Prior to the 1981-82 NHL season, only two players had achieved the incredible feat of scoring fifty goals in fifty games -- Maurice Richard in 1944-45, and Mike Bossy in 1980-81. But in 1981, Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time, blew through the 50-in-50 mark in an inconceivable fashion.
After 37 games, Gretzky had 41 goals, so he was well on his way to both getting 50 in 50, and becoming the first player to do it in less than fifty games. In his 38th game, he scored four goals, bringing him to 45 total, and reducing 50-in-50 to a mere formality. But what Gretzky did in his 39th game resulted in a mark that surely will never be equaled, the greatest of all of the Great One's records . . . .
Gretzky not only scored 50 goals in less than 50 games, but he skipped the forties entirely. Unbelievable.
In a similar feat of paradigm-shifting athletic greatness, this week I ran 60 miles. My previous weekly high since MaT's inception was 46 miles, which means I skipped the fifties, making a leap that many would have dismissed in an earlier era.
Wayne Gretzky was my favorite athlete as a child; I've owned four of his jerseys over the course of my lifetime. This week was my tribute to him, and I am now one step closer to my goal of finishing within thirty-five minutes of Jeff completing his half marathon, going home, showering, having a satisfying post-race dinner, finding some sorority chicks, and then partying with them through the next day's dawn.
Sam: While it's tempting to post my weekly running above Ro$$'$ due to his verbose weekly recap, I'll keep with MaT tradition and post in the order in which we check in. After all, Ross deserves to be on top with his 60 mile week, and you must respect The Gretz. I, on the other hand, had a weak week. Friday was a tease 50 degrees, and today it's right back to the snowy bluster we're all accustomed to. Thankfully, I spent most of today sampling martinis and food samples at bars and restaurants downtown for Winterfest. S(cherry picker for 12 hours), M(6), T(8), W(0), R(7), F(10), S(8) = a lowly 39 miles. There were days when I was running pretty quickly, but it's tough to recover volume-wise from two days off. The good news is that I should be fresh as daisies for my first 20 miler tomorrow. We may have the first 70-mile menage a t'week on our hands.
GORDON: S(9) M(5) T(8) W(0) R(5) F(8) S(9) 44 miles total. It was a good week for getting runs of more than 5 in which I think has been harder to do. I have gotten back into the swing of biking 50 miles each week (5 miles to and from work). The past two weeks the biking was really wearing me out, and I was feeling really fatigued on my runs afterwards, but I'm back to the point where the biking has little impact on how I feel during my runs.
I, myself, have the week off this coming week and I have no plans which bodes well for my running life, and bodes poorly for my social life. But, Molly's got an interview at PSU next weekend. So, we'll be there and I'll have nothing but free time for runs and heavy shitfaced drinking.
Sam: While it's tempting to post my weekly running above Ro$$'$ due to his verbose weekly recap, I'll keep with MaT tradition and post in the order in which we check in. After all, Ross deserves to be on top with his 60 mile week, and you must respect The Gretz. I, on the other hand, had a weak week. Friday was a tease 50 degrees, and today it's right back to the snowy bluster we're all accustomed to. Thankfully, I spent most of today sampling martinis and food samples at bars and restaurants downtown for Winterfest. S(cherry picker for 12 hours), M(6), T(8), W(0), R(7), F(10), S(8) = a lowly 39 miles. There were days when I was running pretty quickly, but it's tough to recover volume-wise from two days off. The good news is that I should be fresh as daisies for my first 20 miler tomorrow. We may have the first 70-mile menage a t'week on our hands.
GORDON: S(9) M(5) T(8) W(0) R(5) F(8) S(9) 44 miles total. It was a good week for getting runs of more than 5 in which I think has been harder to do. I have gotten back into the swing of biking 50 miles each week (5 miles to and from work). The past two weeks the biking was really wearing me out, and I was feeling really fatigued on my runs afterwards, but I'm back to the point where the biking has little impact on how I feel during my runs.
I, myself, have the week off this coming week and I have no plans which bodes well for my running life, and bodes poorly for my social life. But, Molly's got an interview at PSU next weekend. So, we'll be there and I'll have nothing but free time for runs and heavy shitfaced drinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment