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The Biggest Win of My Running Career

September 19, 2018 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 70s

Comments:
The best workout of the season? Nah. The fastest marathon in the world? Not even close. But the biggest win of my running career........ let me take you back to the start.

It was a pretty unusual, Wednesday practice. For starters, Pat Frahm showed up to practice and was trying to recruit for his company Nexteer. I think he talked to Nick Kilpatrick for 20 minutes. But ya know, business wardogs gotta do what business dogs gotta do. I also forgot to bring running clothes to practice (besides my shoes). I had to sadly call Austin up to borrow shorts and I had to start practice in a business casual shirt. And on top of that, it was the Ice Cream Run Day. I remembered that my freshmen year, I tried racing a few guys back from Anthony Hall to IM West after drinking a chocolate milkshake. I don't know who any of those guys are today and I ended up making it only half way before I walked. So just another big L accumulating to my current position as King of Mount Roastmore.

But anyways, today I decided that i was going to challenge someone to a chocolate milk shake race. All it requires is finishing a chocolate milk shake at a decent pace and then racing to IM West. No fast chugging, just running through the churning chocolate milk shake in the stomach. Not anything you'd expect me to be good at right. So naturally, I shouted out at the beginning of practice if anyone wanted to take me on in a Chocolate MIlk Shake Race. No body wanted to at first, until freshmen young gunner Billy Brinker AKA @DollaBill on Twitter said he'd do it. Austin also originally said he'd do it, but then Austin left practice early and we were joined by Soften. Classic.

So we finished the 5.4 mile run to the dairy store and I realized I forgot to bring a shirt. So I couldn't buy my milkshake. Just some drama to stir up emotions before my big race. Luckily, Billy not only offered to grab my milkshake but even pay it with no cost. Damn, my man Dolla Bill was so confident in this race that he even bought my milkshake. So eventually he comes out and we go over race rules. Austin established that we have 10 minutes to drink it and then after that we'd run back to IM West.

How fast do you think we drank that milkshake? Billy finished in 3:09, I was in 3:15. Brain freeze prevented me from going faster, but I kept up a lot better than I thought. You boys know i'm a big milkshake guy. So after we got the video camera out, Tyler started running back to IM West to see the finish and then we started.

Everyone doubted me. No one thought that I could possibly win this race. Heck I didn't even think I could. However, I thought deep and hard. There were so many times when I succumbed to my secret milkshake addiction in the past usually an hour or two before running club and would have to push through a run. Yup, this has happened at least 20 times in the last few years. Little did anyone know, I had been accidentally training for this race my entire life. Addiction man. Addiction

We were initially stopped by a farm lane walk sign at the beginning but then had no more stops. I originally sat on Billy as we race towards the River Trail. We kept pretty even speed throughout the river trail and were neck and neck. I felt the milkshake coming up a little bit, but pushed it back. We were flying down the river trail so fast that we managed to pass Tyler and once we crossed the street toward the stadium, I made a big move. Now to be fair, this was essentially 0.70 miles. Originally, we thought it was 0.85 but it definitely was shorter. Young Gunner Billy is a big 8K guy and not much of a short distance runner, so I was able to bring back the good old RVP kick. I won the unofficial Chocolate Milkshake 0.70 mile. What was the time? I'm not really sure, but Tyler or Bilyl said I was going like 4:40 pace lmao

So RVP took the W today in the jankiest race since the 23 meter dash against Tall Paul back in the day. I can't do long distance workouts anymore but I can sure pound a shake and run 1000 or so meters. They doubted my ability. They laughed at my confidence. They doubted my might. But I won an unofficial food challenge. Finally (though if it was more than just me vs. Dolla Bill, I would've been fucked) Always remember this boiz (and you won't forget it, because now it's on my LinkedIn summary)......


"No human is Limited"- Eliud Kipchoge