Over the months I've related several surprising situations where we've seen professional athletes around Wellington. It will never cease to amaze me that they just happen to be out to brunch with family or friends like normal people. I know it makes sense that they'd have to eat out somewhere but I'm still surprised to see them out and about. I guess in the US we never lived any place where you might see a professional athlete outside his/her sporting arena.
Yesterday I was at the gym slogging out thirty minutes on the treadmill. Can I just emphasize how hard it is for me to run any distance farther than a few feet? I am not a natural born athlete and therefore have to drag myself to the gym and plop my flabby respiratory system on the treadmill and give it my best to struggle through thirty minutes of running. So I reached the final five minutes, which are always the most challenging, and I look across the way where people continually walk in front of the cardio equipment en route to other areas of the gym. I see this tall guy and laugh to myself, "Hey, that looks like Jason Eaton". When we started watching the Hurricanes play rugby I randomly picked a player to follow and it was Jason. In retrospect I realized that the only reason I chose him was because he was easy to spot in a group of players about which I knew nothing. He's taller than most rugby players but the thing that really distinguishes him is his crazy hair and, usually, unruly beard. So the guy I saw walking past at the gym looked like him but I immediately dismissed it because I was sure that after he left the Hurricanes squad last year that he went to play in Japan. Nevertheless I continued to look and realized that it was Jason Eaton! Okay, picture this in your mind for a second. I'm five minutes from death, sweating profusely while huffing and puffing on the treadmill when the realization strikes. And you know what my first thought was? I almost said, "Hey Jason!", just to confirm my suspicions but something, thankfully, held me back.
I managed to finish my run, wiped down my machine and gathered my stuff to go back to the office. On the way out and I stopped and talked to the folks at the front desk and asked, "Does Jason Eaton work out here because I thought I just saw him". The woman at the desk said, "Oh yeah, he was just in for physio treatment". And assuming that I was coming across like a crazy person I felt the need to explain that I was a big fan. :) Who knew Jason Eaton went to the same little gym that I do?
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