* If you are in Nebraska for at least 10 minutes during the fall, the topic of the Nebraska Cornhuskers will come up -- all devoted to football.

Page upon page will be devoted to the football team, despite playing teams they wouldn't have considered playing 10 years ago.

Yet the Nebraska volleyball team -- on a slow news day -- may get an eight-paragraph story on Page 3. This is the same volleyball team which happens to be ranked No. 1 in the country. The same team which has swept three teams in the top 5. If the football team would even play a team which was ranked, it would make headlines.

And let's talk about the hottest ticket in town, at least in Lincoln.

While the notion may be true that Nebraska has sold out hundreds of consecutive football games in a row, it's really not that tough to find a ticket, especially these low-key games they schedule at the beginning of the year.

Yet, I beg anyone to get tickets to the Nebraska Coliseum for a volleyball game. (Really, I'll beg anyone to get tickets to a Nebraska game.) My husband and I considered making a road trip to Boulder, Colo., last weekend to take in the Nebraska-Colorado volleyball game. Tickets were actually available at the University of Colorado and it's the same length drive to Boulder as it is to Lincoln.

Alas, we stayed home because we weren't up for an up-and-back trip plus the astronomical amount we would have spent on fuel. So, we readied ourselves to listen to the game on the radio.

As we searched the airwaves at game time, the volleyball game was no where to be found anywhere on the dial.

In its place? People rambling, gabbing and bemoaning Nebraska's football game -- four hours after the game finished.

I don't know if these callers were bragging or complaining because I turned the dial as soon as I heard the word, football.

And people from this area should be paying extra attention, as Cambridge-native Christina Houghtelling travels through a stellar year so far.

So if you want to want to wear your Nebraska shirt and root for a team which actually dominates its opponents, plan around the next volleyball game.

They play again Saturday night against Iowa State. It's not going to be televised; its radio status is unknown.

The next televised game is Saturday, Oct. 1 against Baylor so you can see what a No. 1 team looks like.

* Sure, the coastlines are nice places to visit, but right now we should all be thankful we're as far away from the ocean as we are.

We don't have escape time again and again from all these hurricanes. We don't have to board up our windows and We don't have to prepare for 30-foot storm surges anytime too soon, unless the Republican River is going to change dramatically.

With family spread out across Texas, including Houston, I've been watching the mass exodus from the coasts. A cousin in Houston tried to evacuate, but returned home to ride out the storm after finding the Intestates had been turned into giant parking lots, with the cars at a near standstill, and little gas in her tank. Even Houston's mayor has said it may be safer now to stay home than try to evacuate.

While tornadoes can be devastating in their own right, at least we don't have anything that sticks around long enough to be named, like hurricanes.

So, continue to plan those vacations to the coasts, but consider yourself fortunate that you can return home to a place that won't be devastated by anything with your neighbor's first name.

* Finally, McCook's Heritage Days United Way 5K Run/Walk is Saturday morning. Fortunately for all you procrastinators, there is still time to sign up, including the morning of the race.

Some people may be coming up with every excuse under the sun not race: I'm not in shape. I haven't trained. I'm so slow that I will miss the parade.

All of that is a bunch of hogwash.

For starters, you can choose one of two lengths, the one-mile or the 5K (approximately 3.2 miles). You don't have to run; walkers have a division all their own. And this could be the jump start to getting fit before the winter season -- and that winter weight -- rolls in.

For one final incentive, consider doing the Heritage Days race to establish a base time for a 5K. Then next year, after you have had an entire year to prepare for the race, you're guaranteed to improve your personal best time -- nearly guaranteed.

-- Ronda Graff has participated in several 5K races and serves as encouragement to other runners by bringing of the rear of the group -- usually not by choice.