Sunday afternoon Coffee and Chat

Monday, November 02, 2015 · Mike Davis

Good afternoon! My day has been non-stop since I was up and left for church. I am flying to the great state of Ohio tomorrow and have quite the list of things to get done. I am getting there and see some light at the end of the tunnel. Today I want to share with you a story about a foolish wager that I lost and how the results while may be scary, could end up being beneficial to a great deal of children. Back at the beginning of the baseball season I must have been sharing a few to many hard apple ciders with my good buddy Art, because for some reason I decided to wager him that my baseball team (Cincinnati Reds) would finish ahead of his baseball team (St. Louis Cardinals). The wager was something about the loser having to run down Central Ave wearing only a jock strap or something foolish like that. Well by the middle of the season it looked pretty apparent that each team was headed toward the number 100. The Cardinals were headed toward a 100 wins while the Reds were working on a 100 loses. Not a good year for my team! When all was official Art decided to spare me the risk of total embarrassment as well as possible time in jail but, he offered me an alternative. Apparently there is a while mile run in Boston in the middle of December that raises money for a wonderful cause and Art thought it would be a great opportunity for me to participate in this wonderful event. No problem, running a mile in December in Boston for charity sounds perfect to me. Not so quick Mike! Apparently the running in December is not the challenging part of this event but, running while wearing only a speedo makes this event a little more ridiculous! Yes my good friend Art was not going to let old Mike off the hook so easy. After some thought and discussion I figured that if this is an official event, I would not be at risk of being arrested for indecent exposure and agreed to running in the middle of December wearing nothing by a smile and a speedo! Hopefully you are not eating while you are reading this. While the vision of Mike Davis wearing only a speedo anytime of the year is scary, wearing it in the middle of December is downright gross! The only saving grace is that I will hopefully get some of the running community behind me to donate a few dollars for a great cause. I am giving people 3 options they might consider: The first is that they can join me and we can run together, the second is they can come watch me and gross themselves out or the third is they can stay safely miles away and possibly donate to a cause that will benefit a lot of children. Tough choices I know. Here is the information on the charity I will be running for: Play Ball Foundation was founded to provide Boston middle school students with a chance to play, and build friendships and character through the lessons of sports - teamwork, communication and discipline. Our mission is to give Boston's inner city children opportunities to engage in athletic activities that will enhance their physical, social and emotional development. With a single goal of Getting More Feet on the Field we work directly with Boston middle schools to understand the needs that our fundraising can address in an easy and timely manner. Play Ball! is growing with the help of our volunteers -- young professionals interested in providing their time and resources and with the community of school administrators, coaches, parents and students. The link for donating is: http://ssrunners.org/donate.asp Just search my name. I honestly do not know why I ever made such a foolish bet, but I am a man of my word and now it is time for me to pay up. I hope you will help turn my stupidity into something positive. NFLR Notes: November 14th is the beginning of our Winter Running Group. This group will run through the winter on Wednesday nights at 6pm and Saturday mornings at 8:30. There will be a new addition of online training logs available for all runners and many other great things. There will be more information on the website soon. This week there will be no Pilates but, it will be back the following week on Tuesday at 6pm. Time to move on to my next task. Hope you have a great week! God Bless! Mike