Wow.  What fun!  This media fitness challege did what Robert “Super-Mann” Blount meant for it to do.  It motivated several of the nine local journalists who competed this morning to reach a higher level of fitness and health.  Several of us are resuming training programs and adding to what we’ve learned in the past three months.     

So, thanks to Supe for the motivation, everyone who competed for the challenge for the inspiration and challenge and to Martin Cota of Digital Photo 662 (www.dphoto662.com) for taking such awesome pictures and letting me use them on this site!

8:30 a.m. - we reported to Riverview Hall for measurements.  I was so awestruck by what Roy Lang and Val Horvath did in their attempts to lose weight.  Roy lost 34 pounds…Val, aboout 30!  I had some shifting of inches I was happy about.  I was surprised to learn I actually gained and lost in places I wanted to!

The challenge:

Bench Press (55 lbs. for women/men bench their weight) — as many as we could do in a minute.  Then, pushups (the boy ones!)  BTW, the military might be calling Fred Childers after his pushup performance.  Situps - as many as possible in a minute.  Then, in some cruel and unusual surprise, we were presented with a 220-pound tractor tire and offered the opportunity to flip it for time.  Thanks, Supe!  After all that, we ventured to the riverfront for a half mile race.

Click here to see the story on KTBS.

Congratulations to the winners!  It was a close and competitive (we’re journalists!) challenge.  A single point made the difference between first and second place in both categories.  Let’s do it again next year! 

Men—

1.  Chris Redford, KTBS-TV, 2.  Fred Childers, KSLA-TV, 3.  Roy Lang, The Times

Women—

1.  Katrina Webber, KSLA-TV, 2.  Sherri Talley, KTBS-TV, 3.  Christina Erwin, FOX-TV, 4.  Amber Miller, KTAL-TV, 5.  Val Horvath, The Times, 6.  Neisha Livingston, The Times

I’ve seen this phenomenon in other neighborhoods.  I just never thought I’d see it in my own yard.  Does this stuff grow on trees?  Was it in Joe’s forecast and I missed it?  Gerry and I are always talking during the weather.  That’s probably what happened…some sort of May El Nino occurance.

Another thought as I looked out the window this morning:  What makes this stuff go away?  Right off the bat, I’d say a son, home from college might be one solution.  Only, I can’t say for sure who might be more closely associated with the knowledge of how this came about:  him or me?

I think I’ll leave it up for a while so that the substance can be more closely studied.  Call it sort of a community contribution to the study of the environment.  What do you think it is?