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Distance running was revered because it was indispensable. It was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldnt live to love anything else. - Christopher McDougall in Born To RunBy the time the mens marathon was staged in Rio, on the last day of the Olympics as per tradition, the average Indian fan had switched off. It was the first time since Rome 1960 tAWhen Dr. Mike Shingles had helped to pop Michigan States most beloved hip into place from his seat in the back of an Ann Arbor ambulance, he did what most football fans were doing on the night of Oct. 17, 2015: He reached into his pocket for a cellphone and started searching for the clip.Beside him, Jalen Watts-Jackson reclined in a relative moment of comfort and let the last half-hour start to wash over him. He braced for the next bump in the road on the short drive to the University of Michigans hospital and strained his neck to try to see what Shingles had on his screen. The clip wouldnt load. The cell towers near Michigan Stadium that night were working overtime.The relevant material, whether viewed on Internet video cut-ups or live on television that night, started shortly after 7:20 p.m. Michigan punter Blake ONeill bobbled a low snap, collided with a pair of Spartan rushers and flipped the ball directly into the arms of Watts-Jackson. A 37-yard sprint later, Watts-Jackson lunged into the end zone with two Wolverines draped around his legs, leaving a cleat and a healthy hip behind.If a viewer makes it this far without scrubbing backward to confirm what his or her eyes just saw, the scoreboard graphic in the corner speeds into action, scrolling to a final score: Michigan State 27, Michigan 23.Victoria Norris made it to the exit gate at Michigan Stadium around the time Watts-Jacksons hip was sliding into place. She walked into the concourse and tapped in a password to check her messages on her cellphone. Then a junior in Michigans kinesiology school, Norris kept her cellphone in airplane mode during football games to preserve the battery. Tonight, she was going to need it.Two sections over, Chris Baldwin climbed the steps of the Big Houses low, sloping bowl and ignored the incessant buzzing in the pocket of his jeans. The Saginaw, Michigan, native had friends and family on both sides of the rivalry and knew they would all be pinging him tonight to gloat or commiserate. He had no plans to respond to anyone until he thumbed through the list of incoming messages and saw each came with an attached picture of his shocked face.With social media it happens almost instantly, Norris said. We saw that happen before, so I wasnt that surprised when my phone started blowing up. I didnt realize to what extent it would be until probably the next morning.Norris and Baldwin, along with Watts-Jackson, of course, became the faces of an unforgettable moment in college football history. Do you remember the final score when Stanfords band took the field too early? Can you recall how far Doug Flutie launched his Hail Mary before leaping into the arms of a teammate? The details of last years rivalry game -- the 27-23 final score, the 37-yard return -- will start to fade. The displays of emotions are the parts that are built to last.In the clip, the camera tilts up into the stands, and Baldwins face is the first we see after Watts-Jackson reaches the end zone. His wrists are pressed against the sides of his head in a mixture of anguish and disbelief. Behind his left elbow a young woman stands with her bottom jaw temporarily detached from the rest of her face. Next to her a man in the same yellow sweatshirt as Baldwin wraps his arms around his own head like hes trying to squeeze the sight of Michigan States touchdown out of his eyes. For whatever reason, the camera settled on Baldwin.He had been coming to the Big House to watch his Wolverines since kindergarten, making the decision to move a couple of hours south and study computer engineering an easy one. As far as he can remember, Baldwin says, he had never been on the stadium videoboard or more than a spec in the camera lens in a television broadcast before that night.I figured this will be funny for a day at the most, Baldwin said. Then well move on to the NFL Sunday, and thatll be the end of it.Two months later, he was in Atlanta shaking hands with Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson. Baldwin attended the Home Depot College Football Awards in December to hand Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio his trophy for the years best play. Dantonio looked shocked -- how fitting -- to see him.Is that you? Dantonio asked the very first time they saw each other in person.Yeah, Baldwin said. Thats me.No further explanation was needed. Baldwin has met hundreds of new people since the play, all starting with some form of, Hey, arent you the guy ... Most want to recount their own memories or heartbreak or glee from that night. He has taken countless photos in the past year. His image has appeared on T-shirts from at least two companies (one of them sent him some food and made a donation to the Chad Tough Foundation). He and Norris even became a popular East Lansing Halloween costume last October.His favorite story came when old neighbors from Saginaw, diehard Spartan fans who were watching the game at their daughters wedding reception, let him know that they had seen him amid their celebration. The whole wedding party gathered around the TV with Baldwins face frozen in anguish and took a picture of their smiling faces beside his.At that point, Baldwin realized that this whole thing might be fun.Norris didnt appear on screen until nearly a minute after the touchdown. The camera danced between bewildered folks in blue and maize and giddy ones in green and white. Then it found Norris with her fingers laced together on top of a blue headband and her mouth and eyes still equally gaping.Her grandfather used to coach the golf team at Michigan, and football games at the Big House were personal for Norris. She spent Saturdays growing up yelling at the television screen with her mother while a trio of brothers less in love with sports found other ways to stay busy.It was an easy decision when a coach at nearby Skyline High School asked if Norris, then a goalkeeper for the high schools soccer team, wanted to try to kick field goals for his football team.Norris could put one through the uprights from as far as 45 yards out. She gave punting a brief try as well.I wasnt as good at it as kicking, she said. Knowing that I could get hit while punting was not my forte, so I decided it best to leave that to someone else.She semi-seriously entertained the idea of trying to be a walk-on at Michigan when she first enrolled, but decided instead to play goalkeeper for the Wolverines club soccer team.Norris got the photo requests and the questions just like Baldwin, albeit probably not quite as many. She saw the Halloween costume, too. When she needs a fun fact icebreaker at a new job or her last year of classes, she normally tells people that she has been made into a Crying Jordan meme on the web. No one has been able to top that one yet.Norris mother didnt see the pictures of her daughter until they landed in her email inbox a couple of days after the game. Norris visited the family home later that day to show her mom all the various places her picture had appeared over the weekend. The two gawked at Victoria now on the other side of the TV screen they had hollered at together.She was just mind-blown, Norris said. She thought it was really cool.A couple of days earlier, Norris phone battery had dripped down to 60 percent before kickoff. She slid it into airplane mode as she always does to conserve power and eliminate distractions from her post in the front row of the student section. The messages piled up as soon as she reconnected to the network leaving the stadium, and by the time she walked through town to her apartment the battery was dead.Watts-Jacksons phone was going through its own struggles at just about the same time. It sat unattended in in the visitors locker room at Michigan Stadium, vibrating until it could vibrate no more.When he was reunited with his belongings the following day after surgery in Ann Arbor, Watts-Jackson tried to flip through all the messages he had received. He had a couple of days to watch the clip and its aftermath while recovering in the hospital. His overloaded phone continued to freeze every time he turned it on.Appreciation for his play and concern for his hip poured in through other avenues that week. He received letters and phone calls and soon learned that someone had named a horse after him.Watts-Jackson, like Baldwin and Norris, described the moment as bittersweet, the chance to be part of a legend mixed in with a considerable dose of pain. He wasnt able to return to the field during the Spartans run to the College Football Playoff, and it would be several months before he could walk without some type of help.Id do it all over again, just as long as I knew it would get us to the playoff and keep our goals alive, he said in December.Norris and Baldwin cant say the same. Both said theyd gladly give up their extended 15 minutes of fame for a Michigan victory. The ordeal, though, hasnt come without its lessons. Why do players sacrifice as much as they do, and why do fans torture themselves with their deep emotional connections to a college football team? The sport can be so cruel and painful at times. But shared pain can be beautiful.I guess it really did lift my spirits, said Baldwin, who is still searching for tickets for another round of the rivalry on Saturday. Nike Vapormax Naiset . Breaking three of his own world records on his way to winning in Paris, Chan silenced the critics and left the audiences standing in appreciation and awe. Vapormax Ale . "Four now," Carl Gunnarsson told the Leaf Report proudly following a 5-2 victory over New York on Tuesday night, the clubs fifth straight at home. http://www.vapormaxsuomi.com/vapormax-flyknit-3-ale.html . -- The boos poured down on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at the end of a horrible first half. Nike Vapormax Suomi . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. Nike Vapormax Halvalla . Bryzgalov stopped 25 shots on Saturday in the Oklahoma City Barons 4-1 victory over the Abbotsford Heat. The Oilers signed Bryzgalov to a one-year $2 million contract last Friday after shedding payroll by dealing defenceman Ladislav Smid to the Flames. The New Orleans Pelicans manpower crisis worsened late Saturday, when the team announced that guard Lance Stephenson?had?suffered a groin injury that will require surgery.Stephenson will be re-evaluated, but the current expectation is he will miss weeks, not days, a league source told ESPNs Justin Verrier.The 26-year-old suffered the injury in Fridays loss to the Phoenix Suns, which dropped the Pelicans to 0-6. Stephenson made the trip with the team to San Francisco ahead of Mondays matchup with the Golden State Warriors but was sent back after an MRI Saturday confirmed the need for surgery.As a result, the Pelicans, who are already without Jrue Holiday (personal), Tyreke Evans (right knee) and Quincy Pondexter (left knee), can apply for an injury hardship waiver, which allows a team to temporarily add a 16th player to the roster when four players miss at least three games apiece.New Orleans, however, is currently unlikely to do so given the uncertainty surrounding the returns of Holiday and Evans, a source told Verrier.The Pelicaans wouldnt be able to add a new player until after Thursdays game in Milwaukee and couldnt play one of the four players out until 10 days after that.ddddddddddddHoliday is out indefinitely as he tends to his wife, Lauren, who underwent surgery to remove a benign tumor from the right side of her brain weeks after giving birth to the couples first child. Pelicans general manager Dell Demps said on Oct. 25 that Evans returned to on-court activity following right knee surgery in February, his third procedure in a span of nine months.Stephenson, who signed a partially guaranteed contract for the veterans minimum in September, won a spot on the roster in training camp, forcing the Pelicans to waive Alonzo Gees fully guaranteed $1.4 million contract.He has averaged 9.7 points, 4.8 assists and 3.3 rebounds in 27.0 minutes per game in the Pelicans winless start.ESPNs Justin Verrier contributed to this report.? ' ' ' hat India had three in the field, though, for Thonakal Gopi - one among Indias three male marathoners in Rio, it didnt matter that his event wasnt among the most closely followed in the country. He was living a dream.Being at the Olympics was an incredible experience, he says, The target I had set myself was to breach the 2:12 national record. The record was set by Shivnath Singh in Jalandhar way back in 1978.Clocking his personal best, Gopi finished a second shy of compatriot Kheta Ram, at 2:15:26 in 26th position in a field of 155 marathoners in Rio. Nitendra Rawat, the more accomplished marathon runner of the three, finished 84th. Gopi, though isnt new to pulling off surprises. His Olympic qualification itself was a huge surprise considering the marathon was never an event he trained for or competed in.At the Mumbai marathon earlier this year, Gopi, who had never before participated in a full marathon, was brought in as a pace-setter for Rawat. He was supposed to drop out after 30 kms. He didnt. And it paid off.Finishing 37 seconds behind Rawat at 2:16:15, Gopi, primarily a 10000m athlete, wore a look of disbelief when he learnt that he had qualified for the marathon event in Rio. I never imagined that I would compete in a full marathon and qualify for the Olympics, says Gopi, who names Mo Farah among his idols, I hadnt even trained for it. Maybe the intensity and continuity I put in my training for 10000m helped.42.1 kms or 26.2 miles, the distance covered at a marathon, is probably one that most of us take 21 days to complete given we walk/jog at least 2kms daily. The ability to judge pace-setting is one of the most crucial tactics in a marathon. Running too slow at the start to save up on energy may result in not being able to inject a quick burst of speed so as to take the lead. While a thrust on speed early on could mean losing advantage and steam towards the finish.Right through the run I was thinking of the 2:12 record and how I would have to cover a km in 3.8s to touch that mark, he says, Its obviously not feasible to maintain that timing in every km. After a certain point in the marathon your mind begins feeling unsettled, your body fatigued and your muscles begin to get tight. I felt I was losing control over my arms and feet and moved my arms back and forth swiftly to try to regain command.Gopi was clearly in the lead among the Indians for the larger part of the race. Completing the 30km mark in 1:34:59, the Kerala runner moved into 39th position. Kheta and Rawat were at 52nd and 93rd respectively. In the next five km stretch, Kheta jumped a few places to be placed at 37th, with Gopi three places ahead of him. Soon enough the pair in the identical blue jerseys were racing alongside each other. Only after I crossed 33 kms did I notice that Kheta was right behind me, says Gopi, His presence worked as a support for me. I told myself OK, now for the rest of the race I can go alongside him.The 28 year-old admits though that he wasnt too happy with the scheduling of the event in Rio. A 9:30 am start meant that you finish around afternoon when the heat is at its worst. Luckily during our event there were light showers but during the womens marathon, it was scorching. He, was, however, prompt to suggest that he did not face any problem with regard to the facilitation of drinks during the race, unlike female marathoner OP Jaisha. I had trained with personalized drinks and used them during the race as well. My coach was there at the station to ensure everything was in place.?Ahead of the Olympics, a ten-month training stint at a high-altitude Ooty facility was coach Surendra Singh Bhandaris way of preparing his wards, Gopi, Kheta and Rawat, for the rigours of a road race. Training at a high altitude helps increase your heart and lung capacity, says Bhandari, who serves as an athletics coach at the Army Institute of Sports in Pune.The main focus has been on endurance and we divide our sessions into basic, preparatory and specific, bringing in speed training four weeks before the competition. Our usual sessions are of three hours in the morning and two in the evening and touch 300km a week during endurance training. Gopi is still new to marathon and his threshold for holding his body together during a race will only get better with increased endurance training.In speed training, Bhandari goes on to fill us in, the idea is to lessen the number of kilometres covered in the weeks preceding the event. Starting with 120-130 kms four weeks before the event, its tapered down to 40-50 km and lesser progressively with the sole thrust on speed.?After 30 kms, my hamstring and calves were hurting. Thats how I slowed down towards the end, says Gopi, Also in the final 3kms the road had a tiled feel to it and since there was a light drizzle it was slippery.Fatigue, cramps and hamstring pulls can be delayed with increased training, says Bhandari, even if not entirely averted. As opposed to a 100m sprint which lasts no more than 10 seconds, its essence lying in speed and its nature being almost entirely anaerobic, in a marathon, which typically spans over two hours, the body uses up its last reserves of energy. An extreme and lonely sport, marathon pushes your mind and body to the edge.The carbohydrate and fat reserves are used up 90 minutes into the race, he says, That explains why cramps set in post the 30 km mark. The body then begins to convert protein into energy. With more endurance training the onset of fatigue can be delayed, bit by bit. We have to push it to 42 km.Hailing from the town of Suthan Bathery, in Wayanad, Kerala, situated at an altitude of 1000m above sea level, Gopi, whose farmer parents alternately grew rice and ginger on their patch of land to bring food on the table, always had an innate love for running. I was into running right from my school years, he says.While I was in college I tried my hand at half marathon too. As the sport grew more integral to his life, he knew he had to find a way to support both his needs and that of the family. A steady, sustained income was crucial, thats how I took up a job in the Indian Army through the sports quota, says the Havaldar in the Artillery regiment.Gopi doesnt recall when he fell in love with running. It was, he feels, always encoded in his system. There is no money in running. But I cant think of another sport I would want to pursue for life, he says, Nothing equals the feeling of running.Or as McDougall put it succinctly: We were born to run; we were born because we run.China Jerseys Online .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. NFL China Jerseys .com) - The Chicago Blackhawks aim for their third three-game winning streak of the season when they host the struggling Edmonton Oilers in Sundays battle at the United Center. https://www.chinajerseysreview.com/ . Tevez, who has had conflicts with coaches in the past, has not been called up since Sabella was named coach in 2011. Argentina boasts Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Angel Di Maria. Wholesale China Jerseys . Jordan Lynch, the all-purpose Heisman Trophy finalist from Northern Illinois, failed to make it into that exclusive club. 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Kokkinakis tweeted, tongue planted in cheek.Kyrgios replied with equal sarcasm: Kokky this applies to us both.The 21-year-olds failure to be nominated for the Tennis Australia awardd comes as little surprise after his season ended in an three-week suspension following a meltdown in Shanghai.ddddddddddddyrgios, who has long-held anti-authoritarian attitudes, left little doubt of his disdain for the national tennis body when he re-tweeted a follower who described the Newcombe Medal as slowly morphing into the teachers pet award. ' ' '