MARYLAND vs Duke

Tonight...is a big night. It's MARYLAND vs Duke basketball. I was introduced to this rivalry during my freshman year of college, as prior to this, I was unaware that such a rivalry existed. Little did I know that submitting my deposit to the University of Maryland actually meant that for the rest of my life, I would hate Duke under all circumstances. Being from the lovely midwest, we actually like Duke. High schoolers wear Duke clothes to be "cool." The tricky part is, Maryland fans see this as a rivalry, while Duke fans are more like "Pish posh, what rivalry? We look down on you." And then we beat them, and the stars realign.

Anywayyy, this game was always a big deal when I was at school, and an even bigger deal with it was a home game. I was part of a group of students that "did big things," namely for football and basketball. Annnnd pretty much only for the Duke game. Here are some examples:

Sophomore Year

This was on the "student wall." Each seat had a posterboard on it, and the students held them up when the lights came on after the teams were announced. It was on ESPN, and it was glorious.

We also spray painted a plywood wall on the bridge that most students have to walk across to get to the basketball arena. We aren't really artists, but we did the best we could.

More pictures can be seen here.

Junior Year

This year, we got a little more creative with the student wall, and we created the Maryland flag out of posterboard. I can't take credit for the design, but I think it looks quite impressive.

We also put one of these newspapers on every seat in the arena. It's tradition to hold them up when the other team's players are announced. You know, to show that we're ignoring them. Obviously.

We got some help from the art school on the wall this year. Much improved.

Last, but not least, we attempted to recreate the "Hollywood" sign, but doing Maryland instead. It looked quite spiffy until it got windy and our supports didn't hold up as well as we thoughts. Oops.

More pictures from junior year here.

Senior Year

The bridge, again.

We did the newspapers again...here they are in action!

I guess senior year was kind of a low-key year...and I don't have more pictures online because this was about when facebook put up their picture application, so pictures went on there instead of webshots...oops!

So that was the glory of my time spent at Maryland, learning to hate Duke for the rest of time. I am currently decked out in my Maryland gear and will be all set to watch the game tonight on a giant TV. Not exactly the same as my glorious spot next to the court (I was in the band...that means we got excellent seats!), but I might wave a newspaper in the air, just for old time's sake.

Running, of course. I did NOT want to run yesterday, but like 99% of the days, I felt great once I was out there. I never feel really good on runs until I'm about 2.5-3 miles in, so I just have to remind myself that I will feel better once I'm out there...and even better once the run is over! Today was nothing to write home about, but it is in the 40's and sunny, which is quite fantastic. It's supposed to be warm-ish for a couple more days, and then the weatherman says winter will return again. Can't say I'm excited about that.

Tuesday, February 24
8.03 miles in 1:02:30, avg pace of 7:47

Wednesday, February 25
4.05 miles in 33:47, avg pace of 8:20

Time to prepare for the big game tonight! GO TERPS!!!