Bump, Set, Spike for The Journey

It might be an Olympics year--my favorite kind of year--but I'm about to sound really stupid about a sport primarily highlighted during the Games. I'd like to think that I watch a lot of Olympic sports except volleyball's not one of them. Beach volleyball, a little, but only because Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor and the gripping men's competition in Beijing were too exciting not to watch, and they often played between the swimming coverage. But indoor volleyball, no. It's no one's fault but my own--I think I'm still scarred from the weeks of volleyball we had to play in high school gym class where I whacked someone on the head two courts away and knocked his hat off (an embarrassingly true story).

I might be less into volleyball than I am into swimming, skiing and running, as far as Olympic sports go, but a contest that Mizuno launched has me wishing I could pull a 13 Going on 30 number and wake up tomorrow as a teenager, and a volleyball-playing one at that. And if we're going all-out with the fantasies, I'd want to defy my family's genetics that err on the side of shortness. But dreamland aside, it's the contest that has me excited even without being a volleyballer.

Mizuno created The Journey, an online contest for young volleyball players, as a way to celebrate its partnership with the USA Men's and Women's National Indoor Volleyball team. The Journey encourages volleyball players to submit video diaries, photos and essays about how they've been shaped by the competitive sport. From this collection of inspiring stories, Mizuno will award a volleyball clinic to the grand prize winner's team in his or her hometown, conducted by a USA Volleyball team member. Entrants also have the opportunity to win Mizuno Volleyball footwear, apparel and accessories. All for sharing their stories of competitive drive and passion. If that's not inspiring for someone who has aspirations to earn a spot on the national team then I don't know what is.

Running Gear of the Year: 11 Items to Have from 2011

Nike's Vapor Flash glows in the dark!

I'm the type of person who forgets to write the new year on her checks and paperwork until February. So being that it's only the first week of January, I'm still in 2011 mode, recapping the past year before moving forward into 2012. One such stop: reading old magazines. I unearthed my December copy of Runner's World and realized I never unfolded the pages to look at the gear gifts by Sarah Bowen Shea (p. 100). And then I wanted to pick out my personal favorites from the last 12 months, the running items that found their way into my closet or wish list, even if they were released long before 2011 and my woman-behind-the-times status only recently caught on. Give me some credit, I had to do it before the latest and greatest for 2012 starts to hit the shelves.

Gear can be so subjective, one man's treasure is another man's trash, but here are the items I either craved or carried in 2011:

1. Garmin 310XT. It's old news that this Garmin GPS watch is water-resistant enough to endure a triathlon swim, but it's other bells and whistles left my 305 in the dust. The watch vibrates at every mile of a race (so what if it's sometimes short from the satellites) or training run to tell me my pace per mile, the data uploads quickly online (my 305 data seems stuck on the device, never transferring to the computer program), the swim can produce accurate data when you put it on the right setting, which I did...once. And it's less bulky than its predecessor.