The Couch Potato Hall of Fame

Years ago, when we lived in San Diego, telemarketers would call and pester us incessantly. One evening, after dinner for a change, my wife ended up on the end of a sales call from somebody at 24 Fitness.

She listened to the spiel, tried to interrupt to say she wasn't interested. The guy on the other end kept rambling. My sweetie gave him another minute and finally, when the telemarketer stopped to gather breath and energy for another assault, told him this:

"I am the President of the Couch Potato Hall of Fame and want you to know that I could lose that just by talking to you on the phone."

The marketer laughed and hung up.

Mind you, my sweetie is more slender than I am and the doc keeps giving her good news on the checkups on all the usual issues, blood pressure, cholesterol, and what not.

She lost her Presidency yesterday in an act of voluntary resignation.

She entered the Benefit run, pinned on the race tag, and walked the course with one of my daughters and a granddaughter. My daughter is 8.5 months pregnant and pulled my granddaughters in the little red wagon around the course.

If talking on the phone put her at risk, pinning on a race tag puts her over the edge.

She's now the former President of the Couch Potato Hall of Fame.


Many thanks to all the wonderful people that showed up to walk or run the Seaport Striders Benefit 5K. It was a nice turnout. Mike Halverson, the President of the Striders, was there to help out and seemed quite happy to match funds for the race. He acted as starter for us and we actually got underway on time.

No one pushed especially hard so the fun run was actually . . . fun, though the last hundred yards got competitive a couple of times, especially as one young lady raced her dad to the finish . Apparently they had a bet - she won.

The weather, as promised, was nicer than it has been, dropping into the high 70's by the end of the race. With a 7PM start and the help of the nearby cliff, the runners were able to stay comfortable in shade the whole race.

A special thanks to all the volunteers. You folks, as always, were just awesome. The pictures are courtesy of Suzy Cowdrey, who volunteers at nearly all our races, usually handling the rush of people at registration.

To John Potter's son - I owe you a dozen cookies. We had prize giveaways after the race and I donated a copy of each of my books. John, the Lewiston xc coach, won his choice of cookies or a book. His son was pleading, "Not the book, Dad, not the book." John picked up a copy of Finishing Kick anyway - thank you for that and I hope you enjoy it. I'll get a dozen snickerdoodle cookies together for the son.

Have a great weekend!