Friday, December 2, 2011

Another Change of Venue


Neither Blaine nor I have been terribly enthusiastic about the SLO Marathon. Aid stations are too far from each other and the last station is more than three miles from the finish line. So after mile 23, when you're tired, hot, and dehydrated, there's no orange slices or water stations. Brilliant job, guys. And that's for a $110 ticket.

So we're going to run the Buzz Marathon in San Miguel instead. It was recommended to me by Ann Whit, a woman who I did a sports article about a while back. She said it's a really fun marathon. I sort of got the impression that if Han Solo were a cowboy who ran marathons, this would be his marathon.

Everything about this marathon is great. The following happy list is based on back-and-forth emails I've had with Blaine.
  • $40 entry fee*
  • Money goes toward athletic programs at a local school*
  • It's in February, when the weather is still nice and cool
  • It's an out-and back — less spectators, but you get high-fives from folks going the other direction
  • There's a half-marathon, a 5k and a children-under-12 1-mile run so everyone can participate
  • The track is out in the sticks off public streets — means no car exhaust at all*
  • There are aid stations and porta potties every two miles*
What's killer about this is that even Cassandra has decided she's going to participate unless her messed up foot is too messed up. She'll do the 5k, which is just great. I'm working on getting Jaylyn and the twins to do the kid's 1-mile. We shall see about that.

I think I speak for Blaine when I extend an invitation to all of you nice folks to run it with us. Everyone should be able to do a 5k in any case — maybe this is the time to make it happen. You've got 78 days. We'd love to see you out there.


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* denotes that it kicks the pants off the SLO Marathon