Thursday, February 23, 2012

Why I Am Doing The Run To The Pub

Considering that I’m going to spend enough money to buy that fancy new Playstation Vita everyone assumes that I’ve already ordered paying for registration, hotels, petrol, and fancy post race food, I feel like I should be able to do at least one page explaining my decision. After all, the Vita is shiny, new, and something I really don’t need.

The first reason that I’m doing Run To The Pub is that it is down in Bozeman, and I really need some excuses to head back down to Bozeman. Visiting Bozeman always brings out a great rant or three about how much better the town was back when I lived there. I do remember the days when it was a sleepy college town with a terrible football team and a bunch of students studying agriculture, or some manner of engineering. Not only does the football team win games now, but a bunch of crazy people from across the country moved to Bozeman and attempted to remake it in their image. Nonetheless, it has an awesome Pioneer Museum, a long held duck pond, and the awesome church (Bozeman United Methodist Church) where I would still go if it was in walking distance.

The second reason that I’m doing this event is that running in a race is actually useful. There are these things called aid stations where awesome people called volunteers hand you Poweraid, water, and, if you are really lucky, Fireball. There’s also useful people ahead of you, who follow other people who know how the course is laid out. So, you don’t get lost along the way. There’s also a random collection of swag associated with each race, including a soup bowl, coozies for both the Air Force and Adam and Eve Adult Products.

The third reason that I’m doing this event is that it provides a reasonable benchmark for my own progress. Last year, I quickly slipped into the middle of the women’s division. The fact that I was male didn’t really bother me to much, as I was doing fine in the Slow and Fat division which I properly qualified for. Something happened over the wintertime. I quit playing around with the video games, and started spending my time training. I’m pretty miserable for exercising, but I’m great at training. So, I moved squarely into the middle of the men’s division. Not only that, but the types of events that I do bring on the fast men’s division. The once a year runners do events like the Governor’s Cup. If it involves being in Butte on a Saturday morning and ice, these are the hardcore. So, I’m still a middle of the pack runner, it’s just that the pack has upgraded from the doughy to the sinewy.

Run To The Pub is March 17, in Bozeman, Montana. You can find more information at http://www.pub317.com/run-to-the-pub.html. A bunch of the money raised will go to Family Promise Of Gallatin Valley, which is an organization that I highly recommend.

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