Sleuthing Success, I got his name!

Entry posted by NaperVic January 11, 2010

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So I've had this one gym crush for several years now, and today, FINALLY, I got his name. This is a monumental moment for me so I had to blog about it.

I think I mentioned in previous blogs of taking the same cycle class he's in, or following his car when I saw him leave the grocery . When it comes to him, I seem to throw common sense out the window.

I didn't get his name like a normal/sane person would... like overhearing someone talk to him or something direct like ohhhhh, say talking to him and asking him his name....

Today I was browsing pictures of a 10K running race that took place this weekend. I was going to run in the race, but backed out and decided to do an 11 mile training run with a friend instead.

I was browsing through the pictures to check on people I know. While paging through the 2000 pictures, my heart skips a beat when I see a picture that shows my gym crush running. I couldn't believe it!

Well, they don't do anything easy like put the names of the people in the pictures, so I have to MacGyver it and do some sleuthing.

There are pictures from many phases of the race and then there is a listing of all the runners in the order they finish.

I focus in on the photos from the midpoint to the end of the race. I do know a few people in the race, so I find them, and then find where they placed. I found a buddy Fred and then see where he placed. I then count the number of people (via pictures) my gym crush is away from Fred. Now this isn't an exact science because since these photo's weren't taken at the end, the people may not have finished in the same order they show up in the pictures.

Well, Gym crush was consistently running with a girl, they looked like friends (hopefully just friends). So I looked for M/F pairings that finished within a few seconds of each other.

Everyone in the race wears a race bib which has a number (unfortunately, the number isn't cross-referenced with any names...otherwise it would have made my job easier). However, each bib does have a coloured sticker which tells you what age group the person is in. Gym Crush and his friend both had the same color.

I find another friend who has that same color and that tells me that Gym Crush & friend are in the 30-39 age range.

There are two pairs of people that they could be, so now I look at the person after each of these groupings. I google these names, but don't get any hits. However, one of the last names is distinctive, so I facebook search that last name. I find a female version, and when I look at her pictures, she shows her husband, which matches the picture of the guy right after my Gym Crush and his friend!

So with all that info, I was able to figure out pretty much who he is . I finally have a name.