We Both Are: "The Other Guy That……"

by altardy on November 24, 2009

This is a fun entry for me. The top picture is me with Dave McGillvrary and Dick Hoyt. We met again at the Run For All Ages 5k in Wakefield, Ma. on November 1st. Dick (between me and Dave) you will remember is a tremendously well known triathlete. He is also in many of the entries you will read in this blog section.

Dave is known for many things in the athletic world. He has done a tremendous amount of races from ironmen to marathons (by the many, many dozens), he owns his own sports event organizing company (www.DMSE.com), he is the race director for the Boston Marathon, a motivational speaker, and has many many more great accomplishments. The bottom photo was taken when I got to meet Dave’s wife, Katie, daughter,Elle,son Luke (in Dave’s arms because it was the only way to keep him still for a couple seconds), and the newest addition 5 month old Chloe. It was a great pleasure to finally get to meet the family I’ve heard so many great things about.

But Dave and I are known to our friends, family and acquaintances as “the other guy”. You see, Dave and I share the unique position in time to not only have both run across the United States, but, we were doing it at the same time and 85% of the time on the same roads. I’ll bet that’s something you can’t tell people about many of your friends. We were about 2 weeks apart in 1978 and didn’t know about each other until Dave had someone in Creston, Iowa tell him about “This other guy that’s doing the same thing”. I was mentioned in the book Dave wrote called “THE LAST PICK” and he will definitely be mentioned in the book we are putting together about my next run.

What makes it fun, and I didn’t realize this until the Nov 1 race in Wakefield, is that we talk about each other with the same introduction or description. We proceed our talking about each other by first saying, “This is the other guy that was running across the country at the same time I was.”. I know I do it and I finally noticed that that is the way Dave has introduced me to many of his friends and family.

This may not mean much to many of you reading these entries, but, I many times think in terms of—-What Are The Odds—-and this is sure one of those times.

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