Thursday, August 14, 2014

The Original Idea

Ira and KMo (that's me) go running quite a bit around the Stanford campus.  We usually meet at Wilbur Field and run about three or four miles.  On August 13, 2014, Ira decided that our runs were getting a bit predictable.  That's true; we tended to do variations of the same route.  We'd usually do the Campus Drive loop, some run up to the Dish, or just meander around the Mayfield faculty housing area.  Rarely would we go anywhere else.

So, Ira suggested we need some new plan, a wrinkle to keep our runs fresh and interesting.  An idea popped into my head.

We would run to every building on campus in alphabetical order.

After a bit of searching, I pulled up a campus map on my iPhone.

This map is going to be our guide for the next several weeks and months.  On the second page of the map, there are some long lists of the places on the huge Stanford campus.  I counted 209 places in the "Building" section, although it's possible that I miscounted.

Here are the rules: Ira and I are going to go on runs, visiting all 209 buildings listed on the map, in alphabetical order.  We'll always run together, and start and end at Wilbur Field.  We won't have a set number of buildings to visit each run, but we think that we'll probably average about three buildings to get to our usual distance of a few miles.

I'll be updating this blog with the story of our journey.

1 comment:

  1. FTPG (from the peanut gallery): I am delighted that KMo has decided to memorialize this running adventure via this blog, I admire his commitment and diligence in maintaining such a detailed and comprehensive record. Still, it must be noted that historical authorship always comes with some form of bias (perspective to put it more modestly), and even KMo is no exception. So, from time to time I will post some notes from the side to bring KMo's orientation into relief.

    For starters, I note here that KMo is probably the only person in history to write an autobiographical account of his physical exploits and round DOWN on all of his accomplishment. For example, he says here that we typically run "3-4 miles." A more fair account is that we typically run 3.5-6 miles (currently more likely 4-7). Same goes for his accounting of our miles and pace. Ever number he records here is round down to the the nearest tenth mile, never up. Only KMo.

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