Are You Ready for Some FATball?

I’m a week away from running my fourth half marathon. My goal out of running half marathons is to continue to gradually improve my time via training, but one thing has me ultimately concerned about how I will perform next week: football season.

My training hasn’t been as good as it could be in general. It’s been a pretty busy time of the year at my day job and I’ve lined up a lot of comedy shows so far this fall. I’m not complaining about the busy lifestyle at all as I like it, but that leaves the remaining open time to exercising among other things. Unfortunately, exercise has instead been dominated by both Buckeyes and Browns football.

My interest in running comes out of two reasons. First, I have a desire to at least try to remain in shape and healthy or have the same body type that I’ve had for my entire life. Second, running is an outlet for me that allows me to free myself from my mind and perhaps fill whatever void I may feel on a given day.

In the same way, watching football can fill a similar void. It frees my mind as I’m around friends and enjoying the camaraderie involved in cheering for my team. However, all the decisions involved in watching football are the exact opposite of what needs to be done in order to train properly for a half marathon.

Here’s an account of my day last Sunday: have a few beers with Golak and a couple of our other friends, watch the Browns lose horribly to the Titans over the course of those beers, go to a comedy meeting where there happens to be beer also, return to my home where Golak and I order King’s (if you don’t know what that is, think Cane’s but the tenders are even bigger and completely covered in whatever sauce you picked to the point that the plastic bag it came in is also filled with said sauce).

I should let you know that my biggest vice and void filler is terrible, terrible junk food. When we took a trip to Windsor, I announced my excitement about how I would be getting a dozen donuts on Saturday morning of the trip. Strip club? Who cares?! Gambling? Whatever. Dozen Donuts? I was up at 7:30 A.M. walking from the hotel to Tim Horton’s to bring everyone this stuff.

So, it’s not as if I feel guilty about what comes along with football season. I certainly love every minute of it as I shave a month here and there off my life. Yet, as I try to continue to progress in something I care about in running, I’m easily going backwards in how I approach it.

I’m in shape enough to successfully do this half marathon, but it remains to be seen how well my time will be and if I’ll actually improve. If not, I can only blame myself and how much I’m willing to allow my entire weekend to be destroyed by football and all that it entails.

Recently, Golak and I were talking about our desire to just get fat and the difficulty maintaining our already unimpressive body types. It feels like soon we will make a pact to just give up after we get married to our respective wives, which will just be sad for them.

Look forward to “The Sumukh and Golak Attack” looking something like this in 15 years: