First off, if you didn’t think about the video below when seeing the title, go watch it. I’ll wait.
There’s nothing in the drivel that I’m typing below that has anything to do with this video, but since I thought of it after typing that title and the video is hilarious (even if you religiously watched He-Man as a kid like I did), I felt it was the right way to start this post.
I used to do weekly updates on this blog. I’ve amazed myself that I stuck with them for over a year, but truthfully they were pretty boring to write (and anyone religiously reading them likely figured that out). They were pretty boring to read, too. Only about half of them were proof-read, the other half were too boring and too routine. The pictures were the best part, and if I get back to weekly updates I might just go with all pictures and no text.
Speaking of pictures, I did take a few on the past month of runs…
July came and went with 194 miles ran. Some of those were tough, and I recall cutting a few runs short because of that feeling of not being able to continue running due to dehydration or just plain exhaustion. July also came with a few race cancellation announcements – the NKU XC series was silently cancelled, PigWorks cancelled all their fall events, and Honor Run cancelled their races in November. The PigWorks events are the ones that made their mark in my schedule – the beer series races have been a staple in my running calendar for eight years – nearly as long as I’ve been running. The Flying Pig events have been on my calendar in one way or another for nine or ten years – one of the beer series races is on the Friday evening of Flying Pig weekend, and I volunteered with the marathon twice before starting to run on Sunday. I’ve run the 10k twice (2013 and 2016), the half three times (2014, 2015, and 2017), and the full once (2018). In 2019, I was the ham radio “shadow” to the race director, which I’ve also done for every Queen Bee Half Marathon since the race began. After a very tough marathon debut in 2019, I opted to travel to Toledo, Ohio for their marathon in 2019, which is normally the Sunday prior to the Flying Pig. In fact, the only Flying Pig Sunday that I wasn’t downtown was 2016 – I was flying out to Denver that morning, and I recall sitting in the airport listening to the ham radio comms… it was a pretty rough year, I think they may have red-flagged the race that year.
I was entered into the 2020 Flying Pig Marathon, which was cancelled in late March. After my experience with training in the summer for the 2019 Columbus Marathon, I decided to defer my marathon registration to hopefully 2021 instead of making a run for October, and that’s okay since October was cancelled in late July. Pigworks decided to not allow deferrals for the remaining beer series races, and I truthfully don’t blame them. I’m not sure I would have considered a deferral, and I want to keep my “Braumeister” status going (not that I think any decision would have stopped that, I think they’re ignoring 2020 for the purposes of all streaks). I’m also hoping that the Brew Hogs mug is a Masskrug. Nothing says “fuck this pandemic, I’m drinking beer” like huge glass of fine Marzen beer!
I am trying to warm up to the idea of virtual races. It’s going to be difficult, though. It’s been a long time that I haven’t found someone to talk to, whether it is a homebrew buddy that is also a runner (who introduced me to a few of his coworkers at the Sam Adams brewery in Cincinnati also), my former boss (who was scheduled to run the Flying Pig Half and usually runs the Hudepohl 14k), former coworkers, people I occasionally pass on the paths (when I worked downtown), or a complete stranger that I start talking to because she had a cool headband (“I Sweat IPA”).
There’s a few differences between virtual races and real races. With a real race…
- Race with hundreds of others
- Race on a closed course (well, 95% of the time)
- In the case of the Hudepohl 14k, run past some cheerleading squads that come out to cheer us runners on
- Finish the race in front of people cheering running under a gantry that has a big “FINSH” banner, sometimes some mascots, and sometimes hearing the sound of your name being announced over the speaker
- Drink beer legally while enjoying the post-race party (well, sometimes on the beer)
Virtual races are a little different…
- Run by yourself
- Run on a path or sidewalk that is open to all and you may be dodging asshats that block a sidewalk, traffic, and other people that may be out for a leisurely stroll (some of which may be less than attentive to things going on around them)
- Nobody is cheering you on because to them you’re just some crazy person that’s out of breath from running
- Finish the race unceremoniously with the press of a button on your watch
- Possibly drink beer illegally by yourself risking arrest for an open container violation
…yeah, there’s a few reasons that almost all of us like to race.
There might be one in-person race left in this fucked up 2020 season. I raced in the Bulldog Blast for the past two or three years (one of which gained me an age group win). They claim it is on with some guidelines that – as of the time I’m writing this – have yet to be announced.
It seems as if this racing season will end the way it started – with a 5k sprint. See y’all at the finish line… hopefully someday.