"Reeks" of Nerd Spirit

All of us knows an over-the-top sports fan – someone who has memorized the players, teams, coaches, statistics and histories of their favorite sport or league.  Or maybe you know someone completely dialed into the movie scene, someone who has seen over 100 new movies in a year. And there are those who have all the latest smart phone apps and can navigate around any arbitrary gadget or computer.

Recently I have been viewing all of the past episodes of a show on US television called “The Big Bang Theory” which chronicles the lives of four young scientists at Cal Tech and their interactions with their neighbor, a single woman who is considered “normal.” Besides being at the top of their field in science, these four men love science fiction movies and television shows, comic books, board games and video games. The humor on the show derives from their rather weak social interaction skills with the non-geek world.

As I said though, there are geeks of many kinds – sports fans, movie freaks… might there be running geeks? People who relate the best to other runners, who obsess with shoes, gels, attire, PRs (Personal Records), coaches, pacing, training, racing and injuries? Some perhaps possessing poor personal skills, who really relate the best to other runners. I seem to hang out with a few of these more often than not. You can find us congregating in the bagel shop after our long runs late on Saturday morning.

Fans of the US TV show “Glee” are called “gleeks”. I wonder if running enthusiasts would be called “reeks“.

I should be getting a pitch ready for the networks, but suffice it to say that “Boston Bound” will be a great show, and will star Charlie Sheen as Dave Stewart.