Saturday, July 2, 2011

While We Wait

Now that we're in the middle of planning for the next cruise, it's time to wrap up last year's reminiscing. Since welcoming new seamonkeys and keeping everyone informed and up-to-date about Jococruise Crazy 2 has fallen onto the able shoulders of Tracy and Sara, I'll make one last post on Jococruise Crazy 1, then begin tapping my foot in anticipation for February.

I decided to wrap up my farewells with a post to Peter Sagal. It's the right time to do it. Peter Sagal announce a few weeks ago that he would not be on the next cruise. Two days later I ran my first half marathon. In two days I run another one.

These things are related, because Peter Sagal is my running hero.

He writes a column for Runner's World (Road Scholar). He not only qualified for the Boston Marathon, but ran it quickly enough to re-qualify. He also did this within about a year of being hit by a car!

Flash indeed. This photo lives in Ginamai's Flickr stream.

So, in all the world of bad-ass runners, why is Sagal my running hero? To understand that, it's important to know there are two kinds of runners: Runners who are good at it, and runners who refuse to be bad at it. I'm the second -- slow with no natural skill whatsoever. I run because of its calming freedom, because of the inherent challenge in it, and because, at the end of the day, you're never racing against anyone but yourself.

From everything I've ever read from Sagal on running, I think we're the same in this. The difference is he's been out there refusing to be bad at running long and hard enough, that he's actually become good at it. So. Hero status achieved.

He wears it well. Everyone on the cruise was cool, mostly in the way "bowties are cool," but Peter Sagal seemed completely comfortable. Perhaps that kind of skill naturally evolves from all the practice he gets talking to strangers on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, but I think there's more to it than that. This is someone who can hang with the NPR intelligentsia, then roll up at a swinger's party to research "The Book of Vice." (Fantastic read by the way. Highly recommended.) A few hundred nerds were not going to be any problem.

And Peter Sagal did so much on the boat. He and Bill Corbett performed one of his plays, an incredibly clever piece called Game Theory. He hosted our morning quiz, Hey, Hey, I'm an Asshole. And he performed live something I'd only heard through YouTube, the story of Number 57.



This video by Adhesivemedstrip lives here


I love this piece. It strikes such a chord with everyone struggling to find our potential, particularly when surrounded by talented people who make everything look so easy.

But I guess it's true in life too. There are two kinds of success stories -- stories about people who are good at something, and stories about people who refuse to be bad at something.

I miss all my seamonkeys, all my friends. I hope to see you soon.