Despite all the recent bad economic news in Athens and nationally, apparently some entrepreneurs aren't scared. Based on this website, it looks like Athens is set to get a pretty sweet indoor climbing and recreation facility (including bouldering, climbing, wifi and even birthday parties!). According to planning commission documents, the facility is at 665 Barber Street (not sure what building this is).
Come explore and have fun on spectacular freestanding boulders up to 18 feet high, with textures and forms that is going to blow you away, terrain you'll find just at super pro comps. Novice and beginners are always welcome, come and get inspired by our "regular" climbers! The facilities also feature a 20-feet tall roped wall (lead and top rope), a 60 feet long roof traverse (up to 160 feet round-trip! from one side to the other). Exercise and training equipment, air filtration and conditioning, a nice padding with lots of crush pads, more than enough to cure you from being afraid of falling!
These types of facilities have been really popular in Atlanta and elsewhere and having one in Athens will be pretty neat. For those of you on Facebook, there is a group there where you can plug in as well. Have you heard about any other businesses opening in town despite the recession? Any other neat recreational offerings on the way?
Athens' own Reese Hoffa was the favorite for the 2008 Olympic Gold medal in the shot put. He won the world championship last year. His winning throw at the U.S. Olympic Trials was good enough to win Olympic gold in past games.
But as several of us from Jackson Spalding learned today, the Olympics are anything but just another track meet. Winning the Olympics means dealing with the natural adversity that comes with overseas travel (for Hoffa, this meant four days of travel while compressing his 315 lb frame into coach seats), dealing with unusual food, having hundreds of spectators attending his practice, and more. In the end, Hoffa settled for 7th place at the 2008 games. Not bad by most people's standards, but not what he wanted either.
But what is amazing is that Hoffa -- world champion, Olympic favorite, etc. -- lives right here among us in Athens in anonymity, despite a winning personality and a compelling story.
He is a part of the Athens Throwing Group, which seems to be an informal group of athletes who compete in the hammer throw, discus, or shotput on the international track and field circuit. These athletes often graduate from UGA and remain here. Others relocate to Athens to train under renowned UGA coach throws coach Don Babbitt. Beyond the occassional burst of publicity that may accompany an Olympic year or world championship, the group trains quietly in town.
They are quietly supported by local businessmen and athletic contributors who call themselves the Champions Club, which is headed by the legendary Billy Henderson (who entertained us with some lunch time stories about Clarke Central football and our own gridiron warrior).
Today Babbitt (pictured above left with Hoffa) related the Olympic experience to a small group at a local club's monthly Tuesday Topics program. Since a few of us at JS got extremely passionate about the games, we decided to attend, and Babbitt didn't disappoint as he expounded upon on a number of issues, including:
the strengths and weaknesses of the American track and field's Olympic qualifying system (which forced Hoffa, the reigning world champion, to "earn" his way onto the team when his international competitors can focus on peaking jsut for the games);
Decrying the fact that the Olympic trials were a mere six weeks before the Olympics themselves, leaving little time for recovery and preparation among athletes;
The massive resources that UGA offers to its student athletes compared to the meager offerings of USA Track and Field, the national governing body for track; and
Outlining the massive investment China made in the Olympics, describing parks "three times as large as Central Park" and venues more than 400 meters away from each other. At one point, Babbit said he had to walk two miles to find a post office. Seems that everything about the China Olympics was supersized!
As a friend told me a few weeks ago when we ran into Olympic swimming coach Jack Bauerle at Big City Bread, Athens always seems to have a surprise up its sleeve. You never know where you'll find it, whether on the road, in the pool, at the track or somewhere totally different.
This year my father will run the Pearchtree Road Race in Atlanta for the 27th time. I have accompanied him on a few occasions but have a long way to go before catching his personal record. Needless to say running is in my blood.
Although I’m not particularly good at any specific distance I have participated in a variety of different races. Having had my fill of 5k races in high school cross-country, I began branching out after college searching for more than a basic run. I have crawled through a 50 yard mud pit with my partner in grime at the Atlanta Muddy Buddy. I hiked, biked, canoed and flat out wandered my way through the seven-hour North Carolina Adventure Race in Charlotte, N.C. And with Dad by my side I ran a couple half marathons to test my distance endurance, but have yet to conquer 26.2 miles in a full marathon. The modern marathon commemorates the run of the soldier Pheidippides from a battlefield at the site of the town of Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C. Yet somehow Athens, Ga. has yet to host a modern day marathon.
There may not be a marathon in Athens, but the city is certainly not lacking road races through out the year. University clubs and organizations host dozens. Students and residents alike come out in support of AOP’s Race for the Roses and Hoop Girls’ Do-it-for-Broph 5k run/walk, to name a few. Outside the University you can run for the kids, run for the dogs or run for the cure depending on your preference. Coming up on May 23, you can run for special needs programs of the Barrow County schools in The Georgia Club’s Front Porch Footrace 5K Run and 1K Fun Run/Walk. The Inbox crew will have several runners (and walkers) enjoying their Friday afternoon on the streets of The Georgia Club celebrating the beginning of summer.
If you would like to participate in a race in the Athens area check out Classic Race Services’ race calendar.
