My neighbors heckle and cheer when I jog!

Every so often I do my marathon training runs in the late afternoon and early evening right before dinner.  As the winter weather in Austin has been delightful of late, my eldest son Walker has accompanied me on his bike for many of these jaunts and it has turned into a great father son activity.  We usually leave our house around 5 pm when the light is nice and many others in our neighborhood are out jogging, walking or enjoying the magic hour on their front porches and front yards.

Surprisingly, during certain runs over the past several weeks Walker and I have received a fair share of strange comments or what appeared to be overly enthusiastic encouragement.  It was a little odd but nothing too over the top.  There was the gentleman who chided “nice tattoos.”  Neither Walker nor I have tattoos.  Another made an odd comment about family time and heart attacks  that I couldn’t quite decipher.  I just smiled and waved and kept running.  Walker thinks it’s a hoot that people are so interested in our fitness.

On the positive side there was this younger guy in his mid twenties,  2 blocks over on Split Cedar Cove who appeared to be REALLY REALLY excited that I was finally getting in shape.  Every time we ran by his house he would let out a HUGE “WHOOHOOO” pump his fists and scream “Rock on Bro!”  I was thinking of asking him to head my race support squad for the marathon because that’s just the kind of vocal encouragement I am going to need toward the end of a long grueling race.

But just this afternoon as two mountain bikers whizzed by and belted out what I initially thought was a very random quip “Yeah Buddy 08′ Yeah” I finally figured out the mystery.

Tattoos, missed family time and 2008; it all makes perfect sense and it makes me chuckle.

Several years ago Daddy Clay and I lost a bet with our good buddy Jim from BabySwede up in Cleveland. As losers of the wager our penance was to conduct a DadLabs Live Show wearing Ohio State and Cleveland Browns gear.  Being Southern Gentleman we always pay our debts, so Daddy Clay donned the Brownie’s swag and I sported the Buckeye’s garb and we let loose one whale of a Live Show all OHIO’ED OUT.

It just so happens the Buckeye shirt is very comfortable, made of NIKE DRI-Fit material and is perfect for a running.  People are heckling me (or cheering me) because they think I’m a Buckeye! Ewwww.

I am a big Texas LongHorn fan and so in retrospect it strikes me as funny that I’ve been running around my Burnt Orange neighborhood for the past several weeks completely clueless, in a bright red Buckeye shirt emblazoned with a huge OHIO STATE Logo across the front.  I didn’t even think about it and never put 2 and 2 together.  Lucky my kid was along for most runs or I might have ended up in ditch somewhere as payback for 2006.  Hell I probably deserved it.

For the time being I don’t mind running in my Buckeye shirt, it’s real nice and I only have one other DRI-FIT shirt as the DadLabs pay-scale is much like a Sooner’s IQ (Extremely Low).  But when those boys get off probation, Urban Meyer works his magic and the Horns meet the Buckeyes for the 2014 National Championship, I’m gonna burn that thing and sprinkle it on the front lawn of my buddy over on Split Cedar Cove.

No offense Jim.