Me and Big George!

So Georges Laraque is a player in the NHL who used to play for the Edmonton Oilers. He is basically a fighter but still he is a pro athlete. Anyway, he and I have a long history of crossing each other's path without having ever met.

The first time we interacted was about 7 years ago. He was doing a call in radio show for the sports talk radio station in Edmonton. I decided to call in and ask him if he ever prearranged to fight people. For example, if the night before a game with Toronto he calls up Darcy Tucker and is like "Hey, so you want to fight me in the second period tomorrow?" So anyway, he called me an idiot on the radio and the next day my question was reprinted in the Edmonton Sun as the stupidest question of the night.

Then I moved away to Ontario for two years and then moved back to Edmonton. I had become something of a workout nut and guess who worked out at the same gym? That's right, Georges Laraque. I saw him all the time in my gym but we never spoke.

So anyway, I'm standing in line waiting for the Edmonton 10K to start and guess who I see about five feet away from me? Well the race started and he took off. But guess what? My official finishing time, 55:05 (chip time) was only 24 seconds behind Big George, the toughest guy in the NHL.