The 10K-Dub-L: Dan Nunn
(And by brief, I mean long, but enjoy.)
Dan Nunn did not want me to go to Georgetown. I visited Gtown in December of 2007, and I did not make a great impression on the PAJC (Dan Nunn is a man of many nicknames: His freshman year, he was the Pan-Am Junior Champ in the 10k – “PAJC”. His 5th-year, he ran a 28:24 to win the Stanford 10k and was the World Leader for a week – “10-K-Dub-L”. When I was there, he ate a lot of Bacon – “Bacon”. And then he was weird and twitter-named himself “La-La” (perhaps he likes the old mtv v-j)). But I digress, because D-Nunn (there’s another) did not like that I was joining the team.
According to him: “Liam came in when I was watching a movie, it was Anne Hathaway’s great film The Princess Diaries 2, I believe, and he just would not stop talking! I told him to quiet down so I could enjoy the wonderful acting of Julie Andrews, but he just wouldn’t shut up. So I figured he was just a talker.
“So then, a bunch of people are over on his last night here and they’re watching The Shining, and I ask a question. Liam shushes me. The guy has the nerve to do that. He tells me to quiet down so he can watch a movie. Can you believe it? So yeah, that’s why I didn’t like Liam and didn’t want him on my team. He was an asshole.”
Whoah, whoah, whoah, Dan…an asshole? Isn’t that a little strong on choice of a word?
“Nope, I meant it.”
The problem for Dan was that I was going to be his roommate. So we were going to spend way more time together than he would have liked.
You always view yourself as a littler cooler than you actually are, but I think I did a fairly good job of being cool at Georgetown my first semester there. Overall, I was pretty liked by most guys on the team. As right or wrong as it is, I was doing well in workouts, so respect was there, and I tried not to step on any toes, so most of the guys were at least alright with me.
Dan took a little more work. We would start to bond over him cooking bacon when I would get home from class around 10pm. We would talk about girls and how Dan wanted to weigh 300 pounds at least once in his life but I could tell something about me still irked him. Then, a movie brought us together for good.
There was a party during the offseason that the whole team was at. It was right next door to our house, which was great for us. We both took the 10 foot walk home at separate times but found ourselves in our living room as Zoolander blared on TBS at 2am. But we didn’t even really watch the movie. Instead, we talked.
And a mutual respect was born. Talking during movies could make Dan hate me, but in a twist of fate, it also made him my friend.
From there, we were cool. We did workouts together…if he ran a 400 in 55, I would run it in 54.9 (granted he beat me by 8 seconds on the 1200 leg of the ladder). We hung out…we were roommates at NCAAs in Fayetteville. And we even met up when I was in the Bay Area last year, where Dan is now that he’s done with Georgetown.
So there you have it: Dan Nunn and I from the start.
And now, to the bet. Dan stopped running competitively last fall. He is in school in the Bay Area to become a 2nd Grade Teacher, but I was able to see him last May for the Payton-Jordan Invite at Stanford.
At dinner, the conversation turned to one we used to often have:
“Dude, I am going to get up to 300 pounds at some point in my life,” Dan said to a group of us at dinner.
“No way in hell,” I called him out. “How much do you weigh right now?”
“I was 160 at the doctor’s office, but I had a bunch of stuff in my pockets.” He laughed. “But, dude, I’ll get up to 300.”
“Guaranteed you wont. I’ll bet you anything that you don’t.”
“Fine, 250 bucks.”
“Deal.” And we shook hands.
Dan and I have a $250 bet as to whether or not he will ever top 300 pounds. I couldn’t give him his entire life, because at that point $250 wont be anything. But I gave him four years, and he accepted. So by May 5th, 2014, if Dan Nunn hasn’t weighed in at 300 lbs or more, he will owe me the money. If any time before then he does, I will owe him 1000 chicken nuggs because he will need them to sustain his diet.
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| D-Nunn and I at some banquet...Classy. |
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