Sunday, August 5, 2007

The Challenge

The challenge to run a marathon began as Scott told me he wanted to run a marathon in the States sometime soon. Scott really wants to run New York City, but being a lottery entry it won't be very easy to get a group involved. I suggested Chicago because of its world-class race and because it's a great place to visit. Scott vetoed that idea because it would make his travel schedule too difficult and, well, Scott lives the furthest away.

So Houston is the most nominated race, and it looks like Houston (January 2009) will be our rendezvous. Scott's suggestion was a challenge to me because I want to run another marathon, need to get in shape, and have been inspired to run after the pre-retirement of my high school coach. Tigger likewise was inspired to run, Jason owes us at least one marathon, and Chris, a veteran marathoner, will step to any friendly challenge (whether or not he will gouge away your eye-sockets in an unfriendly manner, I do not know.) So I challenged all of these muffin-necks to run a marathon.

Then Shelby volunteered to run. I would say she "manned up", but that statement is weak and cliche. Running a marathon, and likewise volunteering to run a marathon, is neither weak nor cliche. Then "The Challenge" ensued.

I volunteered two teams which I thought well-matched. Scott, myself, and the better Denison (aka The Mrs Denisons) versus Chris, Jason, and the lesser Denison. Several predictions have the teams at 12 hours each, but I gave soft predictions of Scott/Micah 3:30, Chris/Tigger 4:00, Jason 5:00, and Shelby 6:00. These times certainly can, and certainly should, be bettered, but we'll leave that for later.

And now Wes joins the fray. His admission is gladly received, though it does break the teams. Little loss and great gain for us, though, and as we may find room to add another runner or we may find a way to reorganize the teams, our team challenge can (and probably should) be finalized later.

For now, the prep. Today I purchased remaindered Boston 2007 adidas shorts and top on sale from Sportspectrum. Tomorrow: running.

11 comments:

jlowe said...

Strange, not to digress or anything, but that tribute to your coach was pretty awesome.

scott jackson said...

shelby will finish sub 6 GUARANTEED POPPIES!!!!!!

scott jackson said...

like micah said, i think with time we will solidify the teams... maybe we will pick up more people... ill just put this suggestion out there while im thinking about it.... put wes on one of the teams, if it is mrs dennisons, then the 3rd time will be wes and shelby averaged. if for mr dennisons, wes and the slowest time averaged.

Jen said...

The commissioner approves this suggestion from Jacknut. Seems fair to average the two slowest times (whether that ends up being Mrs. Denison and Western or not) on the four-person team . . . or is my math-disinclined brain not working here?

Let the Centenary Marathon begin!

Micah said...

we could score it cross country style...

jlowe said...

Why not just take the per person average for each team?

jlowe said...

If what I just posted ends up being the same thing as "cross country style," I would just like to remind you all I am a soccer player. Not a runner. At all. (You'll all see in Jan 09.)

Micah said...

no, cross country scoring is order of placement with the lowest score winning. but average time works also, given even enough teams.

jlowe said...

I leave it to Strange and Jackson to suggest evenly matched teams based on all logical running knowledge. I leave final approval (and possible rearrangement) of said teams to the MSC.

scott jackson said...

i still like the idea of averaging the 2 slowest times of the team of 4 to count as the 3rd score.. averaging all scores together in my mind is a disadvantage to the team of 4. scoring it cross-country style is impossible if there are 4 versus 3.. the team of 4 will lose for sure.. unless u do it the same way as i suggest with the times... you could average the place of the 2 slowest people on team 4, and use that as the 3rd and slowest time for that team.

jlowe said...

Yeah, what Jackson just said. (As long as it means I win.) :)