Friday, February 29, 2008

Just Don't Do It! Song of the Week #6

You Don't Tug on Superman's Cape, You Don't Spit into the wind, You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and YOU DON'T MESS AROUND WITH JIM! Song of the Week #6.



Eric Stoltz and John Travolta, as Lance and Vince respectively in Pulp Fiction, would add that you don't mess with another man's ride. But let's stick with 1970's Icon Jim Croce's "You Don't Mess Around with Jim!"

No, I am not Jim, you can mess with me.

The guy that said this, is Jim: "For the rest of my life, when I find myself in a difficult position, I will look back on that week and know that I'm stronger, capable of doing much more than I think, and to never ever quit."

-Jim Bodah

If anyone asked me about my running heroes, Jim Bodah is at the top of my list. The quote above was actually from Jim's trip to a Navy Seals Camp (this guy's tough as rawhide and that's a fact!) but it fits so many things that Jim does. Jim is a multiple times finisher of Badwater. When I get tired on a run, when I want to quit, I think of Jim running 135 Miles in the California Desert in July. Temperatures top 125 degrees and Jim is still going. When I'm up in Croom and it's 90, I keep going. When I'm doing a small hill, I think of Jim going up Mt. Whitney, and I keep going.

Jim is no one trick pony either. He's done Western States, he's climbed mountains, he's traversed canyons worldwide, he sent me 526 songs for my slam, and I know that when he puts his mind to it, he will "never ever quit."

Pretty good role model, don't you think?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Andy,

I can no longer be your hero :-(

I feel pretty bad about this, so I didn't tell very many people, but I DNF'ed in my last race.

You can read about the race here and my DNF here. I plan on trying to redeem myself next year.

The reason my "Badwater Mix" is >500 songs is that I'm such a slow runner I need that much music to cover 135 miles.

Jim

superdave524 said...

There was a Monty Python skit called "State your claim", where, what people make outrageous claims, which without exception turn out to be false. "Right, then, I wrote all of Shakespeare's plays, and my wife and I wrote all his sonnets", and "I can burrow through an elephant". Shoot, what's one DNF in that sea of success? You guys probably really could burrow through an elephant.

Mr. Matt said...

Jim, sorry, you're still my hero! A DNF? I respect that (and that was a crazy race!) because until you fail at one, you have no idea how far you can go, and you weren't afraid to push the edge of an envelope that most people don't even know exists! Keep on rockin! and You aint slow, I believe you have a couple of Badwater buckles that prove that!

Lan said...

So I did the Little Rock Marathon on 2 March and brought home the biggest dang piece of medal I've ever seen. It weighs a heafty bit too. There were several entertainers out on the course but the one that got my vote was the guy doing Neil Diamond and Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. I just think that fits all you longer distance runners and us marathoners. So Andyman, I vote you add it to your list of songs!