Ah, that world. It's a cruel, cruel sadist sometimes

Sometimes the world seems to go out of its way for you.

Sometimes it aligns the pieces of your life in just the right way or at just the right time.

Sometimes it puts a person or an open door in your way - I mean flagrantly in your way - when you were distracted elsewhere or not even looking up. And with a jolting thud you walk right into it, curse it momentarily and then smile because it was exactly what you hadn't thought to look for.

The world really does work that way. Sometimes.

But like everything, there's a flip side. A less talked about side. An overcast, blurry, greenish-gray side.

It's the world that also likes to screw around with you. Have a laugh at your expense. Make you look and feel a supreme fool.

That world - it's got a healthy sense of humor, that's for sure.

Allow me to elaborate:

Yesterday WCSH's 207 crew came out to do a bit on Maine Running Company's Reach the Beacon program. (You know, that little running group I've been yammering on about for the last four months.)

I had hoped to get to the run early to maybe shove myself in front of the camera to chat up the training group - and perhaps plug this here blog, too.

But slow servers at the office and a bad news phone call at the end of the day hindered that attempt.

But I made it to the Maine Running store in time for the run - and to spot the cameraman panning the group pre-sweat.

After the group was sent off to Fitzpatrick Stadium I lingered at the store to pick out my official Maine Running Company Reach the Beacon tech tee (it's plum and loverly and not nearly as tight as those dreadfully sized shirts from last year). Thus, by the time Ann and I headed out the door the camera crew was long gone filming the rest of the group.

No problem - we'll get on film racing like demons around the track, right?

Not so much. Every time we ran, the cameraman was filming in the other direction. But when we walked a lap - there he was. My group (yes, yes, the slower people) had to laugh. We were destined to look like dopes if he didn't get some dang footage of us running. (We looked horrendous anyway thanks to a little thing called torrential downpour.)

After the workout we headed back to the store via the same side streets we'd taken on the way in. We also knew that the cameraman was planning to get some final shots of runners headed back in. So we ran.

But there was no cameraman.

And it was raining, remember? And we were exhausted.

So after a few minutes we agreed the camera was likely long gone and we could walk it in to the store.

So we started walking.

And then there went a white SUV with a cameraman hanging out the back, filming.

Filming us walking. Again. Awesome.

So we decided to film ourselves running and send a tape into 207 - you know, to balance out the footage they have.

If you catch the spot on 207 (tentatively scheduled for Tuesday) and you see a group of jerks walking the entire time, please believe we do actually run.

Sometimes anyway.