What is your greatest athletic achievement?
It can be getting that big hit in a little league game, making a daring dash during a childhood kick-the-can game, finishing a marathon, anything..... Let's hear it.
I posed this very question to my brothers during a gathering recently, and it was wildly entertaining. (My brother who was a D1 defensive lineman won going away, btw. It was kind of hilarious. The rest of us were all....yeah, that time i scored 10 straight points in a high school basketball game, and he chimes in with - the year I led the Western Athletic Conference in tackles for losses, and sacked both Jim McMahon and Joe Montana - WINNER!). But it was great fun for all of us.
When you look back, what would you highlight?
For me, it was the year I transformed from a former fat fuck to the lean, mean mofo that I am today. I dropped 50 (!) pounds, culminating in a week-long bicycle rally through the Rockies in CO, doing 500+ miles and crossing the continental divide twice with some incredibly nasty climbs.
Let's hear it! Don't be bashful.
Replies to: What is your greatest athletic achievement?
I have a few but boring compared to the animals that have already posted. My senior year in HS I
Played on a pretty decent baseball team. We were good but short on starting pitchers.
Our starting team was all seniors, 6 out of 9 pretty much knew each other from birth, I got to know them starting in second grade. All to this day real stan up guys.
I am still in touch with all of them.
Our coach played for the Twins for a few years, he was and still is a god, we loved him.
I lead the state that year in OF Assists.
First round of playoffs a kid decided to test me on a medium fly ball to right. He was on second, tagged and took off for third. It wasn't close, got him by at least a step and a half or 2.
Billy Ripken was not that fast.
Nice post, I can relate to all of it. Almost eerie, short on starting pitchers seems
to be a high school malady
Monogram.
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Congratulations!...Enjoy wearing that jacket every chance you get.
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Synchronized Swimming. Took 8th place.
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out of 8 teams? I pray there weren't more than 8 teams.
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I’m insulted the ninth team had a member that almost drowned. So we didn’t finish last. So there
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Boston marathon in 1997
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I once caddy’d The Babe’s 58 club bag around 36 holes while taking call for the ICU.
I was exhausted. Especially after volunteering all night at the homeless center while being pestered by those Harvard assholes who just wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.
Now,now Ty, sure you're embellishing a bit ?
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I caddied for Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer in 1976. He shot his age. Bloomfield Hills CC
Great guy. Class act. Easy loop.
I knew you were a kifelong Tigers fan as am I.
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Nice...John Smoltz concurs with you on Charlie's prowess...even at 81 More than his scoring
ability, I was struck by him learning to play right-handed after getting a gift of RH clubs from admirers...even though he was left-handed...some folks refer to that as "Character".
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Gehringer
Idiot!
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I had a former basketball all-american jump over me and dunk in open gym.
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TMI
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Somewhat bittersweet...shot 67 just two weeks before my 67th B-Day (Par 71/6,430 yds), but followed
that up in the next month with a pair of 68's and ended up with a 0.7 handicap for a brief shinning moment...all downhill from there...but shooting my age now is a lot easier ;-).
Jesus! That is strong. Impressive.
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Thanks, but largely the product of a mis-spent youth...including too many rounds on the Burke GC
instead of in the Library ;-).
Winning a state title in baseball in high school!
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.
(Edit: For some reason I read "basketball" initially.)
BTW, Thanks for asking. Beats another boring political post.
Posted at 12:07 pm on Sep 3, 2021
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Absolutely. Happy Friday.
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23.2 lb pink salmon with the largest at 7.1 lb on the daily catch limit of 4 on 2013 (fresh water)
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18 Triathlons.
Qualified for Nationals twice.
Re: 18 Triathlons.
Jaker, you Da Man!!
I envy you. I did a few and loved the training but am not a strong swimmer.
I almost drown in the Chesapeake Bay on my 60th birthday because I could not handle the waves.
You bring up an interesting point.
Certain swim courses require different types of skills. I am TERRIBLE at the courses that involve multiple turns (swim in a square around the buoys). If it's point-to-point, I feel totally relaxed. But ask me to sight every 2 strokes and turn by a buoy in a crowd, and I get too anxious.
In your case, the ocean swim is a whole different beast.
I live in Michigan... and it was impossible to find waves to train on. My rhythm was wrecked at once
I also did one where they sent the older men off before the younger women, who caught me and kicked me.
I felt like I was in a Fellini movie about an old dude trying to recapture his youthful masculinity and drowning in a sea of young women.
I loved it when I caught them on my bike.
For my first few years, I had a similar experience.
Guys with far inferior conditioning would scoot by me on the bike, because they would invariably have some $6K bike that acted like a perpetual motion machine. I always knew that I had 10 kilometers to catch them on foot during the run.
That’s only 18 more than me, though.
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That's a lot - Well Done.
What's your best of the three disciplines?
What if I told you I was mediocre at all 3?
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Do you do international races?
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No, I'm not that good. Though one in Ireland is on my list.
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Good gosh dude.....
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You Sir, are a Beast!
Posted at 11:55 am on Sep 3, 2021
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You would have made an exceptional special operator.
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Jesus H!
WOW! I bow before you.
By the way...
...that makes me uniquely qualified to be VERY impressed by your mileage on the bike through Colorado.....distance and altitude together like that are pretty freaking awesome.
Thanks. The thrill of a lifetime
Was really surprised by the range of athletes that completed it. Everything from super freak top-tier cyclists to normal Joes like me. Honest to God, I spotted non other than Tyler Hamilton during the tour that I did.
I plan on doing it again next year.
One of those bucket list things that I highly recommend. There are several throughout the western US each year.
The tour I did is now defunct and was generally considered more challenging, but the one I linked to is similar.
Link: Ride The Rockies
Sandan
Posted at 10:33 am on Sep 3, 2021
Shodan was my most memorable.
Sandan was my most difficult.
That's a good one.
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1970s HS football. Returning a pick 100 yards down the sideline for a TD...................
My one and only TD. That earned me one date with one of our cheerleaders. As it turns out, that one date wasn't even that memorable. So, I went back to the hippie chicks. My best memory though was hitting a home run in a Little League all star game . Not my first little league dinger, but this particular time, as I was rounding 2nd on my way to third, I caught a glimpse of my family sitting in the bleachers down the third base sideline. Awesome for this dopey 12 year old. Running suicides in 90 degree heat during summer football two-a-days was always memorable. Salt tablets was the cure all for everything back then.
Awesome
I well remember the grueling summer two-a-days with the salt tablets.
Hah. Running a mile in 4:50 in high school. All downhill since.
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Scoring three tries in a college rugby match while nursing apocalyptic hangover.
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Several marathons and an Ironman, but my experiences running trail ultra marathons
eclipse them all. Any trail marathon or ultra in Appalachia, upstate NY, or the White Mountains is worth doing. The sport is tremendously underrated.
Ironman is harsh enough but Ultramarathon? WOW!
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Trail ultramarathons are for animals. Damn impressive.
I've been hiking at 10,000 ft a few times and had some ultramarathoners go running by. Waaaay out of my league in terms of fitness.
EDIT: I should clarify, the ultramarathoners weren't at 10,000 ft. They were at lower elevations (on my way to 10K), but still significant enough that thin air was an issue.
Yeah, that's not for me as we don't have that elevation. But we have craggy, rocky trails
and scrambles with cliffs and steep drops. I've been questioning my dumb idea to run these on more than one occasion.
I did one race where you run 31 miles and the only way out is to finish or turn back, and you have to treat your own water. That was a bit of a mental challenge to map it all out.
This December doing one in Red River Gorge KY. First time there. Should be great.
Is climbing an athletic achievement?
In the past 5 years I've stood on top of every mountain in the iconic picture of Lake Louise.
From left to right - Temple Mountain (Out of picture left), Fairview Mountain, Mount Lefroy, Mount Victoria, Devil's Thumb, Mount Whyte, Mount Niblock, Big Beehive, Mt. St. Piren (out of picture right)
I assume helicopter flights aren't that expensive.
Just sayin'.
Other than that,
WOW!
That's something I could never do. Do you need a lot of expensive gear to make these climbs?
Truth be told most of them aren't that hard.
Some of the ones at lower elevations are just moderate to difficult hikes that we did with normal hiking shoes.
The moderate ones require some Class 2/Class 3 scrambling so we use hiking boots, helmets and poles.
We had ropes and crampons ready for Temple because of the snow and exposure at the top, but didn't need them (two weeks before we climbed it two climbers were struck by lightning but survived, and about a month after a climber fell to his death so the exposure is real).
Lefroy and Victoria are the most technical and difficult to access so we hired guides to assist. Used fixed ropes on the difficult parts near the summit. I had no chance to do these without guides. I'm not experienced enough.
The hardest part for me was overcoming the fact that I'm terrified of heights. Absolutely terrified.
So, if you are terrified of heights, why do it?
I am also afraid of heights. I know I can overcome the fear (I've done it many times, in the Army, more recently on high ropes courses, etc. ... nowadays I do this when the family wants to do stuff like that), but the older I get, the more I think...why the hell am I doing stuff that I am afraid of???
That's a really good question.
It sounds completely trite but mostly to push my limits and to experience and see places most people never will. I've done every climb with my sons so there is a huge element of creating collective memories as well.
Beyond that it's hard to describe the sense of accomplishment when you stand on top of a mountain. I'm not sure how to put it in words. You get a real sense for the immensity of the world and just how tiny you are. It's humbling and exhilarating. I realize that sounds so corny but I don't know how else to describe it. I've said it before, everyone should climb a mountain.
As to the fear of heights, the first time I strapped into a fix line as we maneuvered on a ledge with a 50 foot drop I was scared to death. I just shuffled my feet along and took forever. I've been back to that same ledge about 3 times since and I don't even use the rope anymore, so I'm getting better. Also, a lot of hiking/scrambling/climbing is the drudgery of staring down at your feet as you "left foot-right foot-left foot-right foot" along a trail, interspersed with moments of thrilling exposure or adrenaline rush. It's not 12 hours of terror.
Your last comment is the 1st reason why I would never, could never do what you did.
Getting over that is too difficult.
On a side note. I climbed the stairs at the Eiffel Tower (when it was still possible to do so from ground level). I didn't think it would
be all that difficult other than exhausting. Wrong. The moment I looked down it became the torture climb of a life-time. Terrible.
Just a question on climbing mountains - Is it more difficult to climb down (as in climbing a tree) - easy to climb up, impossible to get down?
So that depends on who you ask.
I find the ascent much harder. Like being on a stair climber all day with someone's knee on your chest.
Most people will tell you the descent is harder especially if you're doing something serious like Everest. The climb down is more dangerous because you've spent most of your mental and physical energy reaching the summit and you have little left in the tank for the descent. So you're prone to making bad mental decisions (not clipping into fixed ropes properly) or physically just not able to descend because your legs feel like wet spaghetti noodles.
I've never done anything that taxed me that much that the descent was a problem. Having said that the worst fall I've ever had was on a descent from the Lady MacDonald ridge walk (picture below). I didn't fall here, but just over the other side out of the picture. Made a stupid mistake and put my foot in the wrong spot, went head over hills down the side. Fortunately, I landed about 10 feet down and hit backpack first. The pack was full of 2 litre water bottles so that broke most of the fall and left me with a few scrapes and bruises. I was more embarrassed than hurt.
Yikes! Keep on Truckin'.
Nice Photo by the way.
Not my photo. I borrowed it from the internet.
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That's pretty awesome.
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Sure. Somewhere below conor's...but sure...
Just kidding. Well done! Great stuff.
No.
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Wow!
Holy crap - that's just incredible, Rooney. Congratulations!
Excluding masturbation?
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LOL. Good one
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Excellent!
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One very creepy dude
The guy who posts innumerable pics of young girls and constantly sexualizes given scenarios.
But good on you Conor, if you are able to burn some calories while jerking off to your iPad.
Thanks for the contribution!
Bwahahahahaha.....hahahahahaha!
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Finished Boston Marathon together with my son and daughter
And it's not that I finished it's that they participated with me.
I like this one. Winner!
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Impressive Curly... What year did you all run it?
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2005.
I missed the bombing... thank god!
All three qualifying for Boston and finishing...well done there!
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Not exactly. My son qualified but my daughter and I got in as foreigners (who don't have to qualify)
I did finish ahead of almost 5000 other slackers.
That's great. Just curious because I have friends who ran it. I never have. Usually max out at 10K
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Yeah...back when I was a big runner, I flirted with the idea of a marathon...
But in the end, I decided that the time commitment was too great for marathons, and I would rather run 5K's (and the occassional 10K) faster, than run the full marathon, so I never did one.
I have slacked off a bit in recent years. Probably time to get my ass back in shape.
It's mostly just bragging point and fun when it's over. The last 6 miles were brutal on my joints
I have run about 10 of these but I am not built for this distance especially at my age.
The recovery takes quite a few days.
I much prefer halves... there is no agony on the course and the next day all is well.
WOW! What an awesome story.
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