Thoughts Rattling Around

"THEN FOR GOD'S SAKE MAN, STOP CLAPPING YOUR HANDS!" - A man yelling as Bono was performing a benefit in Scotland before a crowded house. Bono had started slowly clapping his hands and told his audience, "Every time I clap my hands, an elephant dies in Africa!"

As I run down the roads, I usually will have a lot of time to think about a whole slew of things. I'll forget most of what I think about, but sometimes, usually sparked by something I hear on a podcast, I'll hear something pretty interesting...sometimes related to running, and sometimes not. So, for lack of a riveting subject to write about this morning as I recover from my morning run, let's travel through Al's mind and see what's rattling around.

The Colorado State Fair Grand Champion goat has been stripped of it's title...after failing a drug test. He will of course appeal.

There are TWICE as many people in the world as when I was born. I was born a looonnnggg time ago.

Facebook has over 850 MILLION subscribers. If FB was a country, it would be the 3rd largest country in the whole, wide world.

From a complete stop, a human can outrun a formula 1 car for about 30 feet.

The Chicago Marathon opened registration this past Wednesday (Feb 1st), and will fill up it's 45,000 slots this weekend. It's terrible these races fill up months before your training for them starts.

Leukemia's TNT program has trained more than 540,000 folks to run their first marathon and I'm so blessed to be a coaching part of that program.

The average dropout rate for any given ultramarathon of 50 miles or more is 40%. This surprised me because I would think most folks running 50+ miles know what thy've gotten themselves into.

Every one dollar increase in a barrell of crude oil gives Exxon $450 million dollars a year more income. No comment...yes I do - "thieves!!".

Ed Whitlock set a new 80-84 Age Group record for the marathon in Toronto...3:15:25. I'm beginning my 15 year training program.

Fauja Singh from India, ran the same marathon as Ed at 100 YEARS OLD in 8:11. Guiness refused to recognize the time because he couldn't produce a valid Birth Certificate...the man was born in rural India...100 years ago!!! Good Grief!!

Michael Wardian ran the Olympic Trials in 2:21 and came back the very next day and ran the Houston Marathon in 2:31. And his specialty is ultramarathons!

The Goofy Challenge in Orlando, where you run a Half Marathon on Saturday and a Full Marathon on Sunday, had 9000 participants! This event still seems pretty hardcore to me.

At the Dubai Marathon last weekend, four runners ran UNDER 2:05:00! Those were 4 of the top 20 times in HISTORY! We're talking All-time! Like forever! Anywhere! Ever! Two hours is coming. I give it about 8-10 years.

The Pacific Ocean is so large, that if you Google Earth it from space, it fills almost a full hemisphere! You can hardly see any land.

Our Sun (a star) belongs to the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers estimate there are about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone... and there are millions upon millions of other galaxies. How can we be alone?

With the Super Bowl being played tomorrow, there are literally dozens of different bets you can place...What color Gatorade will get thrown on the winning coach...coin Flip: heads or tails...how long it will take Kelly Clarkson to sing the National Anthem...color of Madonna's hair...you can even bet on who wins the game! Go Giants...I was raised with the Giants. I'd go with my dad to the old Yankee Stadium. One blustery, snowy day, we were sitting in the End Zone, freezing our butts off. My dad reaches in his jacket, pulls out a flask and says "Take a sip of this". WOW! Screwdrivers burn all the way down! Dad was a good man. And he loved his Giants.

Hope you all enjoy the game. As for me, I'm more looking forward to my run in the morning when I'll see you all on the roads - AL


"One child lost is too many...one child saved can change the world"