Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks

So, I have begun to make some super awesome upgrades to my blog, which I’m sure all of my loyal readers (thanks Mom!) have already noticed. Before I unveil all the awesomeness that has been going on in the last hour, let’s recap since our last episode.

Thursday was an off day, as I was exhausted, per usual, from the week. Running three days in a row and also actually going to work and doing one’s job takes it out of you. That and staying up too late most nights. Anyway, Thursday I did no activity at all, which was nice. Friday was supposed to be a regular running day, but because of chores (laundry, paying bills, etc) and crappy race organization, that went by the wayside. Let me explain.

So, as you may know from my previous post, I’m running in the Bay Café 5K tomorrow. I’m excited to get another race under my belt and I can’t wait to see how much I have improved on my time from back in July. However, as readers of the past post will know, the whole air of this race is the classic “too cool for school” idiocy I’ve come to expect from most things in Canton. If you don’t believe me, go to the previous post and click on the link to the Bay Café 5K website, peruse it and then come back to this post and continue reading. If you don’t find it mildly annoying and arrogant, and at least agree with my feelings on some abstract, yet tangible level of principle, than you probably live in Canton or go to Towson University.

Anyway, the website makes this race sound like the most awesome-est race in the Mid-Atlantic and that if you aren’t running on Monday, you might as well kill yourself because you’ll never be cool and will never get laid the rest of your miserable dweeb life. This, in a nutshell, is the essence of the Bay Café as well. A crap-hole of a bar that serves overpriced swill to yuppies in training with usually sub-par music to accompany it. All wrapped in a veneer of coolness that barely hides the circle-jerk mentality that pervades the whole establishment.

Knowing this as I do, I was sceptical when I saw that the first opportunity to pick up our race packets was on Friday from 5-7PM at the Bay Café Happy Hour. Not wanting to get screwed out of another T-Shirt (I still have yet to get my Run to Cooperstown shirt!), I wanted to get my packet ASAP. So, after work, I went back to my apartment, got my keys and drove over there through holiday weekend traffic. It took me 20 minutes to drive 3 miles. Then I got there and the bouncer (yeah, they have bouncers at this place, and the balls to have a cover charge!) says, “Oh, the packets were never dropped off here. We don’t know why,”

In the words of Bill Lumberg: “Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks.”

So I drove over there for nothing. I wasn’t really surprised or even angry. If anything, it only reinforces my opinion of the Bay Café as a place for the flotsam and jetsam of my age group to congregate. So, that shot my Friday night.

Yesterday I was going to do my long run, but had to cut it short because Annie and I had some errands to do in the afternoon. No big deal, really. I got 4 miles in instead of 6.5 and will go and run another 3 or so this afternoon to keep the wheels greased for tomorrow.

Anyway, the changes to my website! Where the countdown to the Great Strides 5K used to be, I have placed a countdown to the Bay Café 5K. Of course, after tomorrow, the Great Strides will be the next race and its countdown will be restarted. Don’t worry.

Secondly, I have started a list of some of the running blogs I read. This list is incomplete because I have some of them saved on my computer at the office and can’t remember their names right now. I have my fantasy draft for the No Talent Ass Clowns on Monday afternoon, which I will do from the office rather than here at home (my office is a 10 minute walk from my apartment so no worries). I’ll add the other blogs to the list then.

You can check out my training schedule and log at Running Ahead (www.runningahead.com). It’s a cool site where you can track your workouts, courses, races, records, even your shoes. Very cool and worth looking at.

And finally, I have added AdSense from Google to my page in a vain attempt to earn millions of dollars through the Internet. So, if you like, go ahead and click on the ads at the bottom of this page 30-40 times for me. I think I get 1/2000th of a cent for each click. I’ll be swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck in no time.