Hilarity ensues

If any of you are UW-Madison students or alums, or even if you live in Madison, you probably know of the phenomenon that is the Badger Herald Shoutouts. Basically people can anonymously "shout out" to whatever...something stupid they saw someone say/do, things they like, the weather, something that happened....pretty much, anything at all. Anyway, Monday after practice, Brittany and I were sitting around after doing abs, when suddenly we noticed this guy running with his hands in a really awkward way. At first I thought he just had a really weird running style, but as he kept coming around we realized - he was counting laps. On his hands. And he just looked utterly ridiculous. Not to mention, its not like this guy was any kind of serious runner (although..I guess the fact that he can't count laps in his head kind of gave that one away..), he was running probably over 10 minute mile pace in basketball shorts and one of those SUPER sweet t-shirts with the arms cut off and down the sides. So basically, we decided he was deserving of a shoutout. So here's what I posten:

SO to the guy at the shell counting laps on his hands. I'm sorry you don't know how to count in your head, but seeing you give the world a high five as you came around on your 5th lap just made me laugh.

First of all, it got posted in the paper (which means someone thought it was funny - that always makes me happy). But THEN, today I go browse the online shoutouts section, and here's what I see:
1411. Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2009 @ 1:40pm:

SO to whoever made fun of me for counting laps at the shell. I'd like to see you run over 5 MILES and count all the laps. Funny how the eliptical does that for you...

HAHAHAHAHAHA.
Lets rip this one apart piece by piece, shall we?
1 - Oooh, 5 miles? You must be quite the badass. Especially considering I had just finished an 8 mile track workout, and somehow managed to keep track of all the laps without using my fingers. :)
2 - Elliptical? Ouch. I actually am offended. Too bad the only time I've been on an elliptical in my life was last year when my IT band flared up, and wanted to shoot myself the entire time.
3 - 5 miles..35 laps? I think my brain might explode with the sheer ridiculousness of attempting to count to 35.

Oh boy. Being a competitive runner makes you a little bit of an elitist sometimes. I realize that there are plenty of people in this world better than me at running, but considering I am 100% confident that I could take this kid over any distance, it amuses me that he would think that I'm one of the other group of people I tend to make fun of at the Shell - chicks on the elliptical either reading books, talking on their cell phones, or looking like they spent about an hour doing their hair before they came to work out. But I digress...anyway, I basically almost peed my pants when I read the response. So here's to you, lap counter guy...I hope you continue to be super proud of your "over 5 miles", and that you know that if I ever see you at the Shell again, I will still be laughing at you.

Tonight's workout calls for 2 miles easy, 1 mile @ half marathon pace, 3 minutes easy, 1 mile @ 10k pace, 2 easy, 3 x 300 @ 5K pace. Let's see...thats something like 7 miles? Let's see if I can manage to do it without counting on my hands. :)