Super Sunday

It's never about the game really.

I like watching football as much as the next guy (depending on who I am standing next to), and could sit and watch a game with teams I didn't care about, simply to enjoy the sport. Although the Super Bowl is the premier football game, I don't get any more psyched to watch it over any other game (outside of the one and only year the Seahawks made it in).

No, it is about the gathering, the party, the food, the friends, and the commercials. Tami held parties every year for a while with two tvs going. Even so, all but the die hard fan would spend most of their time talking and eating, and the commercials would quiet the room more often than the game.

But the big game is a marker for a few non-football events. In 2008, I ran a marathon on Super Bowl Sunday with Sean and Marci. We braved dumping rain and swirling winds to finish one of my worst marathons. Holly braved those same elements to watch us run, and later in the day she would tell us she was pregnant with Annabelle. We went back to Sean's house to celebrate and turned on the game almost as an afterthought. I did manage to catch the last drive where the Giants came back to ruin the Patriot's perfect season.

I probably would have been watching that game rather than running if it hadn't been for another Super Sunday. As I mentioned before, we were at a Super Bowl party in 2005 and Cherie said to me, "grab a glass of wine, I have something I want to talk to you about". She threw down the challenge to run a marathon, even though neither of us had run a step in years (or ever). But that promise set me on the running path that carried me to Surf City in 2008.

And Super Bowl Sunday marks another beginning. Kristy and I started dating a year ago today. We actually started dating the day before the big game last year, but the 5th falls on Super Sunday this year. I have no idea how we will celebrate, but watching the game is probably not going to be on the agenda.

No, we prefer to be outdoors these days. We have been sneaking away for hikes on Sundays, heading to the Farmers Market, or just working out in the yard. Unfortunately, Kristy is pretty sick right now, so it may just be a lazy Sunday indoors on the couch. Maybe there will be football after all.

---UPDATE---

This Sunday just got more Super. Please welcome Sean and Marci's new baby boy to the world, born on this day.