The last few months have been strange.
Over the summer we trained hard and stuck to a pretty disciplined regimen. There was a huge build up for the St George marathon - then the wheels fell off and the fatso running club all but fell apart. You remember my post “Goin’ South. . .?” Well apparently “South” meant more than just St George.
Fatso’s hip took him out of commission for at least two months. During which he got a promotion at work and at church (if that’s what you call it). Now we’ll refer to him as The Supreme Counselor and his twin shall be dubbed Fatso.
The marathon was great and I posted my best time ever by more than 15 minutes. Then Fatso and I went down to the Snow Canyon half marathon in November and posted our best times for a half marathon. We finished side by side. It was exciting but it just wasn’t the same. Fatso texted The Supreme Counselor to tell him about our race. When he wouldn’t respond Fatso called him and the Supreme Counselor went off. He said a few “farm words” and hung up on Fatso. The Supreme Counselor texted an apology a few minutes later. Weird huh? I mean, an apology? Anyway, he was stressed and our fun was gettin him all chapped. We spent the weekend at Ratcliff’s condo and had a great time. Fatso Junior and Egg came with us too. Egg took The Supreme Counselors number and ran the 5k; and Fatso Junior jumped in without registering. The Old Man brought his family and a bunch of the Syracuse Cross Country Team. They collected most of the hardware for both the 5k and the half marathon.
Between the half marathon in early November and Christmas, pretty much nothing happened. I’m pretty sure everyone did something, but we didn’t do anything. The Supreme Counselor and Ratcliff went to therapy and did their rehab; and sulked. Fatso went on a few runs. I ran here and there and mixed in some cross training. The Old Man maintained for a while then had to stop to have a hernia fixed. The smog increased and the temperature decreased.
By the time the kids got out of school for Christmas break I was ready to get out of my funk. Fatso Jr was running here and there for indoor track and it got me thinking about high school. Remembering how during tryouts the coaches would push you through two-a-day practices to build up your endurance and weed out the weaklings. So I started talking to Fatso Jr about doing two-a-days every day he was out of school. We started on Wednesday.
On Friday The Supreme Counselor sent me a text, “should we run today”
“planning on it. Doing two-a-days”
“what? Your’e trying to get an edge”
"no I’m not. Let’s go”
So he coordinated a time and we went for a run. It was our first run for a long time. The Supreme Counselor, Fatso, and me. During the run we talked about two-a-days and they both thought it sounded fun. Not fun like fun, but fun like that’s a challenge I don’t want to watch you conquer from the sidelines.
So The Supreme Counselor became The Supreme Coordinator and got us all going on two-a-days. Me, Fatso, Little Donkey, Egg, Fatso Jr, The Old Man, and himself. We mixed in a few different things - Ab Ripper X, M90X, Insanity Cardio Abs, Free Weights, and at least one good run every day. We even went out to Antelope Island for a run one day and got in nine and a half miles.
So about thirteen days later we’re all feeling pretty good about ourselves and talking about how we are going to do some work on Saturdays from here on. All our pacts are renewed and we’re committed - at least committed to remembering how much fun we used to have. Life has it’s way of changing though. Your responsibilities increase and you become capable of taking on more; and you have to keep moving forward and upward. It’s a sobering thing, and sometimes scary, but life is the biggest adventure. Being a Fatso means facing those ever increasing responsibilities with a good attitude and that boyish zeal - like any other challenge you can’t conquer from the sidelines.
