It's a Photo Finish!

There is no doubt that Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer of all-time.  Unlike most sports where there’s at least a debate, Phelps would likely get a unanimous nod if you asked 100 random people to name their choice. 

I’d also bet that the gap between 1^st and 2^nd in terms of greatest swimmer of all-time is probably larger than in any other sport. 

Jack Nicklaus would likely win the debate in golf, but Nelson, Hogan, Tiger, and a few others would be in the conversation.  Football, Baseball, Tennis, and Soccer all have multiple heroes, so arguing the greatest would almost certainly prove inconclusive.  Even in basketball, Jordan may get the most votes, but it’s likely that Russell, Magic, and Bird would get their fair share.

But Swimming?  Who is going to dispute that Phelps is the best swimmer?  Consider a few of these quick fun facts:

1    1.  Phelps has 18 Olympic gold medals…the most all-time.  2^nd place is 9.  Are you kidding?  He’s won double the number of golds as the 2^nd most decorated Olympian in history.

2    2.  Since Phelps took home his first gold in 2004, he has won more gold medals by himself than all but 11 countries have won from all of their athletes combined.  Read that sentence again…not bad.

3    3.  Phelps once swam so fast that Chuck Norris nearly drowned from the waves in the next lane.

Sorry, I made up that last one.  I thought nearly killing Chuck Norris by swimming would provide more credibility to my rationale.

Anyway, you get my point.  Phelps is unbelievably dominant in the world of swimming.

But you know what’s interesting?  “Unbelievably dominant” isn’t really that unbelievably dominant.  After all, Phelps helped the US win the 4X100 relay in 2008 by just 0.08 seconds.  He won the 100 fly in Athens by 0.04 seconds.  He touched the wall just before Cavac in Beijing by 0.01 seconds.  

1 hundredth of a second!  I would say that’s like the blink of an eye, but blinking an eye definitely takes longer than that.  Just check out this picture from his victory.

Crazy.  That’s the sport of swimming for you.  Dudes spend their lives swimming 4-6 hours per day back and forth across the pool for 20 years to try to squeeze out victories by the slimmest of margins.

Surely though, tenths and hundredths of a second only matter for Olympians and not casual swimmers, right? 

Great segue, Schmeis. 

Let’s give that theory a test by attempting my goal of swimming 50 yards in under 28 seconds.

Wow!! Now that was close.  As you see in the video, my feet appear to leave the wall at 19 seconds and I touch the wall at the finish at 47.  47-19 = 28…boom! 

But wait…my goal specifically reads “in under 28 seconds.”  I honestly have no idea whether I did it…way too close to call.  We’re going to need a plan to determine a ruling since there is no Schmeis35for35 international governing body.

I’ve got it!  I’ll use a stopwatch as I view the video so I can get more precision.  It still won’t be exact, but will certainly be better than just having the seconds on YouTube.  I’ll watch 3 times and see what I get for my readings.  Here we go:

You’re not going to believe this…here are the 3 times I got…27.92, 28.02, 27.80.

Well, I guess I’m under 28 if I take the average, but it is still too close to call.  Plus, something seems a bit sketchy about having me as the official timer…that would be like using partisan officials to count votes in an election...that would never happen!

I think we’re going to need a plan B.  I say we follow the Phelps lead and go to a photo finish...

Here’s the new plan:  I will click frame by frame on the video at the start and finish.  I'll then take a picture of each frame.  This should tell me how many frames my feet were still touching the wall at 19 seconds at the start vs. how many frames at 47 seconds it takes before my hand reaches the wall at the finish.

Why does this matter?  Well, assuming each frame is a constant period of time, I can compare the number of frames I'm still touching wall at 19 vs. the number of frames at 47 before I reach the wall and I'll know precisely whether I was over or under 28 seconds in total.

Got it?  I'm sure I've got a few Engineers and Actuaries excited at least.  

Let’s take a look at the results:

Frame 19.1:  Here is the earliest frame I can capture where the clock reads 19.  As you can see, I’m just starting my push and clearly still on the wall.

Frame 19.2:  My hands have come together and my legs are more extended in this frame.  You can see my  feet are still touching the wall though...

Frame 19.3:  Further extension in legs but slight knee bend still exists.  You can also see my hands are now farther in front of the line on the bottom of the pool than in the previous frame.

Frame 19.4:  Legs are nearly fully stretched with toes on both feet still against wall

Frame 19.5:  Toes on left foot barely touching (quality of photo isn’t great here, but original is very clear that toes are still touching).  You'll also notice my head is slightly more across the line on the bottom of the pool than in previous frame.  This is the last frame where any part of me is touching the wall.

So, that proves there are 5 frames with the clock reading 19 seconds where I’m still touching the wall.  All I have to do now is the same thing at the finish to see how many frames exist at 47 seconds before I touch the wall.  

If the number of frames at 47 is less than the number at 19, Mathematics says that I was under 28 seconds.  

Let’s look at the finish:

Frame 47.1:  Here is the first frame where the clock reads 47.  You can see that I have not yet reached the wall.

Frame 47.2:  I’m stretching but still not quite there…

Frame 47.3:  I’m not 100% positive, but very confident I hit the wall in this frame.  My head has pulled up from previous frame and extrapolating where my hand would be should have me touching.

Frame 47.4:  If there was any doubt from the previous frame, I’m clearly on the wall below.  This is the 4^th frame at 47 seconds and I’m definitely touching. 

In summary, this means 2 things:

1    1.  Since 5 frames exist of me touching at 19 and only 3 exist before I'm touching at 47, that means I definitely was under 28 seconds! 16^th goal achieved!

      

      2.  Fractions of a second clearly matter for more than just Olympians.  I just wasted a Sunday evening proving that.

Ok, enough with the proofs.  That goal contained way too much drama for me.  I’ll skip the suspense for this next one and just let you watch as I also tried to do my 100 yard freestyle goal of less than 1:10.  Here you go:

Sweet!  That was either 1:05 or 1:06.  I won’t bother with any analytics on that one, but we can all agree that it is far less than 1:10…I guess all the swim training for the Ironman paid off as I wasn’t even close to these goals at the beginning of the year.

Anyway, beating my goals in the 50 and 100 has me up to 17 Schmeis35for35 goals complete with 5 weeks left in 2012!  

I would be pretty excited but one last Phelps fun fact just popped in my head:

He’s achieved more golds (18) than I have goals (17). 

Puke.

Schmeis

The Evolution of Guys' Weekend

Couldn’t my Ironman have been scheduled in late December?  I’m thrilled to have already crossed the finish line, but it’s not exactly easy to get pumped for workouts now that the main event is behind me.  Plus, I feel like I built up the Ironman so much that attempting the rest of my 35 goals is a bit anticlimactic.  

Oh well; this temporary lack of motivation is nothing that a little BUSY NOTEPADS can’t solve.  I’m still sitting at 14 of my 35 goals accomplished and I’m determined to get as many as possible before December 31.   

With my knee and other body parts still recovering from the grueling day, I needed a way to continue my progress while allowing my body a chance to recover.  Luckily, I had just the solution on the calendar:  a guys' golf weekend!

Let’s take a look at the weekend while also taking a step back and considering how my guys' weekends have evolved over the last 15 years.  

Phase I:  Every Night is Like Spring Break

This guys’ weekend phase is not terribly complicated to summarize; everything revolves around nightlife.  Staying out until 4am is required.  Sleeping in past noon is required.  There are no exceptions.  A daytime activity is permitted only as long as said activity involves sitting at a pool or lounging on a boat.  Any other suggested activity will get you laughed out of the room and potentially left off the invite list for the next trip.  

In fact, out of about 342,000 guys’ weekends I was involved with in my early 20s, I think this is the only picture ever taken during the day.  Maybe it should be in a museum.

So, given nothing happens during the day, I’m sure you’re curious what the nights are like.  Well, based on my gigantic sample size, I can confidently break down nights in this phase into 4 possibilities:

1.      Sports Argument Night – These typically happen after visiting every bar imaginable and finally realizing the entire city has decided to stay in and watch a movie.  The night just wasn’t meant to be so the group transitions into a random sports argument to help pass the time.  You’d be surprised how long and heated a discussion can become over whether Tiger or Jordan is more famous…

2.      Fight Night – On these nights, you can feel feistiness in the air.  Arguments keep popping up everywhere.  Generally, the verbal sparring is due to super critical incidents like accidentally bumping into someone in a crowded bar, fighting over a cab, or not getting a drink fast enough.  I won’t put 100% of the blame on tequila, but will mention that the correlation of fights breaking out and tequila being involved is roughly the same as the correlation between water boiling and heat being involved.

3.      Marathon Night – Marathons are those nights when the later it gets, the more it feels like you’re just getting started.  I’m just realizing that calling this category “Marathon” makes no sense.  I’m pretty sure it’s actually the opposite of how you would feel during a Marathon.  Whatever.  I meant that the night somehow just flies by…usually going something like this:

o   Step 1.  Go out for happy hour at 5pm.

o   Step 2.  Have a great time for next 10 hours.

o   Step 3.  Look at watch in disbelief as it reads 3am.

o   Step 4.  Check time with at least 6 other people and refuse to believe all of them.

o   Step 5.  Get mad at bouncer for telling you it’s last call. 

o   Step 6.  Go home and sleep for the next 37 hours

4.      Crowd Chanting Your Name Night–  Here is a good rule of thumb:  if the crowd starts chanting your name at a bar, you’ve done something right.  Maybe you were a stud on the mechanical bull.  Maybe you ripped off your shirt at just the right time.  Maybe you invented a dance move that quickly turned into a flash mob.  Or maybe you chugged a beer faster than Physics says is possible.  No matter what the reason, these nights are all about making mom and dad proud.

Phase II:  The Golf Weekend

In this phase, guys tend to mature immensely.  Our decision-making drastically improves and we have less meathead moments.  We realize we are grown, responsible adults so always behave as such.

HAHAHAHA!!  Sorry, I couldn’t keep typing like that with a straight face.  

The truth is that only one thing changes is this phase:  our ability to consume alcohol on consecutive nights drastically decreases from phase I.  

Because of this limitation, our bodies have forced us to make the weekend about more than just the nightlife.  Enter Golf as the generally accepted daytime solution.

For the last few years, I’ve been getting together with a group of business school friends for a golf weekend.  This year the destination was Austin, Texas.  

Of course, the weekend took on additional meaning this year as I also have 5 golf related goals from Schmeis35for35.  2 of the goals (juggling 3 balls in my hands for 20 seconds and juggling a golf ball on my club for 20 seconds) have already been accomplished.  That left 3 goals for me to attempt going into the weekend:

1     - Shoot a round of golf at 75 or under

2     - Eagle a par 5

3     - Hit a 300 yard drive

Since the majority of Americans can’t stand to watch professional golf on TV, I’ll assume you couldn’t care less about reading the play-by-play on my blog.  I’ll just say that 8 of us played 3 rounds of Ryder Cup style golf on amazing courses around Austin.  I’ll share some pics and also let you know the outcome of my 3 goals.

 

As for the first goal of shooting a 75, I wasn’t even close.  The obvious reason for failing is I’m not playing nearly enough to shoot that low of a score.  I would prefer, however, to use the excuse that the Ryder Cup style format didn’t lend itself to individual scoring so I didn’t have the opportunity.  Yeah, let’s go with that one.  

As for the 2^nd goal, I also had no success with making Eagle on a par 5.  I did hit two par 5s in 2 shots, but badly missed the Eagle putt in both instances.  In fact, I embarrassingly 3 putted for par in both cases.  Hey, never leave an Eagle putt short.

As for the 3^rd goal, I finally found success so all was not lost.  I blasted several big drives including a beauty down the pipe at a 370 yard par 4 where I had just 58 yards left.  In addition to the witnesses in the group, we also measured it from the tee to where the drive ended up with GPS.  Here was the pic…it’s as close to proof as possible for the 300 yard drive.

                                    

Boom...312 yards!  At least I got that one.  That puts me up to 15 goals now for the year…moving right along.

Phase III…Father and Son

The weekend following my guys’ golf trip, Sue went to Jamaica for a friend’s wedding.  Her departure left Grant and me alone to hold down the fort.  It was Guys’ Weekend Part Deux! 

Now, most people think I’m crazy when they hear I spent 3 days with a 2 month old while mommy was 1000 miles away.   But how would anyone not want to take care of this little guy?

  

So would my weekend be turned upside down?  Hardly.  In fact, Grant and I pretty much did what any guys would do…

First, we sat down to watch some basketball and football.

After a nice afternoon of sports on TV, we were ready for some lunch.  Sue had pumped for weeks prior to the trip to make sure I had enough milk to feed him.  He ate from the bottle great and I was pleased by his burping ability as well.  He always had this hilarious look on his face when I burped him.

Following a big meal, it was obviously time for a nap.  

Based on the picture, he still has a lot of learning to do in this area.  For someone who pretty much sleeps all day, he was amazingly bad at napping when I was tired.

After waking up, we spent some time practicing saying “hello.”  For the last couple of days, he’s been trying really hard to say his first words.  I think he’s said hello pretty clearly a few times but it could just be my huge bias from being his Dad. 

In any event, here is a video of him practicing his “hello.”   The one at the 10 seconds mark is clearly the best, but there have been even better ones off camera.  Not bad for a 2 month old!

Did you see that cheesy smile on my face?  

I could go with my best guy friends to Vegas or Miami and never get a smile anywhere near that big.  I could shoot a 75, eagle a par 5, or accomplish all 35 of my goals and not duplicate that grin.

That smile is only possible from one source.

That was a smile of a very proud Dad hearing his son say his first word.

…and that’s a guys’ weekend I’ll never forget.

Schmeis