Recently in Baseball Category

By Jason Ivanitz

As the end of the regular season approaches, seeding meetings have been conducted in most of the team sports. Here's where Bolingbrook's baseball team is seeded within the Lockport Sectional:

1 Lincoln-Way East
2 Naperville North
3 Lockport
4 Plainfield North
5 Neuqua Valley
6 Downers Grove South
7 Naperville Central
8 Benet Academy
9 Joliet Township
10 Hinsdale Central
11 Waubonsie Valley
12 Romeoville
13 Lyons Township
14 Plainfield Central
15 Plainfield South
16 Providence Catholic
17 Downers Grove North
18 Lincoln-Way Central
19 Oswego East
20 BOLINGBROOK
21 Hinsdale South
22 East Aurora

Bolingbrook Bandits 12U manager Thomas Page returns for the 10th week of his journal for The Brook Blog. Page is attempting to lost 50 pounds before Jan. 22, 2009 to improve his health and raise money for his youth baseball team.

Well we are feeling better and now back from the Great White North, the UP of Michigan. Unsuccessful hunt but wonderful trip to say the least.

I have been very successful in my weigh loss goal so far, 25 pounds, and it is definitely getting easier to work out. It was easier to keep up this year with my friends while walking in deep snow and forest.

I am now going to increase my work outs with Angel about 3 times per week. I have 2 months left on my trek and its going to go by very quickly.

This is the eighth week of the journal Thomas Page is writing for The Brook Blog about his attempt to lose 50 pounds before Jan. 22, 2009. Page is losing weight to improve his health and raise money for his Bolingbrook Bandits 12U team.

Well, we have been sick this week. I was able to work out once with Angel but only twice for cardio. We have the flu. I am trying to encourage my oldest son to work with me and continue his work out that he was doing for cross country. I find it has been a challenge all in its own. He too seems to have hit a rut.

I will be leaving next week for my annual trek up north to the UP of Michigan. I was enjoying fitting into my hunting clothes. I will even have to go shopping when I come home. My pants are just too loose which is a problem I actually enjoy having I must say.

Thomas Page is the manager of the U12 Bolingbrook Bandits youth baseball team. He is attempting to lose 50 pounds before Jan. 22, 2009. This is the seventh week of his weekly journal for The Brook Blog.

Everything is going very well so far. Good thing too, holidays are approaching quickly. That's is a difficult time for anyone on a diet.

I have noticed since doing my work outs, my endurance has increased a whole lot over the past few weeks. I find that I am able to do more for longer periods of time! This is very exciting because I love to work out. It's very hard but the feeling you get when you are done is a euphoria that is very hard to describe. I am getting more and more fit every time I see Angel.

She didn't stop.

After training for months for the Chicago Marathon, Barbara Nance didn't pull out of the race because of the tendonitis which had been hampering her left hamstring for the month leading up to the race. She couldn't run. So she walked.

Nance kept going even when race officials began taking down the barricades, opening up the streets, disassembling the water stations and telling her to walk on the sidewalk. Nance wasn't finished. So she got on the sidewalk and kept going for the final 14 miles.

"You're in the middle of all this," said Nance, who has lived in Bolingbrook for 10 years, "and nobody's respecting that you're trying to finish. It was really a challenge."

This was a race she wanted to complete a year earlier when the extreme heat caused race officials to turn around her group after 16 miles. Now in her second attempt to finish a marathon, the course itself was falling apart around her.

The 48-year-old knew she could keep going because of the support her running group provided. The Elijah Running Club, based out of her Forest Park church, was there to provide water for her thirst and support for her spirit. She saw her friends in the neon green shirts and knew she could keep going.

"If they had not been out there, I wouldn't have been able to make it," Nance said. "So my focus was getting to the next green shirt to make it through."

The Elijah Running Club trains people who have never run before to finish marathons. That was the case for Nance, who said the only running she ever did "was after my children."

So when fellow members of the Living Word Christian Center told her about the running club, she joined up. Improving her health was her main inspiration. Nance said she was taking medication for high blood pressure, suffered from daily headaches and was constantly tired and in pain.

The aches and pains didn't go away immediately, but Nance stuck with the club. She ran every Saturday with the club and twice a week on her own. Nance credits her faith with giving her the fortitude to push herself.

"The scripture says I can do all things through Christ," said Nance, who is a native of Gary, Ind. "So that's what I quoted every time I would go out and run and I would feel sick or tired or whatever it was. I said, 'Well if Christ is in me, then I can do all things.' One step in front of the other."

Thomas Page is the manager of the 12U Bolingbrook Bandits. He is trying to lose 50 pounds before Jan. 22, 2009 to improve his health and raise money for his travel baseball team. This is the sixth week of his journal for The Brook Blog.

Well, it has been difficult coming up with things to write about, but this one not so much, I'm naming this one mind over matter.

Have you ever noticed how many fast food restaurants we have around? Have you ever noticed how HARD it is to eat out healthy? We went out to dinner the other day and for a "healthy" choice, dinner was somewhere under 650 calories but they could not "promise" that. I have been trying to target my craving time (between 2 and 5) with something sweet like a piece of fruit or something of that nature but wow, it is so hard not to just pull in to grab a bite to eat.

I think that is one of the most difficult aspects of dieting is cutting the fast food. With the holidays fast approaching, well, it will be a challenge to say the least.

Thomas Page coaches the 12U Bolingbrook Bandits travel baseball team. He is trying to lose 50 pounds before Jan. 22, 2009 to both improve his health and raise money for his team. This is his weekly journal for The Brook Blog.

Hi Everyone--thanks again for taking the time to read the blog for Thomas Page. Well, we have stayed the same this week. I have currently lost 15 pounds but can't seem to budge past this.

I am trying to work out extra with my personal trainer. He hopefully will be able to get me over this small hurdle.

My main focus this week was our team. We are trying to complete the roster for the team and have 4 spots still available. We are also starting to work on our fundraisers, which is always a challenge for any team. It does add a small amount of stress to one and this could be another reason for my lack of losing this week.

I must say one thing though, I may not be losing weight, but I am definitely losing inches. I have lost at least six inches from my waist. I cannot tell you how nice it is to be able to move that belt notch back farther and farther.