I downed a Sparks a few hours ago, which means that I have the only the slightest of buzzes and will be awake until the crack of dawn. Good one. I just finished watching Without Limits, a biopic about runner Steve PreFontaine, starring Billy Crudup. Billy’s chiseled jaw and promising shirtlessness was what initially kept me on the couch to watch the film, but it ended up being a really enjoyable flick.

The movie reminded me that I need to get back into running. And by “get back into,” I mean advance past week five of the Couch-to-5k running program. I’ve always hated it, convinced myself that I would always hate it. In my stubbonness, this has somehow evolved into my thinking that I MUST be a runner, just to prove myself wrong. (Remember that one time I went eight days without solid food? What’s a little huff-and-puff on the Monon Trail?) Besides, I hear I can get “high” from it, so…there’s that.

I was also reminded of cross country champion and olympian Dathan Ritzenhein, with whom I graduated high school.

Like any school, we had “nerds” and “jocks.” But at RHS, we had this hybrid of people who both insanely smart and ridiculously athletic. Dathan was one of those people. (Clearly, I was not, and could rather be found flirting with the choir queer/band fag hybrids in various Rockford HIgh School practice rooms.) I talked to Matt Wilson yesterday and he had mentioned seeing our hometown celebrity on billboards around New York. Soon after  I discovered  that Dathan has a wikipedia page, which makes me feel very inadequate. Thus, I am determined to become something fabulous so that I am featured on the “Notable People from Rockford” wiki.

Current Level: Couch.