"Dreamy" Hal Koerner

Maybe I shouldn’t run right before going to bed. Running already consumes my mind for a large number of my waking hours, but last night, running related subjects made their way into my sub-conscious as well. It’s a pretty funny dream, so I thought I’d share. As a little background, for the last two years, I have served as a mentor at Team Red White and Blue’s Camp Eagle trail running camp in Texas in November (veterans and civilians are both welcome - you should check it out!) and last year Mac came along to volunteer, too. Liza Howard serves as the event's main organizer, and she does a wonderful job packing the days full of great running related activities and making sure everything runs smoothly.

Ok, cue the wavy TV screen that indicates we have stepped out of reality (I am pretty sure things in dreamland would be in purple type) :

It was the beginning of camp and Liza was introducing the different groups to their trail running mentors for the week. As each person was introduced, their new group would clap for them and they would go join their team.

And then Liza introduced Hal Koerner and said which group he would be with and the group went wild, hooting and hollering and just cheering like crazy. Hal had his usual big grin and kitty-wampus hat and was giving his group fist bumps, when Liza next announced me and Mac and pointed to the last group. And the room was dead silent. There was no cheering or even polite clapping and the group looked forlorn. Mac and I asked what was wrong and one lady quietly offered, “We were really hoping we were going to get Hal.”

Then Liza announced the first activity: a trivia contest with a great prize for the winning team. I got really excited and told my team I was great at trivia, and that they were going to be really glad they had me.

A picture of an animal came up on a large screen and the first question was to identify the animal. Whoever wrote down their answer first won the round. I immediately started scribbling “Siberian Tiger” on my card. Though Hal is known for his cougar collection, he was able to identify this large cat and got his sign reading “TIGER” in the air much faster than me. I tried to complain that his answer wasn’t specific enough, but the judges all agreed “tiger” was acceptable, and Hal was awarded the point.

My son can identify all 17 species of penguins, so you better believe that I am going to sub-speciate my tigers, even in my sleep. Did I also mention we are kind of a nerdy family??

The last thing I remember from my dream is somebody on my team mumbling, “They are so lucky they got Hal.”

Sure, everybody wants to be on Team Hal! (Image steal from Sarah Lavender Smith)

(End of dream sequence; ie. end of purple ink)

Rough dream crowd! Any dream psycho-analysts out there? :)