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Was just about to post and ask about this particular story but finally found it in the Booth archives below. Does anybody know if Booth is still alive? I always enjoyed reading his posts -- sort of like a permanently pissed off Douglas Adams, if that's even possible.
My favorite Booth story:
Tough Day Running
have to share with you guys this story that happened to me the other day down at the Two River's Trail in Little Rock, Arkansas.
A few days ago, I was running, down at 2 Rivers Trail, at what I consider to be, rather briskly, 7:05 per mile pace, down at the running trail, a pace right on my Lactate Threshold. But I digress.
Shockingly, I was almost immediately passed by a young man who was pushing his young child in a heavy stoller.
The path was on concrete and very flat, and slightly downhill, and occasionally, the road has a rather long, easy descent, in the direction we were running.
The man was not very tall, he was squatty and muscular, and had what looked like a "Marine Insignia" on his forearm, like Popeye, and he was wearing an Auburn Tigers T-Shirt, for some reason.
He was running hard and pushing one of those real, sturdy, heavy bomb-proof, baby strollers. He passed me in it but was struggling to pass me, and, given that I admired his attitude, I slowed down, and conceded him the valor of besting me this day out on the city path. He seemed to be running like his life depended upon it. And, after all, I follow Jack Daniels or Galloway's run training books, and this was an "E-Day," for me.
However, as the sting of pride hit me, after I settled down, I decided that I could not be passed by some guy pushing a baby stroller, so I decided to eventually blow by him, after giving them a good half mile start.
After I watched them disappear across the horizon, off I went, I was cooking down the path, at a break neck pace. I noticed as I approached them, that the man was starting to look back, as I began to huff and puff loudly. I was cutting the distance. My goal must to have been clear to him. There is much too much testosterone down there, especially at 5 A.M. And, as per usual, he increased his pace. And we were hooked in the proverbial running duel, some joggers get into when the competitive spirits arise. Me against him and his stroller. It said a lot less about me than about him.
During this competition, much of which goes on down there, untold, by bikers and runners, I speculated why he was able to best me, pushing that much weight. It was a blow to my confidence, but then I realized that, given the presence of physical forces, and kinetics, the stroller was probably carrying him forward without any responsive muscle works from his legs, with every step. Thus, he was cheating: cheating by using momentum.
Maybe he just pushed hard for a while and sort of skipped a long, and hopped on the carriage, letting it carry him forward, while I, I, did the hard work.
Not fair.
Eventually, the battle wore on for four grueling miles, we passed each other many different times. Finally, after we crested a rise down by the golfcourse, he turned to me and gave me "the bird." Well, as you can imagine, tempers were at their breaking point. During all of this, I noticed that the man had a peculiar bulging eye, and I didnt' think much about it, at the time. It went on. And the man's legs were so worn from the pushing that he was completely out of gas, and, as we went down the hill, he just hopped into the baby stroller, himself, to give his legs a rest, to ride it down the hill, rather than run and push anymore, and I yelled, "you cheating bastard!"
As he looked back, in a rage, he lost his balance, his stroller toppled, and then careened into a creek.
Being that I am altogether a good Samaritan, I rushed over there to find out about his situation and noticed, after his head turned my way, that he, in fact, had a glass eye, which he had lost in this crash, and apparently it had scattered into many parts across the creek bed.
I did not feel sorry for him because he was a cheater, the whole way.
Then, what shocked me more, as I looked for the small child in the stroller seat, that there was no child, but there lay a big, partly eaten ham, in the area where the baby was to have sat, strapped in, which he must have stolen from the nearby Kroger a few hours ago.
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