There’s a First Time for Every Mailbag

When I was 15 years old, I spent Memorial Day Weekend at a bible camp in the middle of nowhere. Near the back of the main hall, envelopes with each person’s name scribbled in Sharpie marker were taped to a wall. The pastor told us to write “encouragement cards” to our friends. By the end of the weekend, there were approximately zero encouragement cards waiting for me in my envelope.

So I’d be lying if I said I was nervous about soliciting questions for a mailbag column on this blog. “Will anyone actually submit anything?” I asked myself. “Or will this be bible camp all over again?”

OK, fine. I added a question that I wanted to answer. But after asking very nicely, I also heard from a few of you. So with that, onto the (first ever) mailbag!

What do you think the Giants should have done in this year’s draft?

First, two disclaimers:

I know this has nothing to do with running, but I really want to vent about it for a minute
This also has nothing to do with the fact that Saquon Barkley de-committed from my alma mater (because let’s face it, I might have done the same thing)

Last month, I turned 32. I’ve been running as a hobby for four years and I feel pretty beat up. The only thing getting me through long runs lately is…you know, I’m not actually sure what motivates me to do my long runs.

That being said, all I do is run from Point A to Point B. On the other hand, Eli Manning is 37 years old and plays a sport that was never intended for civilians to play. He also plays for a team that rarely picks in the top 5 of a draft. For those reasons, they probably should have taken a quarterback.

Do you want to run more marathons or focus on some other distance next year?

Speaking of feeling worn down by marathon training…

I’ve learned that wanting to run a marathon is a big part of getting through the whole ordeal. And right now, I’m a little bit over it. I really admire people who run multiple marathons every year, but I don’t think I’m ever going to be one of those people.

At the same time, Jess says that I’m impossible to be around when I go a few days without running—and yeah, she’s totally right. So for the sake of my marriage, I’ll probably sign up for a half marathon or two in 2019. Whether or not I actually run them remains to be seen, I guess.

Do you ever feel bad about getting on the subway immediately after a long run?

I honestly hadn’t thought about this until you asked the question. So, as the great Justin Bieber once asked: Is it too late now to say sorry?

In fact, I didn’t understand how nasty running clothes get until after Ragnar Trail Vermont. After 15 loads of laundry at our post-race AirBnB, we couldn’t figure out how to make our stuff not smell like spoiled milk and farts.

With that in mind, I probably owe a few people apologies, including:

Jess
My co-workers, especially when I forget to shower before afternoon meetings
Regular riders of the 7 train through Queens

Bonus! A flowchart to help you figure out if you need a shower!

One time on our way home from work, Jess told me she thought she smelled a bag full of rotting fish. It turned out that I was the bag of rotting fish.

To avoid this, use this flowchart to determine whether or not your post-run shower can wait.