terms of just running, I think the 400 and the 800 are by far the toughest events because they are both sprints now, but the human body can't possibly sprint either distance.

herve, toss in a few hurdles on the 400.  

I used to....

I ran the mile. My times were so bad, that if I could recall them, I would not admit to them. My best race, I finished 4th. A teammate spiked me (we wore spikes. I don't even know if they still do) on the inside, and I got all whinny for a while before I realized I still was running for something.

We had great 880 runners, so I rarely took to the course. But, once coach tossed me in. I was not used to a staggered start, so I sort of went balls out, and was very impressive for 600 yards or so. I recall Coach Soper yelling "we got ourselves a runner!" I loved that guy. But, I'm pretty sure I was puking before I hit the finish.

I may have cleared 4 feet, with and without the pole. You're right. We had only one guy with the nerve to really take the event on. A real nice little guy who was intent on being somebody big. In our day, and at a small school, I think 10 feet was pretty much it. Whatever it was, he looked great doing it.

 From Squid, catch the Irish Feed from Sailing.

110 hurdles is my favorite track event. combination of technique and speed. too bad Skeets Nehemiah never got a chance to run for gold.

Years ago at a World Championships, Allen Johnson (the great U.S. 110 hurdler) offered to run a leg of the 4X400 relay for the U.S. team. He ran a solid leg but vowed to never do it again, calling it the toughest race of his life.

 I'm watching women's field hockey. 

i went to White Plains HS when Larry James was running track. it was a great team he wasn't the fastest guy so they had him run the 180 (yds) hurdles and triple jump. Larry starred at Villanova and earned a silver in the 400 at the '68 Olympics edged by Lee Evans. he won gold in the 4x400 relay.

Dolphin Michael, you made my day with that video, thanks.  I sail and and it brought me out of my normal mid-afternoon blues (cocktails don't start till 1600).  And we all need to learn to sail, GW will have a sailing team.

 Great to see you're still out there, kdb.

 After watching the 800m men's final, the 400m is for whimps.

We used to say the 800 was a 400 with a 400 warm-up. Rudisha is a GOD! Guy opens in 48s!!!!!????!!!!!

Wish the coverage was better because this is the best track Olympics I've ever seen. Each event is very deep and has some of the top times from top to bottom in the finals.

 This guy seems happy with NBC's coverage...

Our track team had dedicated 880 runners, whose times were great. I know, I was runner number 4, and never could break into the top 3.

We used a real nice, but real dumb football player at the 440, number 2 spot. He was sort of bulky (hey, we were a small high school), but had real speed out to maybe 40 yards, max. Still, he'd start off real hot, force the pace, and scare his opponents into slacking off. It was truly amazing how he'd come in 2nd or 3rd, most every meet at crusing speed.

I know I am getting old fast. But I just can't get into the sand sports, no matter how they are packaged. Yep, if they're Mediterranean types, I'll check out their height and weight, etc., but not the game itself. I still enjoy the hurdles, no matter the gender involved. That's athleticism.

And, I'd give up everything if I could really run the mile again.