ELUSIVE FOCUS - There is a point where focus meets flexibility resulting in healthy adjustment, like a blank page in a runner’s log when a white-out blizzard surrounds your house which always brings up the Chico Barranco five-miler around his basement oil burner many years ago.
I had a focused streak of walking 100 miles a month for five straight years. In 1999 when an ice storm hit Atlanta when I was there for the Super Bowl, I did five miles inside a parking garage which is close to oil burner lap man crazy.
On Monday, Dec. 31, Bob Wolhar completed the Gold’s Gym 5K, giving Bob 101 races for the calendar year 2007. Let me be the first to offer a startled reaction and to warn all runners not to focus on beating Bob’s record because no one should run that many races, but Bob appears flexible and even looks like a yoga instructor.
“Everybody in the running community knows me by the race I missed last summer, the northbeach 5K, which got me kicked out of the Seven Sisters Hall of Fame,” Bob said with a smile. To quote Barth Gimble from the old “Fernwood Tonight” program, “I’d like to be a fanatic, but frankly, I haven’t got the time.”
CAPTAIN SAFETY - No Citizens on Patrol messed up New Year’s Lewes Polar Bear Plunge at the state park, and not to worry because Captain Safety had it wired up like a peach basket. I told people not to trip; their life expectancy was two minutes in the 41-degree ocean and not to dive in the astronomically low tide waves because it was impossibly dangerous to the spinal column.
I do know that cold water immersion is good for the homeostatic balance of the body, which is why in 1977 I tried to go every day of the calendar year. But when my collie Waffle refused to get out of the car during a northeast storm I saw my stupid self reflected in the brown eyes of a loving dog and put a stop to my homo alone on the winter beach madness.
GET OFF THE STOOPS - Last year it was underdog Boise State delighting the nation with a gutsy win over powerhouse Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. And this year West Virginia, a team we East Coasters love to watch under interim head coach Bill Stewart, shocked Oklahoma 48-28 with 348 rushing yards. Commentators Pat Hayden and Terry Donahue went on relentlessly about what a great coach Bob Stoops was and how his father and two brothers were coaches and then came a cut-away shot to the press box and there were a dozen Oklahoma spotters and coordinators with Sony, two-eared padded headphones looking stupid because West Virginia was running over and around them. Quarterback Pat White was just killer with 150 yards rushing and another 176 passing with two touchdowns and White looks like such a nice kid because he is - so enough about Bay, the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. The great thing about a lifetime involvement with sports is the national network to which we all belong.
SNIPPETS - The Polar Plunge to benefit Delaware Special Olympics is Sunday, Feb. 3, in Rehoboth Beach. Remember this is a harsh environment challenge, so don’t call for cancellation information. You can go to the website sode.org for all the information, including pledge forms. If you have an interesting story regarding a group plunging send it to davefredman@comcast.net.
And while we’re doing the interactive columnist thing, if you know of any heroes overcoming personal stuff to embrace athletics please give me a heads up.
Remember this bit of gym locker room etiquette as a New Year begins: Cut your yellow, jagged-edged toenails at home, not on locker room bench. And why would you wait for the gym shower and then shave your head in the mirror with a plastic razor. I mean, what is that?
