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The Bet

The 10K-Dub-L: Dan Nunn

I made a bet with Dan Nunn six months ago. There is some serious money going to the winner ($250, or 1000 chicken nuggs) and a long time period to decide who said winner is (4 years). But before I get to what the bet is, a brief history of Dan Nunn and I is necessary…

(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.

D-Nunn and I at some banquet...Classy.

**UPDATE** Dan Nunn is reportedly training for a marathon. Things are looking good on my end.

REEEESE'S & Costumes

Halloween has come and gone, and I am five pounds heavier due to the influx of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups that took over my diet. Jokes, jokes. But I did eat a ton of Reese’s a la Walt Pett every October. Aside from the candy, I’m not necessarily the hugest Halloween fan (luckily, candy plays a huge role, so I really like Halloween).

Dressing up isn’t my favorite thing, but I play the part if need be. A favorite costume for the children of Walter Pett was Bee Keeper and the white jump suit and mask you had to wear with it. It was easy enough, even if the suit for a 6 foot 2 inch man was a bit big for us. This year I was Zorro, and the drawn on mustache was legit.

While there are thousands of costumes out there, in the realm of running related costumes, there are only a few to consider. Halloween always falls around the Conference Championships for College XC teams, so here are some things for the college runner to consider for their after conference Halloween get-together:

1 – Be Usain Bolt. Get the arms. Get the outfit. Strike the pose. It is an easy and awesome costume. My brother Will pulled it off even if it was only because we had no other costume options.

2 – Dress up as one of your coaches. It will always get a few laughs amongst your teammates. But don’t wear it to a non-track event, then it won’t make much sense at all.

3 – Be an awesome runner that you know. My buddy Jonah pulled it off perfectly:

I knew I had made it when someone portrayed me for Halloween. Too bad I couldn’t make this list for you all before Halloween…

The Cut-Off Hoodie

It was Labor Day Weekend 2009 and a group of Columbia grads was up in Loon Lake, NY for a bachelor party celebration. I had made the trip up from DC, and was happy to be spending a weekend doing all things masculine. There was a lot of sports playing and a lot of unhealthy eating. Plus, there was my cut-off hoodie. I figured what better for a weekend amongst the guys than for a sweatshirt that keeps you warm and looks awesome, yet also shows off your muscles.

The cut-off sweatshirt turned out to be such a big hit, that Jon Pastore (the friend who was in Amsterdam this summer for one of the euro-posts) offered me $1000 for it (it was actually $60, but that’s still a lot). I obviously declined, and instead wore the sweatshirt at all times that weekend. Even over a flannel in an impromptu street race relay of Zach and I vs. Will and Kevin Verge (see above picture--albeit dark) that I was clearly on the winning team for. Needless to say, I love cut-off hoodies/sweatshirts of all sorts.

There was what some may call a ballyhooed frenzy over the picture at the bottom of my last post. It was an awesome sweatshirt. I am always on the lookout for a new cutoff hoodie. Meanwhile, the process of turning the arms coming out of those sleeveless wonders from linguini to sculpted rock continues.

And by ballyhooed frenzy, I really mean I have no idea what kind of reception the picture received (there was one comment from Joseph that said: “that’s bad-ass”….I’m assuming he was referring to the sweatshirt, not the lifting schedule). Viewership of the site neither ebbed nor flowed, and all in all it seemed to be a pretty normal week for runLBP.com. All except for the awesome news that I did get a new sleeveless hooded sweatshirt; it is bright orange, and it is legit. I do love myself a man-made cut off, but this one that has been hemmed to perfection is no slouch.

Recently, David Torrence posted a blog post about what we need to do to help track and field. No sleeve hoodies are a huge part of my life, and any time I get a shot at one I take it. I’m somewhat encouraged to race in one…maybe what the Fab Five’s long shorts were to college basketball, the cut-off hoodie will be to track and field.

For all of that to go to plan, however, I need to win me some races. So, I’ll keep working out, I’ll keep lifting so my arms look awesome without the sleeves, and I’ll try to win some races. Once sleeveless hoodies are the norm, track and field will be on the map.

Night Running

For a city that never sleeps, Central Park at night is at least in nap mode. Instead of kids yelling and cars honking you hear bike spokes whirring and footsteps clomping. And it is a welcome break.

Wednesday’s are going to be my busiest day of the week for the next long block of time. Here’s what I have on tap:

7:30am – Wake up and do ankle exercises that I have do every morning in bed (a lesson from Ron Warhurst back in my high school days).

7:34am – Brew a pot of coffee and have a bowl of cereal. Check out some really important news sites.

8:00am – Get a call from Gags telling me not to run the first mile of my tempo too hard.

8:30am – Head out the door for my run.

8:41am – Meet Will in Central Park and start up the tempo four minutes later.

8:50:24am – Run the first mile of the tempo too hard. Curse at Will under my breath.

9:06am – Finish up my 3 mile tempo in 16:25, getting the pace right for the rest of it.

10am through 5:30pm – A lot of stuff goes on here, and since it was going to be a really long post if I continued with the minute-by-minute update, I’ll start doing some blocks of time. Here is where I make sure to eat some bfast, get in an ice bath at Columbia, head down to work, do some work in usual Mad Men fashion, and then take the god forsaken rush hour train back up town.

6:00pm – Out the door for my evening hill session. It is really nice running in Central at night because it is just a little bit calmer. You can hear your own breathing, can look up at the glowing buildings, and actually relax while running. You can get this in Central at other parts of the day, but it is a lot easier at night.

7:00pm – Get back from the hills (8x100 meters) and make myself some dinner. Today it was burritos. *it most likely will be burritos every Wednesday, considering how much I love burritos.

8:00pm – Let my friend, Krisch, in because he locked himself out of his apartment. Keep him company while watching “Man V. Food” (one of the influences for “Will Run For Food”).

9:00pm – Shower time.

9:30pm – write a runLBP post.

10:00pm – Bedtime. Boom.

And there’s a day in the life. For one of the first times in my life I am really busy, and its actually pretty nice. But it’s 9:58 as I’m finishing up, and as you can see from the schedule, 2 minutes ‘til bedtime. Let’s Go (to sleep)!

Workout Wednesday

There seems to be a new trend developing on runLBP.com: The Wednesday Post. I guess it’s the day that works best for the working man, so from now on, check back Wednesdays instead of Sundays for new journal entries. Fittingly, I will often times be working out on Wednesdays (hence the name steal from FloTrack), so there can hopefully be a few good posts to check out.

And thankfully…the workouts have begun for me! Last Friday I was able to put my first workout in at the Rutgers Track and drop 4x800 in 2:32, 2:32, 2:30, 2:29 before rocking some strides after. Then yesterday, I was able to hop into some 1ks with Delilah and Frances Koons (one of my new teammates). As chivalrous as I am I led the last two. Then I discarded my gentlemanly ways and tried dropping them…alas, it was to no avail. But I did get in 4x1k at around 3:15 (~2:36 ½ mile pace) before running some 150s and concentrating on form.

On top of getting back into running, I have been doing some more strength-based exercising and trying to get jacked. I am incorporating a lot of hurdle work, drill work, and push-up work so that I can rock that last 120 of a race. Delilah and I were doing some exercises a week or two ago. One in particular proved extremely challenging:

Someone must be sitting in a chair in front of you, their back and the backrest facing you (they are sitting there to anchor the chair). You lie face-down on the ground and reach up with your hands so that you are grabbing the top of the chair, thus your back is arched (kinda like the cobra pose in yoga but your arms are up in the air grabbing a chair). From there, you pull yourself up using your core strength. The book we were using told us that it may feel as if your back was going to break in half. But that you would make it through and then complete the exercise by standing over the chair, it defeated below you.

I got about halfway through the exercise and, sure enough, I thought my back was going to break in half. I stopped immediately and cried out in horror.

Needless to say, I didn’t beat the chair that day. I have always known it, but I am really starting to understand that to be great at this sport, you really have to work your ass off. So keep in touch for when I start beating that chair, and really start to fill out the shirt in the picture below... Let’s Go!

Re-Adaptation

While “fresh air” in New York City can sometimes be reminiscent of a bio classroom filled with formaldehyde soaked frogs, when I stepped out of my apartment building on West 118th Street and took in a deep breath, it was as if I was on top of a mountain, sucking in sweet air. That’s because I was going for a run for the first time in about seven weeks.

My highly overpriced orthotics made their way into town and I found myself chugging away on a 30 minute run and enjoying the awfulness of it all. While I have kept in fairly good shape via the elliptical machine and the pool, there is only one way to get in good running shape: running. I am three runs into my season now (with a fourth coming tomorrow morning), and there is still a long way to go. Luckily for me, there is still a long way to go until I need to be ready. I’m working my way through a light workout this Friday and then seeing the doctor next Thursday to hopefully get cleared to go full blow.

I can’t wait to get going, because even though I just said there was a long way to go, I know January is fast approaching and I am going to be ready to run come indoor season this year.

Meanwhile, I am adapting back into the New York swing of things. While I spent a summer in sweatpants, I am into the “Mad Men” routine and styling the hell out of New York. (The second part of that sentence was an complete lie: I do dress nicely now for work, but I miss my sweatpants sooooo much.)

New Jersey awaits on Friday for my first “workout” of the year. Let’s Go!

Ps – Only East Coast Electricity was offered as a possible team name. I liked it quite a bit, Furcht.