Post
by johnlvs2run » March 27th, 2006, 6:05 pm
I first got the idea for the PERathlon method at the age of 14 or so.
When I got into running, I was often bored in the classes and would spend my time calculating my percentages of the world records for various events. this was done in ink, long division etc in the margins and inside the covers of the books. I don't know why I did it in the books and not on paper but I did. Maybe because it was more permanent. I still have some of the books, and the calculations in the margins.
One of these books has two of my favorite stories at that time in it, "The Pedestrian", by Ray Bradbury, and "Of Missing Persons", by Jack Finney. Another one I came to like more recently and gave a speech about a few years ago is, "How High The Moon", by Ellen Rawlings.
"Of missing persons" told of a man who went out walking at night, seeing absolutely no one else as he walked. All he would see of the houses was the flicker of giant screen TV's on the walls, and no cars. No one was out driving at night either. Then he heard the whirl of a car coming up behind him and a voice, that asked what he was doing. A door opened and the voice told him abrubtly to "put up your hands!", and then "get in the back"! The only robotic police car in a city of millions of people had happened upon him. People didn't do such strange things as walking any more.
It's a good book, full of great stories. Were we allowed to just read, rather than listening to boring lectures, then we could have benefitted quite a bit more.
There was a guy in class who would write FDR! in big letters on the black board. I didn't know why he did that but then the teacher came in and would lecture to us for awhile, then he'd turn around to see the FDR! on the blackboard, swear under his breath and say "who keeps writing this nonsense!". Then the guy would raise his hand and ask, "Sir, can you tell us about FDR?" Sometimes the teacher would go on a rant and then catch himself, saying we needed to stick to the lesson. Apparently he hated FDR with a passion. I didn't even know who he was. Every time this happened I'd be cracking up more and more inside, hardly containing myself to keep from bursting out laughing and rolling around on the floor. One day I decided to try this myself. I had just finished writing FDR! in big letters on the chalk board, as the teacher walked in catching me with the chalk in my hand and said, "So you're the one who's been doing this!"
bikeerg 75 5'8" 155# - 18.5 - 51.9 - 568 - 1:52.7 - 8:03.8 - 20:13.1 - 14620 - 40:58.7 - 28855 - 1:23:48.0
rowerg 56-58 5'8.5" 143# - 1:39.6 - 3:35.6 - 7:24.0 - 18:57.4 - 22:49.9 - 7793 - 38:44.7 - 1:22:48.9 - 2:58:46.2
