Afternoon Baseball

I never met Shay, but I knew of him and knew him to be one of the best and overlooked road racers the U.S. had. We were in only in the same place once -- just more than six years ago, at his final Big East XC championship, held at Van Cortlandt Park in NYC. Even there, he was easy to overlook, as his teammate Luke Watson led ND as the men won the team title. For the record, Shay still ran 1:43 faster over five miles than I did later that day, so he wasn't shabby.

At 28, it's tough to imagine anyone, much less a guy who could run 26.2 miles in 134 minutes, dropping dead. But he did, and it's just as shocking as when David Kimani died. No real reasons.
I know a couple of people who were at the marathon trials today, and I can't imagine the dichotomy -- for fans and competitors -- between the elation of seeing three great under-30 Americans qualify for 2008 and then learning that another one, a leader in many ways for those coming after him, had passed on.

The N.Y. Times just 11 days ago featured Shay, among others, in a story about elite running marriages.

Newsday writes about his optimism heading into the race and for the years ahead.

And he was interviewed a few years ago here, where he talks about lots of things, including the financial aspects of being a professional runner and his book-reading.