BOtB: Introducing... The "Ultra-Beard!"

For the record, I haven’t shaved in about five (?) weeks, a reminder of which recently turned up in my school mailbox in the form of my complimentary package of school pictures, a photo in which I had not shaved that morning. This past week my in-laws came over for dinner. Following the meal, we took out my stepson’s recently received school pictures, at which point I “doubled-down” and through my pictures on the table. “Oh,” my mother-in-law remarked at the babyfacedness of the pic, “these must have been taken a long time ago!”

In thinking about “why” I have recently (again) let my facial hair “go,” and thereby, grow, I’ve rationalized it all as, in a way, borrowing the playoff beard strategy from the world of professional hockey. For those who don’t know, the playoff beard began as the superstitious practice of a National Hockey League player not shaving his beard during the Stanley Cup playoffs, it has since spread as one of sports greatest superstitions, to the point where even tennis (Bjorn Borg), football (Ben Roethlisberger) and basketball (LeBron James) are getting in on the act. The only requirement is that a player stops shaving when he or his team enter an important competition (like the Stanley Cup, Tennis’ Grand Slam, or NBA Playoffs) and does not shave until he or his team is either eliminated or, preferably, wins.

So what is it I am “not shaving” for? I would suppose it is the 50k I am training for which will be run on November 10, an event for me whose “winning” or “losing” of will be measured not in my overall place, but in my (not so) simply finishing.

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!