Meet the Runners: Alternative profiles!

We had originally put these on the website but upon further review, we thought we might need to highlight and project a more serious side.  In any event, these profiles were written by the other person and may or may not be factual!  Please enjoy.

Chris: Written by Marc

Christopher is the elder statesman of the team, somewhat of a moral compass if you will. The wisdom, drive and integrity he brings to the duo offsets his occasional nerdy tendencies for colour-coded spreadsheets and his secret penchant for Madonna tracks whilst pounding Dhaka’s dusty roads at ridiculous hours of the morning.

Chris has been a P.E. teacher in Dhaka for four years now and has recently extended his contract for a fifth year – not even a bad bout of dengue fever mid-way through this academic year could tear him away from this place or prevent him from running a marathon in Singapore two weeks later. The guy even ran a marathon in Chiang Mai on Christmas morning AND managed to get his wife and kids out there to support him. He is to teaching and running what Custer was to the last stand.

Chris played college baseball in the States before retiring to take on Dhaka’s elite softball league. In between his lofty sporting achievements, Chris spent a ‘great few years’ working for the Peace Corps as regional head of P.E. in Belize. It is during that time that he met his wife and finally received his full accreditation from the ACA (American Cornhole Association) to run and manipulate Cornhole competitions on rooftops around the world.

Since then, pending permission from both the ACA and his lovely wife Sheela, Chris has more or less made transformed his rooftop into Dhaka’s own Corndome -Dhaka’s answer to Monmartre in Paris, where anything can, has and will happen. A modern day Robin Hood of sorts, Chris always takes it upon himself to ensure that fun is had for a good reason and the famed ‘Rooftop Raves’ are always organized as a means to support charitable causes, local friends in need and/or to simply find a variety of uses for his dusty exercise bike.

For those of you who haven’t met Chris, he’ll likely be spotted in a vegetarian restaurant, baseball cap on backwards, drinking a Guinness and either quoting lines from The Big Lebowski or reminiscing about his glory days in Belize. He is also likely to have a pen or pencil protruding from his hat, as baseballers haven’t yet discovered pockets, and will be closely followed by his two blonde-haired potential future major leaguers.

WWE Entrance Music: “Mr. Natural”, Mental as Anything

Quotable Quote: “Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you”

 

Marc:

Who is this guy?  With a heart of gold and as humble as can be, Marc brings balance to the dynamic duo.  While his counterpart has a gadget for everything you can think of for running, Marc, simply shows up and runs.  He doesn’t need anything except a pair of shoes and a path.  Somehow he was lured into running his first marathon this year and he was definitely up for the challenge.  With the first mara under his belt he is well equipped for any run he signs up for.  While he is a gentle giant, don’t let his laid back demeanor fool you, he’s an animal and the façade of tranquility masks a mad man, who with each run gets faster and stronger.  His only weakness as a runner could be his ability to speak and run at the same time.  Chris often has to ask him to repeat what the heck he is saying.  (That could also be due to Aussie-speak, mumbling or Chris’ bad hearing.) 

Hobbies: Marc’s hobbies may or may not include knitting, spreading the love of Aussie Rules to Bangladeshis, hopelessly explaining the rules of cricket to Americans and learning Bangla.  He has also learned the ins and outs of the fastest growing family game in America, “cornhole”.  While his technique is a bit rough, he manages to get it in the hole quite often!

Marc the linguist: Marc speaks: English, French, Aussie, ecto Bangla, un poquito espanol, and like five or six other languages.  His language skills have often saved the day on the ridiculous runs the Bangla-Dashers do.  One time, the duo was running from a Bengal tiger and because Marc has a bit of tiger in him, he was able to coax the beast into feasting elsewhere.  He has also asked for water and directions on numerous occasions.

Bangla-Dash, the idea: The Bangla-Dash spawned from the “ride of the tiger” last year.  Marc, trying to be different, thought instead of riding a bike to Kolkata, he and Chris could run from Kolkata to Dhaka to raise money for those less fortunate.  He has a thing for doing stuff the hard way.  In fact, Marc wanted to do it blindfolded, but that seemed a bit too kinky.   

Time in Bangas: This is Marc’s third and final year at ISD.  Next year he will be sorely missed and certainly not forgotten.  He’s going out with a bang as he makes a huge difference in the lives of so many people. In three years he nabbed a wife, had baby, attended 427 meetings at school and impacted all of us in so many positive ways.  Marrying Lima and buying land has ensured his return to Bangas.  Watch out for Rahi to claim a spot on the Bangladeshi Cricket team in years to come and perhaps for Marc, Lima, Rahi and Baby Chris (thought that sounded like a good name in case they ever have #2) some country living in rural Bangladesh.  Whatever the reason and whenever he returns he will be welcome with open arms by all.

Quotable Quote: Sorry, I couldn’t understand what he was saying, something about dettol or something?

Theme song:  Flight of the Conchords, Foux du fafa