Every March, the fine city of Chicago hosts a race called the Chi-diterod. It’s like Alaska’s Iditerod, but with a charitable food drive element. Also, the only huskies involved in the Midwestern team race are the super fat dudes eating knockwurst for breakfast. (And pre-lunch. And lunch. And post-lunch snack.) Most of the five-person teams dress up in some themed costume and race with shopping carts. This year, me and four other guys to whom I routinely pay a substantial amount of money so that they’ll call me friend, went with a Forrest Gump theme. Only we all wanted to be Gump, so we went as five different eras of Gump: College Football Gump, Vietnam Gump, Shrimpin’ Boat Gump, Classic Bench Gump and Running Across the Country Gump. We figured if Gump could run across the U.S., we should be able to handle six miles toting a metal shopping cart. Why am I telling you this with just one week to go in the RCL’s? Because running is hard, whether you’re taking it seriously or dressed in infantry fatigues pretending to be a fictional character from a movie released almost 20 years ago. It’s not over until you cross the line and eat an entire box of chocolates. Nothing exemplifies that more than the surprise switcheroo that took place this week as Mr. Duck Fat, after four consecutive weeks ranked No. 2, has overtaken One Piece for RCL’s top spot. Even more astounding is that One Piece had led the RCLs for the previous 16 weeks. Fewer than five points separate both the team averages and division ranks, which means someone like Alan Anderson could mean the difference between who takes the cake in this thing. You’ve got six days. Make it count.
Here’s the spreadsheet.
