Ten Random Things For Tuesday

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for my weekly 10 random things blog. I wrote the blog and then I wrote this first paragraph. And in looking at what I have in here, I realized … I sure do like to talk about food. Oh well — I’m not going to change who I am.

Just a quick intro in case this is your first time here, I’m a father of three and marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and to try to make a difference in his honor, I’m attempting to run 60 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity called Train 4 Autism. So far, so good. I’m through 26 marathons and I’ve raised quite a bit of awareness. So who wants to help with that money part?

Anyways, I’m doing the best I can and this blog is where I ramble frequently so y’all can go on this journey with me. And with that, I’ll get on to my randomness.

1. OK, so I’ve talked about how I was unathletic when I was a kid, and I had a flashback to something that happened at summer camp one year. It was a sports camp on the beach and we had teams based on the hall we were staying in. There was a relay race at the end of the camp session. Everybody had different roles in the relay based on their strengths. One person would have to swim several laps in the pool, another would have to shoot a certain amount of free throws in the gym and some and somebody else would have to surf a wave in at the beach.

My role? I had to eat two peanut butter sandwiches, drink a glass of milk and whistle. They made those things thick with that peanut butter. It was tough. And I’m not kidding at all. That was my role in the relay.

2. Here’s my secret recipe of the day. Make pizza with ranch dressing instead of marinara. It has to be good ranch dressing, though, like Hidden Valley. Not the gross Kraft stuff in the plastic bottle.

3. I snapped this picture at 8 p.m. on Friday night. It didn’t get dark until about 9:30 p.m. or so!

4. When I hit mile 5.2 in the Med City Marathon in Rochester, Minn., this Sunday, I’ll be through 26.2 marathons this year. I’m a numbers junkie and I get excited about stuff like that.

5. For my contest this week, it’s not going to be a “guess Sam’s time” deal. I’m going to have a post-race pancake eating contest with a man named Lonnie Butler, who’s running his first-ever marathon in that race. I can eat, but Lonnie is also a one-time big boy. He’s at about 210 pounds, down from more than 300 at one point.

6. I accidentally walked into the girls locker room on my first day of high school. Somebody gave me directions from the gym to the office and I apparently walked into the wrong door. I scooted out of there before anybody noticed.

7. I’m weird about spending pennies. Weird as in, I don’t spend them. I have a big five-gallon water bottle full of them in the garage, and there are pennies all over the place in my house.

8. My great invention is three-legged pantyhose. That way, if you get a run in one leg, you just go switch to the spare leg. But apparently, it’s not as easy as wrapping the spare leg around your waist. I think it’s a brilliant idea, but I’ve never met a woman who agrees with me.

9. Tiffany loves this song. So when I hear it, I smile. I’m putting it in here today and I think I’ll keep this page open at work today and play it over and over.

10. If you’ve never had frozen peanut M&Ms, do yourself a favor and buy yourself a yellow bag. Leave them in the freezer for a couple of hours and then after you eat them, don’t forget to thank me.

That’s all for today. I’ll see you back here tomorrow!