Catching up With the SOM

When last blogged upon, the Summer of Man was in its 4th month and 15th challenge. Obviously the Summer of Man has been completed now for almost four weeks and the last thing you've read about was our hot dog eating competition on Memorial weekend. As pretty much the sole voice of this blog I can only say that once summer actually set in in San Diego, it became pretty hard to find time to sit down and write. Since the final challenge and the crowning of our champion--Sir Matthew Bingawoman--I've watched the Sox sweep the turds in Anaheim, cruised to Mexico while obliterating my liver and ran a half marathon on three hours of sleep. The last month of the competition itself almost killed most of the men given the fact that every Sunday it seemed we were heavily drinking. It has been a busy couple of months. But I'm back now and ready to start back where I left off. I'm going to try to catch up on what happened in the final months of SOM starting with SOM 15-Track Day.

Track Day was held on the beautiful campus of Point Loma Nazarene University. The track overlooked the Pacific Ocean and the view itself was enough to take your breath away. Unfortunately for the challengers, the view was not the only thing that would take our breath away. The schedule for the day was a 40 yard dash, a 100 meter sprint and a one mile run. With little time to rest in between and an overall lack of training, the events of the day were not looked upon favorably by anyone. DJ Darkhorse had a considerable mental leg up on the competition given the fact that he had at the beginning of the summer ran a 6:00 minute mile (which Nikki then proceeded to tell the rest of us about to his dismay). The rest of the field had no idea what to expect. After stretching and doing a couple warm up laps the men stepped up to the line to compete in the 40 yard dash, which would be run NFL combine style against the clock. Of course all men showed minus one. The peeshooter was no where to be found.

After running two sprints Ant proved the quickest, posting a time of 5.6. Second was Jantz at 5.71. Barely behind in third was Rudy with a 5.75. Bing posted a 5.8 for fourth and the old man Z$ came in last with a 6.1.

Quickly moving onto the track (and praying that our quads wouldn't start tightening up), the men readied for the 100 yard dash. This would be run old school style with all five competitors running against each other. To say that it was close would be an understatement. Bing edged out the comp by pushing ahead of Ant and Jantz and ran a 10.9. Just a little bit slower than Bolt's 9.58 at the Olympics. Z$ and Rudy battled for not being last and crossed the line in a virtual tie with Rudy's foot crossing at the exact same moment that Z$'s nose crossed the line.

The mile would round out the events. After running two 40 yard dashes and a 100 yard sprint basically back to back, our legs were beginning to tighten up. As we toed the line to begin our four laps around the track, we knew what was coming would not be fun. In the end, the mile proved to be slightly easier than anticipated. Rudy dropped out after the first lap as the rest of the competition tucked in behind Ant who had set the pace. Nobody wanted to push it too hard too soon and what resulted was a slower pace than anyone of us had anticipated. At the halfway point, Z$ pulled out from behind the wind screen that Bing and Ant had provided and began the push toward the finish. The rest of the competitors latched on and tried to keep up but where the old man lacked in speed, he made up in endurance. The pace proved too quick and zVirus cruised in easily in first place six seconds over six minutes. The final tally...

Z$ 6:06

Bing 6:11

Ant 6:15

Jantz 6:18

Rudy DQ

The breakdown of points left Ant in first with 15, Bing in second with 14, Jantz with 12, Zach at 11 and Rudy with 8. This day would prove to be Ant's third consecutive win and the strongest the Darkhorse would be all summer. It would not go well from here on out for the DJ.

Next up....The controversial Cookoff and Bing's Big Cheat