From The Circle Logo to “Hi I am Lance” – A Dumbest Story

I was running with Mike and Bruce this morning, and Mike had opted ashorter 5 ml run since he is in taper for Portland Marathon now. So Bruce and I went out to do our 6 ml run together, and chatted about our race stories and whom-do-you-know type of stuffs. Somehow the conversation came down to the “the most embarrassing story” and with no doubt I won this contest again, easily!

So, here is how MY story goes –

It was five or six years ago, I was at San Jose Airport terminal waiting for my Alaska Airline flight to Seattle. I was going to visit a reseller and to support the Washing State Education & Technology Conference. I was just standing in line and looking around to kill time, then a guy walked up to the same gate and stood behind me. He was in a polo shirt that had two circles and some letters on his left chest, so I noticed and pointed at the logo said–

“Nice shirt,  I like the two circles”

I had no idea what logo/company that was, but my blue chambray shirt had my company logo AOpen on it very clearly.

He said “oh, it’s from a race and I won it.”

“Oh, nice~~ so what kind of race was that?”

“Bicycle,” he said “it’s from Tour de France.”

I went on while knowing nothing about that Tour whatsoever  “So how far did you have to ride? Couple miles”

By that time, my fellow passengers around me probably started laughing in their guts, but of course no one was showing it though.

“ Six days,” he smiled and replied like my oblivious was nothing or the six-day was nothing.

“Wow, that’s tough, and you must be practicing really hard.”

This nice guy went on “Yeh, I train everyday.” Not sure if he said “train” or “trained”, but did not matter to me anyway.

Then he flipped over the magazine he was reading and pointed at the cover “This is me,” nice smile!

That was a Bicycling magazine and his face was on the cover alright.

“You must be very famous” the clueless me kept going. And now looking back to that day at that moment, people must be trying really hard not to laugh out loud about this dumbest Asian girl.

“By the way, I am Lance, Lance Armstrong” he extended his hand and introduced himself.

I replied with my “oh, I am Michele, nice to meet you”, see I am a polite and friendly person also.

Then we boarded the Alaska Airline together and I buried myself deeply into the PowerPoint that I was going to present throughout the entire flight.

Two days later, saying goodbye to gloomy Seattle and back to my office in San Jose, my colleague Little James asked about how the trip was and how the conference went. Then I told him that “Oh, I met a guy at the airport and he talked like I AM supposed to know him or something, apparently he rides a bicycle. His name is something Strong or something.”

James shouted in amazement “What?? You met Lance Armstrong? Did you shake his hands or asked for his autography?”

I answered in 120% innocent “Am I supposed to know him?”

“You never watched ESPN? He is on the news everyday now.” James nagged in more disbelief.

I was embarrassed a little, but REALLY wanted to kill myself after I bought and read the “It’s Not About the Bike”.

So there you go, the dumbest embarrassing story of the century, and no one can never top that, EVER!