After Wednesday’s workout I was wondering what I would do on Thursday.  Some of the conference attendees provided a solution.  I’m not sure who was mostly responsible for this “challenge”.  My guess was Laura, with some input from John and Kris.  I don’t believe that Brian, Amy, & Mary are that diabolical, but I wouldn’t put it past Laurel.  So, here is what they told me to do.

“Go Jeff go! Your route for tomorrow should include: the bleachers at Vaught Hemingway Stadium, Faulkner’s Hill, 75 push ups on Frat Row, step climbing at Guyton Hall, 17 sprints around the Student Union, and 125 pull ups at the Natural Product Center.  Love, your small conference attendees! :)” 

I think it’s funny that they signed it with “love“.

Once again, I rolled out of bed without enough sleep due to a late dinner with the conference attendees and another hour or so down at the Square with them.  I had full intentions of doing exactly what they said; howevvvvvvvvveeeeeerrr it didn’t quite go as planned.  Mistake number 1 (and it was a big one) was that I didn’t have a map.  You can probably already guess where the rest of this post goes.  I made my way to the baseball stadium and did 5 short hill sprints before finding my way to Vaught Hemingway Stadium.  I ran around it trying to find an entrance so I could run bleachers, but of course they lock stadiums at night so looney birds don’t get inside them and do crazy stuff.  I couldn’t just keep on going without an obstacle, so I did 30 tricep dips on a retaining wall.  I then went searching for Faulkner Hill and this is where mistake #2 came into play.  That mistake was taking a wrong turn, thereby throwing my sense of direction off for the next 2 or 3 miles of running.  I ran up and over hills, down sidewalks, across streets, but each time I did not find a landmark that I expected.  I even went so far through one little stretch of woods that I ended up on Highway 6 and had to run about a quarter of a mile to the Coliseum Drive Exit.  Mistake #3 was going the wrong direction after that exit.  After three straight days of leg-intensive exercises, I got more running in than I desired.  I suppose it didn’t hurt me any and my route did take in several little hils.

The best part of the whole workout was when I came upon a construction site with a bunch of concrete road tiles.  I just had to crawl through one of them.  I scouted them all out like a chipmunk looking for a hole to go in and chose one about 10 feet long with a 3 foot diameter.  It was actually my second choice.  I had decided on another one the same size, but there were 2 or 3 spiders crawling around in that one.  I could not come up with a good reason for getting bit by a Mississippi arachnid, so I went with tile number 2.  I scuttled up in it and did an agility crawl through, but just as I was getting ready to come out the other side a truck drove by.  Like a groundhog I pulled my head back in…don’t anyone thinking that I’m a fool.  Yes, I know.  It’s probably too late for that.

More running and I still hadn’t found Faulconer’s Hill, but I did find plenty of other hills.  Just when I thought I had figured out where I was, I ended up on Jackson Ave and that was absolutely NOT where I needed to be.   This was an expansive commercial strip, not the quaint and quiet campus.  I had a decision to make.  Go left.  Go right.  Ask somebody for directions.  I chose to go right and that was the first good decision as I found Fraternity Row Road and then had a vague idea where I was.  I stopped and did the 75 push-ups….plus one more.  25 regular, 25 wide, and 26 military style.  If I haven’t mentioned before, it is hot and muggy in Oxford.  I counted 16 drops of sweat that fell from my head onto the sidewalk.  From there I ran over to Guyton Hall with just one wrong turn that I corrected quickly.  I made 5 sprints up those steep steps while 2 physical plant ladies who were standing outside the building provided commentary.  I had my ipod on so I only heard bits and pieces.  “Look at ‘im go”.  “It’s too d**n hot to be doing that!”  “He sure is quick.”   On my last trip down the steps I gave them the head nod and away I went.  I remembered that I had spent a considerable amount of time running around trying to figure out where I was and by now I was running out of time.  I had to get back, shower, eat breakfast, and make my way to the conference.  For that reason alone I didn’t sprint around the student union, which was somewhat disappointing.  It took me a few minutes to get to the Natural Products Center and for some reason I thought there might actually be a pull-up bar there.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  I guess I was just trusting the Ole Miss peeps!  That was probably mistake #4.  Of course I didn’t find one.  No one just puts up a random pull-up bar outside an academic building.  However, I had to do something, especially since this is normally a strength day for me.  I found a banister for some stairs and knocked out 200 australian pull-ups (lying under them and pulling up — sort of like a reverse bench press).  A couple of runners came by and gave me the funny eye, but truth be told, they’re the crazy ones….out there just running in the heat for no good reason.  A slow cool-down jog back to the Inn and a very quick stretch brought the 1.5 hour workout to a close. 

I printed a map of the campus and tried my best to draw the route I took.  The route was supposed to be considerably shorter than what it ended up being.  It began and ended at the Ole Miss Inn.  The arrows point in the direction that I started.  There you have it.