My Strange Addiction

There is a show on TLC called "My Strange Addiction" where they document and describe various behaviors of people. The listing for last night's show is as follows:

"First-hand accounts of individuals battling obsessive behaviors on the verge of taking over their lives, including: a woman who eats chalk, a fanatical runner, a compulsive shopper, and an excessive tanner."

My take on this is the old Sesame Street song "One of these things is not like the other..."

Anyways, the "fanatical runner" was a guy who was running the Javalina 100 mile ultra. TLC was interviewing him at the race with his girlfriend/crew Jen. Jen could not understand why anyone would want to run that far, a couple of 'medical' folks were saying that these people run and feel weak, nauseous, get nasty blisters, etc. and that the body is not designed to do these things. Oh and the other thing is that the runner was wearing some "strange" cave-man clothing over his running shorts and shirt. What TCL did not say is that part of the fun of the Javalina 100 race is that the runners wear costumes. TLC just helped to make this guy look fanatical...

So, of course they show him coming into the aid station around 36 miles into the race, feeling pretty crappy. This is a pretty common time to feel bad and he was. Jen was worried, more medical folks saying that people can die doing these things, blah, blah, blah... Off he goes into the night. He does finish in a very respectable 26 hours and 26 minutes and is ok. Jen hits him when he says that he wants to run another one.

The rest of the show covered the three women with 'real' problems...(lol) The show concludes with an update of the 4 people and they state that the runner is still going and that he completed 4 marathons in 4 days...

Other stuff
Taper is going great! I am alternating between feeling confident and being scared-to-death! (This is all normal for me). I am getting drop bags and other logistics mapped out and having fun with the shorter runs.

Abby and I ran tonight after work on the Buckeye Trail from Alexander Road to Fraizee House and back. The blackberries along the trail tasted pretty good and there should still be lots of them for the race. I will grab a few as I run by next weekend!

When we arrived back on the bike-n-hike path, Abby picked up the pace a bit and I also. We kept going faster and faster and I started to quickly realize that this was going to be the night that I would be 'spanked' by my youngest daughter! I helplessly watched her pull away and then slow down just a wee bit. I surged with what little I had left and managed to barely pull even as we arrived at the end of the trail.

Abby asked me how I felt getting "spanked". My response was a simple "Pretty darn proud!"