I am writing this backblast while Gastone is recovering in the intensive care unit (not really, but thought I would get your attention with that). I’ll start off by saying we are all fine, however, blood was shed this morning, and a lot of it.
It started out all fine and good. Stroganoff got in some EC while the rest of us were all just hanging out in the parking lot of the Harris Teeter. There was a quiet and calm feeling, like the calm before a storm. And a storm was brewing, my friend, was it ever. None of us knew it, but it was calm like no other calm has ever been in that particular parking lot…..basically, we did not have a lot to say so we started running.
We ran, and we ran, and we ran. Once we got finished running…..we ran some more. As usual, a few led the pack and a few stayed back keeping our comfortable mosey fellowship pace. And it was calm….I think I mentioned that above, but again, not much to say….so it was quiet also, and a little calm.
Somewhere along the way something strange happened. Gastone stopped running and looked back at me with a not-so-calm-and-quiet look…..and then I saw it, blood everywhere. Like a fire hydrant on Mars had been knocked over by a cement truck, red stuff spewing all over the place (Mars is the RED PLANET, everything is red there, right? I think I have read that somewhere). It kept coming, like diarrhea after a bad bunch of Chalupas, too many baskets of chips, and truckload of Tequila. It was coming from his hand, from his eyes, out his ears, and I think he was vomiting it also. It was awful. And it just WOULD. NOT. STOP…..Children were screaming, mothers were fainting, grown men were running (that was us, because this is a running AO). Gastone had stepped on some glass which got stuck in his shoe and was causing some pain so he stopped but most of us kept running because #1, this is a running AO, and #2, it didn’t really look that bad at the time. I think Madoff went back for him to make sure he was ok. The story is Gastone tried to push the glass back through his shoe thinking it was really a nail. The glass cut his hand in a couple places before he knew what was going on. He eventually got it to a place where he could continue running and then they took off.
Stroganoff led the pack and when he reached the end, he pulled a Forest Gump and kept running. As far as I know, he is still running. Madoff was the only one close enough to see him from the finish while Billy Madison and I kept a steady fellowship pace-he’s fun to run with because once you start talking, eventually some situation comes up where he can quote a movie, I get to try to guess it, and this leads to more distractions and before you know it, we have just gone another half mile. JK2 kept a solid pace in preparation for his upcoming half marathon. Gastone finished strong despite losing gallons of blood along the way. My advice, eat something with ketchup today. It’s red like blood and should help replace what you lost on the road today. And remember, I am a doctor. We know things.
Once we finished the running and recovered from seeing all that blood, we did 5 burpees because Gastone heard a train-I suppose it was real, but could have been a couple cats getting busy with some early morning action, who knows? We hung out for a little while then had a quick prayer and went our separate ways.
Although I did not Q this workout or lead the pack in any way at all, I was there and thought I should report things exactly as they happened, just for the record. And by the way, if someone sees Stroganoff this week, tell him he owes us 5 burpees.