So imagine my surprise when, just after his 36th birthday - see, a lot older - he announced that he had embarked on a Couch-to-5K running plan. Yes, in a few scant weeks he was going to transform himself from someone like me, to whom playing the Wii counts as a sizable workout, to someone like a person who might run in the Olympics or something.
I am therefore very happy, deeply impressed and quite bemused to report that on Saturday Jim finished the Downtown Anaheim 5K in 29:30! That's minutes and seconds! This placed him 440th out of more than 1000, although he did admit to being beaten by three people in the 75-99 age category.
Wow. I'm not sure how I'm going to compete when I turn 36 in...a while, but I can only hope my existential crisis leads me to be as productive as James. Turning to booze and gambling is more likely, but we'll see. Well done Jim!
* Just to note that, although the team we were playing was an Under-12 team and therefore a year younger than us, they were a 1st team and we were a 2nd team, so really they should have been playing our 1st team. The newspaper article was actually about how well they'd done all season, although they did list our particular match as a "highlight". Also, 12 of the 14 goals were scored in the first half, and I came on as a second half sub at left-back, and only 2 more goals were scored after that. James was on for the whole match, I believe. But, whatever, it doesn't matter.
Everyone getting ready to explode out of the blocks/off the couch.
Crossing the line! Possibly next to someone in the 75-99 category who beat him.
