Bated Breath

Oh, those long trips up to Maine in the summer! Those miles upon miles of nondescript turnpike between Portsmouth and Augusta that rolled by slowly, providing hours of idle time in the back seat of the station wagon. And remember, this was before portable music players, gameboys, in-car DVD players, e-this, and i-that, and anything else remotely entertaining.

What can I say? We did our best to fill the time. We played the alphabet game, the animal game, twenty questions, ghost, "going on a picnic" and others. When we were thoroughly sick of each other (my younger brother always cheated), we would invent other amusements. My favorite solitary activity for passing the time in the car was to hold my breath.

One thing you can say for the Maine Turnpike, the mile markers are easy to spot. And with my dad driving pretty close to 60 mph, holding my breath for a minute took about a mile, or holding my breath for a mile took a minute. Anyway, it was fun to inhale deeply and then hold my breath until the next mile marker. Eventually, I got the point that I could hold my breath for two miles.

I remembered all this when I read the following article in Tuesday's NY Times: This Time, He'll Be Left Breathless. The story profiles David Blaine, a self-described "endurance artist," who is preparing to break the world record for breath-holding.

Among the fascinating observations in the article:

"The natural impulse to stop holding your breath (typically within 30 seconds or a minute) is not because of an oxygen shortage but because of the painful buildup of carbon dioxide. Mr. Blaine said he began trying to overcome that urge when he was a child in Brooklyn and at age 11 managed to hold his breath for three and a half minutes."

I can relate. I also think there is a subtle analogy here for runners: many times when we slow down it is NOT because we have to, but because continuing is increasingly uncomfortable.

Anyway, I also enjoyed this nugget:

"What’s a little blackout to a guy who was once encased in a block of ice for 63 hours?"