Thursday, December 13, 2007

So, What'd You Learn?

A very good friend of mine asked me the question, "So, what'd you learn?"
"Er, a, learn, where?"

"From your race meathead!"

"I learned that running by my car 28 times is as hard as you would think."

"Didn't you already know that?"

"Well, not precisely that, I mean I'd never tried it."

"But did it really surprise you?"

"Er, a, I can't say that it did."

"So, what'd you learn?"

"Running behind a 26-year old hot ...."

"Stop, you already knew that too!"

"Er, yeah, ok, I reckon I did. So, digging a little deeper, I have ascertained (it's a real word, I looked it up) that not all of us have the same goals when we run. I always just assumed that we shared the goals of finishing as fast as we can. Turns out that isn't the case. I did not know that.

I don't care if the race is free or has a $1,000 dinero entry fee, if I'm there, I'm giving it the old college try (er, grad school, I didn't really try very hard at all in undergrad.) Now I understand if you are using the race as a training run that your goal might be to run 50 miles, and that's fine. But if you are there for the race, run the race, is the way I have always thought. Again, not everyone thinks that way. I learned that some people just enjoy running and they don't believe that there is much nobility in overcoming adversity an not giving in to pain.

Ok, I learned that, but I still think they are wrong. As Tyler Derden asked in the most excellent film, Fight Club, "How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?"

Well, some of them city folks scrapped perdy good, we just scrapped a little bit better!

8 comments:

Gloria Stein-Ham said...

As a noted animal-rights activist, I was shocked to see the post on Chase Squires blog comments. Nevertheless, as a philopher, responding to a philosophical query, I felt duty-bound to respond: You can beat your dog, you can beat your "meat", but you can't beat oral sex. Excuse me. I'm going to shower now.

Chase Squires said...

Oh, real mature.

Star said...

Great. Now you're getting all psychological on us. "Why do we race?" Good gosh man, that's like asking "What's the meaning of life?" There are thousands of different reasons I'm sure ;) It could take many hours and several vodka gimlets to really figure it out!

Mr. Matt said...

I think that's funny, but I'm not real sure.

Star, you can run.... but your sister can't hide!

Chase Squires said...

Why do we race? I didn't know we had a choice, this is optional??? Hey!

superdave524 said...

As Pat McInerney (amazingly, one guy, not three) once said: A winner never quits, and a quitter doesn't have to go to practice today at 5:00.

Arlene said...

AndyMan...you are a winner! 29 times per loop.

Take care of that injury, or you may only be able to run AROUND your car 28 times!

And you need to go to practice at 5:00.

Mr. Matt said...

I get it, Pat McInereny. Pat Mac and Ernie, I get it, seems to me so did Pat, a lot more often than I did.

I am skipping practice till Monday, I'm hurt, real bad. But, I think one week off and I'll be better (actually, it's more like a hope than a think)