October 30, 2007

By The Numbers

With today's 2-hour run/walk marking 36 straight weeks of running each day, it got me thinking about some numbers. A little digging uncovered the following ...

252 days in a row • 110 runs of at least 2 hours • a 100-mile finish at Umstead in March • a 90-miler at the Virginia Run for Cancer 24-Hour Run in April • 73 basketball games officiated (no, none of them count as runs ;-) • a 50km finish at Catherine's Big Butt in July • a 40-miler finish at Highlands Sky in June • a 26.2-miler finish at Shamrock Marathon in March • a 19:26 5km race at Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton on July 4 • 16 weeks of three long runs in the same calendar week • a 6:08 one-mile solo time trial • 5 other weeks of four long runs • 3 different trips around the killer 25-mile Wild Oak Trail • 2 other weeks of 5 long runs

Mix it somewhere around 5,000 crunches, 3,000 push-ups, 1,500 or so pull-ups and a couple hundred 4 a.m. alarm answers and, well, you get a crystalline picture of lunacy.

Wow. I really am a freak. :-)

October 4, 2007

Vintage me

What's one inch long, a half-inch wide and makes you feel like a complete and utter moron?

That would be the sweet new knot on my forehead, courtesy of an immovable door and my remarkable lack of attention to life's most mundane tasks.

Trying to close the door for my ref buddy this afternoon while in our dressing-room-under-construction at a local middle school and, of course, deep in the midst of what I am sure was a most important convo, I took one hard step toward the door an arm's reach away and -- BAM -- header city.

Paul: Bill, are you OK, dude?

Me: Oh yeah, no worries. I'm good. (Sung to the tune of "Oh yeah, I'm fine. No need to take the keys.")

Paul: Are you sure? I think you lost it there for a second.

Me: No, no. Really. I'll be fine. Let's see? Yeah, head doesn't hurt a bit except for right at that one spot. And I can feel my neck and shoulders, so I'm sure we're good. Well, OK, I may be having a little trouble feeling my elbows right now, but I'm sure that will pass ...

Game went fine. No problems at all. So really all I have to show for my lack of attention is what looks like a gigantic pinkish welt atop my forehead even with my right eye. With any luck, it won't turn blue.

Photos tomorrow if it does. Unless I spend tomorrow babbling like a complete idiot. How will anybody be able to tell the difference? Wow. Great question.