Indoor Sports

I'm going to talk about weather. I'm from Minnesota - it's what we do.

We've had a week of cold. One day it never got above zero (Fahrenheit). While many have gone to treadmills and others have heaped $1000 of gear on and braved the elements, I've been doing little. I ran indoors on Tuesday and Thursday at the Metrodome.

Tuesday, while we were waiting for the building to open, a woman approached me and started a conversation. And she was my type. I know what you're thinking:

Think: shorter, blonder, older.

This does not happen. I actually looked for the hidden camera and checked to see if she was lifting my wallet. As it happens, I had a great run that night... and she kicked my butt. Suddenly, she went from being reasonably age-appropriate in my mind to way too young. Funny how that works.

Thursday, I got to run with the big guys. I've always been about third-string in races. When I was in my 20's, I was probably in the top 100 runners locally. In my 40's, I was in the top 350 and top 50 my age. Now I'm lucky if I'm in the top 500 and top 35 my age.

In other words, good... but not memorable. What's great about running as a a sport, though, is that the also-rans can sometimes get recognized by the big guns. Last night, I ran a bit with

 1)Lance Elliott:

Center, black and red tee. Once ran a 3:45 1500m and 4:05 Mile.

 2) Bill Atkins

Once ran 4:13 mile.

3) Pat Billig

Once ran a 4:12 Mile.

 What the hell was I thinking?!

I'm guessing I hurt a lot more than they do today.