Hey dol! Merry dol!
Deciding what your first post should be about is like naming your kid. You have to be careful, because it's going to stick around forever. It's the first substantial thing anyone would notice about this blog. It's got to be catchy. Maybe funky. Or atleast shocking and morbid. It could even be, I daresay (enter pretty music, twinkling stars and fluttering butterflies) - inspirational. Satire aside, I'm glad to announce I've found a role model in my life. I don't know how many of you have heard of Dean Karnazes (which can't be too many, since as of now I have..umm..zero followers), but he's the kind of person who deserves more column inches than Paris Hilton and her chihuahua bitches.
Dean Karnazes is a quiet guy. A Greco-American science and business grad who likes Greek yoghurt and grilled salmon. He's also a part time columnist who owns an organic food company- 'Good Health Natural Foods'. Oh, and he's an ultramarathoner.
Karnazes grew up in Los Angeles, where he began running home from kindergarten; he took up running so that he wouldn’t have to burden his mother with rides home from school every day.
During a fundraiser in school for underprivileged children (where every lap a student ran raised a dollar) most kids ran about 10-15 laps. Karnazes ran 105.
He had a fallout with his high school coach though, and gave up running for a long time.
Fifteen years later, on one August night in 1992, Dean Karnazes sat in a bar celebrating his 30th birthday- disconcerted, discontent and disgustingly drunk. Being hit on by a woman who wasn't his wife. Successful and rich, but it wasn't the life he'd imagined for himself- slugging it out at the great big corporate rat race. Another suit n' tie face in the crowd. So Karnazes decided to pick himself up, and go on an impromptu all-night, 30-mile trek in his underwear and old lawn-mowing shoes. Because it felt like the 'right thing at the time'. And because it felt damn good. As it turned out, over the next 17 years, Karnazes challenged almost every known endurance running limit.
In 2006, at the age of 44, when people dealt with midlife crises, Karnazes ran 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days. Yep, you read that right. FIFTY fucking marathons in FIFTY fucking days. He set his best time of 3:00:30 at #50, the New York City marathon. And when he was done with those 50, he didn't fly back home to San Francisco from New York City. He RAN. He ran ALL of the 2905 miles there is to run. He also ran 350 miles in 2005, over three days, NON-fucking-STOP. And a marathon to the south pole in inviting temperatures of -40 degrees celsius (or fahrenheit, if that's your thing). For naught did TIME magazine name him as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.
Still reading, hunny bunny?
He also runs his own company. In-poor-taste pun intended. It doesn't matter, I'm an inspired man now. Inspired men don't give a shit about what other people think about their sense of humour. They have only one thing in their mind, and they're sure of it. I don't know what that one thing is, but on the bright side, I'm SURE I don't know what that one thing is.
Or maybe I do. I think I'm gonna go for a run now.
The great outdoors, here I come.
"Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness."
Deciding what your first post should be about is like naming your kid. You have to be careful, because it's going to stick around forever. It's the first substantial thing anyone would notice about this blog. It's got to be catchy. Maybe funky. Or atleast shocking and morbid. It could even be, I daresay (enter pretty music, twinkling stars and fluttering butterflies) - inspirational. Satire aside, I'm glad to announce I've found a role model in my life. I don't know how many of you have heard of Dean Karnazes (which can't be too many, since as of now I have..umm..zero followers), but he's the kind of person who deserves more column inches than Paris Hilton and her chihuahua bitches.
Dean Karnazes is a quiet guy. A Greco-American science and business grad who likes Greek yoghurt and grilled salmon. He's also a part time columnist who owns an organic food company- 'Good Health Natural Foods'. Oh, and he's an ultramarathoner.
Karnazes grew up in Los Angeles, where he began running home from kindergarten; he took up running so that he wouldn’t have to burden his mother with rides home from school every day.
During a fundraiser in school for underprivileged children (where every lap a student ran raised a dollar) most kids ran about 10-15 laps. Karnazes ran 105.
He had a fallout with his high school coach though, and gave up running for a long time.
Fifteen years later, on one August night in 1992, Dean Karnazes sat in a bar celebrating his 30th birthday- disconcerted, discontent and disgustingly drunk. Being hit on by a woman who wasn't his wife. Successful and rich, but it wasn't the life he'd imagined for himself- slugging it out at the great big corporate rat race. Another suit n' tie face in the crowd. So Karnazes decided to pick himself up, and go on an impromptu all-night, 30-mile trek in his underwear and old lawn-mowing shoes. Because it felt like the 'right thing at the time'. And because it felt damn good. As it turned out, over the next 17 years, Karnazes challenged almost every known endurance running limit.
In 2006, at the age of 44, when people dealt with midlife crises, Karnazes ran 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days. Yep, you read that right. FIFTY fucking marathons in FIFTY fucking days. He set his best time of 3:00:30 at #50, the New York City marathon. And when he was done with those 50, he didn't fly back home to San Francisco from New York City. He RAN. He ran ALL of the 2905 miles there is to run. He also ran 350 miles in 2005, over three days, NON-fucking-STOP. And a marathon to the south pole in inviting temperatures of -40 degrees celsius (or fahrenheit, if that's your thing). For naught did TIME magazine name him as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.
Still reading, hunny bunny?
He also runs his own company. In-poor-taste pun intended. It doesn't matter, I'm an inspired man now. Inspired men don't give a shit about what other people think about their sense of humour. They have only one thing in their mind, and they're sure of it. I don't know what that one thing is, but on the bright side, I'm SURE I don't know what that one thing is.
Or maybe I do. I think I'm gonna go for a run now.
The great outdoors, here I come.
"Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness."
- Dean Karnazes
