Memory #9: Personal Best
During the two summers I worked the most intensely on writing my dissertation, I would often take breaks from the pain and strain of composition--writing a coherent sentence is always a pain for me--to go out to my driveway and shoot free throws. I shot a lot of free throws those two summers.
I like to keep track, but percentages don't excite me. Strings do.
On June 25, 2006, I got hot and made 125 free throws in a row. The most I had ever made in a row at any point in my life prior to this was 66. I thought 125 was pretty good. I knew it was nothing like a world record or anything, because of course someone would have made three or four or even five hundred at some point.
So I looked it up.
On April 26, 1996, dairy farmer Ted St. Martin made 5,221 free throws in a row, breaking his own world record, something he had repeatedly done (that is, break his own world records) since 1972.
I find some consolation in the knowledge that the world record in 1971 was 499 free throws in a row, a record held by Harold “Bunny” Levitt, who won a YMCA free throw shooting contest shooting underhanded in April of 1935. 499 is at least in the neighborhood of 125, and I had to go chase the ball myself after each shot.
But it's not even in the same galaxy as 5,221.
Back to the line, I guess.
1 comment:
On the day of your personal record, I sat a personal record of my own: being married for one whole year. That broke my previous record of being married for 364 days.
I haven't looked up the world record for that one, but my grandparents have my current record of nearly three and a half years beat by about 57 years.
[Postscript: I'm always interested in the words that come up for the WORD VERIFICATION when I submit my comments. For this comment, the word is "falsidom." I think that's my new favorite word.]
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