Watching the Olympics and reminiscing. . .

I'm loving the Olympics, especially my favorite, Track & Field. Once upon a time I was a long distance runner. So I was amused to hear on TV last night that Ryan Lochte admits to "peeing in the pool" before his races and insists that most swimmers do the same. Which leads me to today's blog topic: "Bathroom Stories of Long Distance Runners".

I assure you, every runner has one, whether they are training for the Olympics or just out for a multi-mile early morning run. Finding a pit stop is a major part of long distance running.

We had one friend who ran in the New York Marathon on an unusually cold morning and while racing through the streets of Harlem was forced to make a detour into a restaurant's Men's Room, only to find he was suffering from Jerry Seinfeld's friend George's "deadly shrinkage" problem. Not good when you are in a hurry.

My own favorite story took place during a Half Marathon Race in Key West. The race route circled around the outer edges of the island with very few buildings and no handy portolets to be seen. At about 10 miles into the race, Nature's call was becoming very insistent and I was desperate to find some place to stop and go.

Ahead I spied a dense clump of sea grape trees on the side of the open road. Without breaking stride, I dashed in to take care of business only to find a very startled homeless person lying on the ground next to where I was squatting.

Too late. He smiled. I smiled. Needless to say, I was laughing when I rejoined the race. Memories are made of that.
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