Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Talking to Intensivists and Stupid Things I Still Do While Running

Don’t have time for a long post today. I’ve got a date with some intensivists tomorrow. Although I have total word crush (ding ding ding) for their job description, this date isn’t really for me. It’s for some unfortunate kid with a hormone problem who might come under their care. Yeah, I’ve been suckered invited to give them a talk on how best not to kill my patients. For those who don’t know what intensivists are, they’re the doctors in charge of the intensive care unit. They work with the most damaged, most catastrophic, and sickest kids, in one of the busiest parts of the hospital. Kids get shipped in whenever there’s a crisis and get shipped right back out once they do their thing and the danger is over. God bless their souls for what they do, but as a direct result of their job description, they are a very intense bunch of individuals. And tomorrow, I’m supposed to give them a talk on my area of expertise, which is anything but intense, life-changing, or emergent. If I had to draw a comparison, it’d be a little like walking into the first corral at the next roadrace and finding yourself next to Dathan Ritzenheim, Ryan Hall, and Brian Sells. Yeah, that’s how I’ll feel at about 10:30AM tomorrow morning.

But I did have some running related thoughts that I wanted to leave you all with. Since I haven’t had a chance to experience my shades yet because of the horrendously bad weather we’ve been having lately, I had ALOT of time to reflect on the stupid newbie mistakes I still make in my running. Although I like to admit my faults almost as much as I like prepare this talk for the intensivists, I’m sharing my shortcomings for three main reasons. 1) So you can laugh at me; 2) So you can laugh at me while secretly thinking, Damn, I do the same thing! and 3) So you can laugh at me for doing something stupid AND admitting my stupidity…which is stupid2 (Gosh, I hope NOBODY that attends my lecture tomorrow reads this!)

So without further ado, here’s my list of STUPID THINGS I STILL DO WHILE RUNNING:

1. Forget to double-knot shoelaces before a race.
2. Running too fast and too far to the left approaching a water station.
3. Going out for a 16 mile long run on an empty stomach and without any gel packs.
4. Having knee pain but still refusing to throw away running shoes with no treads on them.
5. Responding to a new runner all happy with his 6 miler with “Yeah…I ran 16 miles today too…”

How embarrassing! If I repeat any of these mistakes in the future, please kindly remind me to return my trifecta garb and ask for a refund!

7 comments:

Jamie said...

Good luck with the talk. Intimidating stuff. And I still have made nearly everyone of those so called rookie mistakes - no worries. You really just have to laugh when it happens.

Nancy said...

Oh yeah? Well I ran 20 and I'm doing a talk to some.... oh never mind. I can't think of anything that would top intensivists and I actually did not run. I did some arm/shoulder/ab thingy that will have me needing help to dry my hair tomorrow.

I think internal med feels the same way about hospitalists. Let's see, my uneducated advice is to cover:
You are gods, thank you for saving them, you do great work, it takes a special kind of person to do what you do, yada yada yada.
and
Please do really really good med reconciliation when you send them back so I don't kill them either.

Good luck tomorrow. I'm sure you'll knock their socks off.

C said...

Good luck with your meeting. And, no, I would not like to trade with you. :) BTW, I am teaching a course on Augustan Rome. Nerdery, here me roar. :)

B. Kramer said...

I have this strange feeling that you're going to come back writing in all caps after this intense talk.

No. 5 is a tough one. It's hard not to want that pat on the back too.

sRod said...

1. I've never double knotted my laces (which backfired for the first time ever during last weekend's 10K, I blame you for that)

4. A few more runs and we'll have new shoes, so you won't feel bad about throwing out your old pair!

5. You know you like doing that, we all like doing that (when we can)

Anonymous said...

#1. I did that too during my trail race! Hate that

#2. I also miss way too many water stations - I just can't seem to time it right, or I end up spilling it all over me.

#3 Yes

#5. Guilty of that too.. "Oh, I only did 8 miles yesterday" comes off sounding pompous when I don't mean it like that.

Run For Life said...

Good luck with the meeting.

You better get in a sunny run soon because I'm sure they don't want sweaty shades returned. :P jk Number 4 is my nemesis. (Although I'm guilty of them all!)

 
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