Hi. I'm Andy. Nice to Meet You.

Hello Everyone. My name is Andy. I'm going to be running a mile a day with you all and I'm also going to help blog about it. Some of you may know me from my wildly controversial sports/video game blog (currently shut down due to safety concerns) or from my insanely popular beard blog (soon to be shut down because I'm sick of having a beard). And while my blogging credentials are unquestionable, you may be asking yourself, "What kind of insight can he give on running?" Well, I'd like to take a little time to answer that question, and justify my existence (on this site).

In the year 1998 I was a sophomore in high school. If that makes some of you older folks feel old, well, that's because you are. It was my third year running cross country after a very failed attempt at CYO football. During my sophomore year I ran a 5K in 18:47, by no means a good time. At my high school you had to run an 18:45 to get your varsity letter, or you could just run for the team for two years straight. My coach told me he'd give me the letter for the 18:47, but we all know that I got the sympathy letter. Regardless, my mom bought me a letter jacket right away and wrote "Cross-Country" on the back. Hyphenated. Despite the fact that the sport has no hyphen.

Fast forward to my senior year and my personal best still being that 18:47 from sophomore year. What can I say? I peaked early. But I knew my place on the team. I wasn't there to help the varsity 7 win the state meet, I was there to provide moral support and to make sure the freshman didn't get too rowdy on the bus during road trips. Speaking of road trips, we used to watch Without Limits on the bus on the way to every meet, and we'd watch Something About Mary on the way home. I don't know how familiar you are with the Something About Mary DVD (although it could have still been VHS at this point) but at the end of the movie they do a sing-a-long for "Build Me Up, Buttercup." So just try to imagine thirty teenage boys from an all male highschool cheerfully singing "Build Me Up, Buttercup" on a bus. I can only assume it was quite a sight.

But back to my place on the team, the moral support. Well, I almost quit my senior year because I sucked so bad, but then I realized I didn't have any other friends in high school and if I quit the Cross Country (no hyphen) team, I'd rank right up there with the nerds in the PEZ club. So I stuck through it and actually became a team captain, due to my amazingly positive attitude (which came out of nowhere). Along the way, my buddy Dan, who was a member of the elite Varsity 7 said to me, "Andy, you're such an important part of this team, I wish you could run the state meet with us." I laughed it off and said, "Dan, I'll be there to support you, that's all that matters." Later that night I may have cried but I'm not going to say yes or no to that.

Fast forward AGAIN to one week before our State meet. It was a big day for us. Not only was it the day the seniors got to do the Underwear Run (that's a story for a different time), but it was the day of the long standing tradition of all the seniors giving all the freshmen wedgies until the bands on their underwear ripped off. "Oh happy day!" you must be thinking. Not for everyone. When I was a freshman, I was spared of this tradition by a senior, and I was told it was my responsibility when I was a senior, to not participate and to save one freshman. So while everyone is having a great time giving each other wedgies, me and some low life freshman get to hang out in the gym and play floor hockey until practice starts. As you can imagine, life sucks at this point.

But all is not well in high-school-cross-country-ville. Turns out one of the freshman had to go to the hospital after practice (nothing to do with the Underwear Run), because of "swollen testicles" (whatever that means). His parents throw a fit for some reason, call the school, and long story short every senior on the team gets kicked off. Except for 2. Some guy who just wasn't there. And me.

So, to wrap this all up, coach says, "Andy, you've been a model team player. Dedicated. Loyal. Full of team spirit. But awful at running. But since we have no chance of even competing in States at this point, you might as well run on the team." So, 2001, guess who finished second last at the Division 1 High School State Cross Country meet? This guy. Look it up. You think I don't know about running? Suck on that!