Cheeky Bastards
We received our awards for finished second at Ragnar in the Mixed Corporate division. By the way, we were beaten by 9 seconds per mile (32 minutes) by the Competitor Group who is in the industry of running and endurance sports (they put on the Rock ‘n Roll races in addition to their publication) so they should have beaten us. More handily, considering we are a bunch of biotech geeks who happen to run (and we didn’t even have the fastest runners – one of our dudes was at Boston that weekend). But I digress.
“Almost First”
Ragnar thinks they’re funny. Why don’t they just fully commit to it and write “First Loser” or “Maybe Next Time”. I wonder what they put on the third place finishers batons. “Almost Second”? “Just Barely Worth Mentioning”? “You Don’t Suck that Bad”?
In case you take my complaining too seriously, I like the baton – it’s cute. I appreciate that they give awards to division winners. I do think just “Second Place” would have been fine. At least I can use it as a weapon. Maybe I should carry it around when I run outside in the event I have to lay the smack down.
So I am waffling on my next race thanks to peer pressure. From these people. I need to make a decision stat because (a) and need to register, and (47) it may adjust my training plan. I was all set to do Laguna Hills which is like signing up and paying for pain but then I knew about Fontana Days 4 days later, but, well, bah!!! No. I am not going two races in 4 days. I have decided that my body needs me to shelve The Crazy for a while. Nothing like 19 miles in one day (haven’t run more than 13.5 in a stretch since 2003) to help me come to that conclusion.
Laguna Hills - Good:
- Close
- Monday/holiday race
- Does not require getting up Crack-Ass early
- More Useless Race Trinkets (must have The Precious)
Laguna Hills – Bad:
- Hills. And then more hills. And then let’s try some hills.
- Hills.
- More expensive ($60)
- Probably won’t even come remotely close to a PR
Fontana Days – Good:
- Downhill! 2000 ft descent! Holla!
- Cheap!!! $35
- Potentially could PR!
Fontana Days – Bad:
- Won’t really sleep the night before - required to be at the shuttle pick up area by 5am. It’s an hour drive to Fontana.
- Must leave my house at like 3:30am. WTF.
- No Medals! Booooo. And precisely zero-point-zero chance of placing in my age group.
- I’m already doing a cheater all down-hill course in August – Hobble Creek.
Why can’t they just have the Carlsbad Half Marathon several times year so I can get up at my leisure and run a nice, rolling hills, pretty course? I’d be all over that like white on rice.
I'm still jaded by PCRF, so I'd go for downhill and FAST. :D
ReplyDeleteI think you should put the baton on a string and wear it around your neck like those big frozen drinks at Vegas. I also think you should not be a whiner and just do both. I'm willing to sacrifice a few hours of sleep for a $35 race reg. I'd reconsider
ReplyDeleteI'm not allowed to vote since I do not and will never run a race.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm all about trinkets. And for me it would have more to do with what was available to eat when I got done. Where is the best Fajita and Margarita establishment. Or do you runners have some weird cool down diet you have to adhere to?
That baton is funny ish. Yeah 2nd place would have been fine, but almost first is hilarious.
ReplyDeleteLaguna Hills is close which is nice. You can kill the hills. Fontana would be awesome too- but I am a wuss and 3:30 am is frickin early.
You should do the Guns N Hoses Half on June 5th in Ontario. It's put on in conjunction with the Police & Firefighter games PRO: eye candy!
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