It’s a leap of faith to have these two groups on the same trail

Five hundred marathon runners on a brutally frigid and windy Saturday morning hitting the wall at the 20-mile mark and what is the last thing they need to see? That’s right, two hunters in camouflage with orange hats on backward carrying arrows and bows walking in the opposite direction.

People who don’t run marathons really don’t get it, like nonfisherman don’t get giddy hearing that rockfish are biting in the surf. Did I mention the weapons part? Just seems to me like a quantum leap of faith having these two citizen groups on the same trail.

And, as I am writing this the Monday morning after shotgun season closed out, I am hearing blasts close enough to my house to vibrate my keyboard. Perhaps it’s black powder or musket season and I have no idea what I’m talking about. Let me jog down the trail and see what’s going on? Maybe not. I’ll send the dog to reconnoiter.

A CHARACTER QUESTION - Donovan McNabb has been a very productive first-round Eagles pick from the draft 10 years ago. And he has been a classy man of high character most of the time, certainly never “downtowning” his ridiculous cast of nonaccomplished receivers or his stable of toy running backs.

But now that times are tough the very look inside the green helmet is what angers fans. McNabb looks like he doesn’t care after throwing an interception or fumbling the ball. Well, guess what, no NFL players care beyond five minutes past game time because they know on Tuesday morning there is a check ready for one-sixteenth of their salary. That’s why you see the winners and losers after games hugging each other. They are too rich to be devastated by a loss representing a city they will most certainly leave when they free agent themselves to someplace else or retire.

I think coach Andy Reid had cracked like an ostrich egg and Donovan must endure the refracted ire of fans that lack loyalty. McNabb is so much way better on a bad day than Kevin Kolb and he gives the team the best chance to win, so play him the rest of the way then ship him off to Chicago for his second career.

UNDEMOCRATIC - Penn State is going to the Rose Bowl by virtue of winning the Big 10/11, and maybe you don’t remember them beating Ohio State 13-6 on Oct. 25, but they did. What the Nittany Lions never do is play everyone in the conference, and there is no northern and south division.

The Henlopen Conference, which just last Thursday sent Milford to the North swapping out Polytech to the south which essentially makes this Friday’s state championship game of Milford versus Laurel the Bucs one and only best chance to win a state football title because all Henlopen teams in the Northern Division are classified as Division I for the football tournament.

My solution would be to make the Henlopen Conference one unit with a rotating sensible schedule and then come tournament time the top 15 schools in Delaware in terms of enrollment are Division I and everyone else is Division II. That’s the way it has been in track for the last 38 years and it seems to work well enough.

PATERNO IS WHACK! - Joe Paterno is all the way whack like lots of football coaches I know, and the Penn State coach will never voluntarily step off the pedestal of power which is why yesterday he had his hip replaced by Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, Penn State’s director of athletic medicine and professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation for the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He then started yelling for his walker so he could get on with the rehab. I wonder if Dr. Sebastianelli would work on my Sea Biscuit hip?

HURT TO WATCH - Most of today’s marathon runners are under-trained and overly focused. I took pictures along a protected trail at the 20 mile mark for two hours because there was no way I was standing in the beer cooler elements getting chilled like a New Year’s Eve bottle of Cold Duck.

The one word to describe the faces on most of the runners was agony. But there was that look in the eyes. The look of people who finish what they start no matter what the discomfort and pain index. I was impressed, not enough to make me want to join them; I just marveled at the focus and toughness and wondered if it translates into life in general. I think for runners the answer is no, not really, because life is too haphazard and unpredictable, not simplified like a point-to-point road race. Endurance events of fitness are an escape but they are not reality.

SNIPPETS - Turkey Bowl games on Thanksgiving Day are a local tradition. There is a Turkey Bowl game in Philly Thursday night as the half-cooked Birds host the Cardinals and one can only wonder if the city, brought together by the World Champion Phillies, will come apart and boo their beloved football team right out of the stadium.

I would like to thank all the athletes and coaches on my sports beat for being mostly nice to me and allowing me into your world. I am a lucky old dog. Go on now,git!