SMITH: Parkersburg on display for half-marathon

June 4, 2022

Racing in the News and Sentinel Half Marathon means that you will cover much of Parkersburg on foot on Aug. 20. The race course offers a little of everything as you travel in and out of the City of Parkersburg. The starting line is on Juliana Street near the Court House, your race starts when you cross the black plastic starting mat and your time officially begins to register. You will make your way up a slight hill right from the start, passing our offices at 519 Juliana St. in the first quarter mile. Here is a tip. This is a great place to park, you will be parked one block from ...

Two-mile race is perfect for family

May 28, 2022

Looking for something a little less intense than a half marathon? Sign up for the News and Sentinel Two-Mile Race. Historically the News and Sentinel Half Marathon gets a lot of attention in August. It’s big, takes up the whole town and it is truly inspirational to watch. It’s also hard, in a good way. If you are looking to be part of a great event but not ready to take 30,000 steps to do so, sign up for the Two-Mile Race. Both the half and two-mile events start and stop at the same spot. A few minutes after the half racers get on their way on Aug. 20, the two-mile racers ...

You can do this

May 21, 2022

For years, you may have wondered if you could run a half marathon. I used to have the same thought. After years of watching others cover 13.1 miles I decided to see if I could in fact, finish such a distance. I will not sugar coat it, doing a half marathon is hard. Hard in a good way, hard in a way that if you plan for it, most people can complete it and most will find joy in the fact that they did. People run long distances for a variety of reasons, for me it was a medical reason to drop a few pounds. Preparing to take part in a half marathon was the motivation that I needed to ...

Missing the play

April 28, 2022

The kind of quote Rex Foster might give. “We need more umpires!” That is definitely true, but I have been thinking about the difficulty of being an umpire in this day and age. I’m not too old yet to forget about my father calling me out in youth league on strikes. Obviously, he was blind and the pitch was off the black. Point being, everyone misses things. Even the best umpires. I had a great Saturday afternoon watching John Carroll and Marietta College’s softball teams go toe-to-toe. Somehow I failed to mention two of the best defensive plays I’ve seen this ...

Never say never

April 6, 2022

One more day. For baseball fans throughout the country, the wait is almost over as Opening Day for America’s Game is upon us. That is correct. Baseball is considered America’s Game. On the popularity scale among professional sports, football and basketball have taken priority throughout several national media outlets. Even international soccer seems to hold some sense of precedence. In my book, baseball truly represents the culture of America throughout history. Granted, the game has experienced its share of tweaks and been refined with rule changes, but the basics remain. ...

If you don’t care, may as well root for Bengals

February 12, 2022

Sunday marks the 30th anniversary the last time my favorite team the Washington R- no, Football T- wait, Commanders (still not sold on that) played in the Super Bowl. Eventually, I decided to help other people in the same boat by suggesting who to root for in the big game if you just don’t care. It might be a little easier this year since a team from Ohio, with a quarterback from Ohio, will be taking the field, although I think we can all be forgiven if we didn’t see that coming. But maybe the Cincinnati Bengals beat your team on their improbable run or there’s some other ...