Sunday, June 23, 2013

21 Random Facts About Me

"A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor" - English Proverb


I noticed one of the things that keeps popping up in blogs and forums is a little brainstorming where the writer puts forth some random facts about him/herself. Seemed like kind of a fun, harmless thing to do, especially when I'm having one of those Running With Al writer's block days. Also, it might make it easier for the NSA to find things out about me if I just put them out there in one handy package and then they don't have to waste their time sifting through all my boring emails. So here are 21 random things about me. I don't dare say "interesting" things.

1. I am a very big stats fanatic.  Especially, I love baseball stats and because of that can be quite nerdy with doing quick math in my head like gas mileage, Fahrenheit/Celsius temperature conversion, metric conversions, etc, but it really comes in handy when figuring out races paces. Except late in an ultra when I can't even figure out the time of day while looking at my watch!

2. I drink coffee in the morning, then mostly tea the rest of the day. Always use milk at home (see #9), but just black when out. 

3. My best race of all time was a 6:54 Fifty Mile Run. That was 8:16/mile. Geez...I can barely do an 11:16 now on a good day.  

4. I once ran 111 miles in one day (24 hours). All I can say is "Holy Crow!".
 
5. I love Hot Chocolate...well, I just love chocolate. They could make chocolate anything and that would fit right in with my lifestyle.

6. Came to Alabama in 1968 to go to Physical Therapy School at UAB. Practically had to promise my parents I wouldn't stay. Fell in love with it, and here I am still!

7. Been doing Physical Therapy for over 42 years and am one of a select few that still enjoys their job.  
8. Don't like cake and eat very few cookies. Love pretzels. Actually, anything crunchy.

9. I love chocolate milk and use it in my coffee AND my tea!! Yeah, yeah, I know. Can you picture John Wayne putting chocolate milk in his coffee when he takes it off the campfire?

10. Lately, I have really learned to enjoy Craft Beers. Brown and English Ales are my favorites. Not much of an IPA guy. Not much in favor of serving beer at races. I just think the drinking/driving thing is too much of a risk

11. I don't enjoy races anymore, especially less than a marathon. There's no push in these legs. I do enjoy the camaraderie of my fellow runners though. 

12. I love running on trails 1000% more than the roads. I've fallen on both, and trails are much softer.

13. I don't like swimming and tolerated cycling for a few years, but I just stick to running. 

14. Can't believe I have completed 135 marathons and ultras, including Pikes Peak, Boston, 24-hour races, and gone over 100 miles 7 times! And I still get butterflies in my stomach right before "Go".

15. I love to cook and am pretty good, even I say so myself. 

16. I hardly ever listen to music. When I run I listen to mostly podcasts, but do have a iPod Shuffle that I enjoy running with on occasion that has my favorite wide mixture...Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, U2, Etta James, Neil Diamond, Pink, John Denver, etc...see, I said wide mixture. 

17. In High School, I hated running...loved baseball and soccer...only letter was in track! Go figure. The mile runners were crazy long distance runners to me!

18. I could eat pasta every night. I mean EVERY night. 

19. I am the 2nd of a string of four consecutive generations of "only-sons". 
20. I don’t need much sleep and can get by with 5-6 hours a day comfortably, but that leads to sudden unannounced naps once I plop down in my living room chair!  

21. My best time for a marathon is 3:03. Could never find those 3 minutes. 

This was fun and pretty easy to do.Why don't some of you do a list like this and write a blog, send it to your local track club newsletter, or better yet, just send it to me. I'd loved to read it. I may do a list, Part 2, sometime in the future when why supremely creative mind goes completely blank again.

Until then, I'll see you on the roads - Al
 
"One child lost is too many...one child saved can change the world"

4 comments:

Kristy said...

Great list! I wish I didn't like cookies so much! My husband is amazed that I have to eat them just about every day. He's trying to come up with some kind of intervention plan. It's my last bad food to give up.

Al D. said...

When you have that burning inside, it will take over. One thing I didn't put in my list is that I'm addicted to string cheese of all things! I'm not looking for any intervention you understand. I can stop anytime I want to...yeh, right. If you keep running as good as you are now, I may start eating more cookies!

Rundrumhum said...

111 miles in 24 hours - I can only hope. In the meantime, I am going to try chocolate milk in my coffee.

Al D. said...

Yeah, chocolate milk, or chocolate in any form, is more palatable than the late stages of a 24 hr race! Thanks for reading and commenting