Speaking The Truth To Power

Nearly recovered from last weekend and the fallout. That's a good thing. Another two or three days of that, and I probably would have resorted to either a) taking up drinking a single malt by the bottle, or b) going postal.

Had a great lunch meeting today with the owner of the local running emporium. He wants to know our business goal and direction. In spite of my first consideration; putting the local running group out to pasture, he helped me to understand the possibility of a synergistic relationship between his business, our company, the local running group and others within the local sporting community - if we want it.

I want to be able to have an honest discussion with the persons who produce events here. Really. The problem (as with anything that you put your heart, soul and effort into) is that we all tend to take things way too freakin' seriously. Strike that. Too personally. Just because one or more persons don't like your course, your awards, or your choice of beverage for the post-race shindig doesn't mean they think you, your family and your children should be exiled to some Third World country.

I run and participate in less local events because a) I only have so many good races in me per year and b) there are only so many beer glasses you can keep in the kitchen cabinet before you have to start throwing something out.

Usually the first thing to go are the shirts. Rare is the local race t-shirt that cries out for storage. I've heard some folks complain they don't like a lot of sponsor logos on shirts because they then cannot swap the shirts when they travel and meet up with other running groups. Heck, if I saw the designs I have seen I'd not want to swap either.

I'd love to see better awards. Too many races resort to stamped pot metal and nylon ribbon. We do lots of beer glasses around here, sometimes coffee mugs. I thought the embroidered towels for the age group winners at the TMBS/A were very cool...better than the screen-printed version we got last weekend. This weekend is a very hot neighborhood run - they give what someone derisively called "t-shirt on a stick" awards. That, for those of you who have never seen it, is a framed cloth version of the t-shirt. It's not too pricey, I guess...five bucks for the shirt, five bucks for the "wally world" frame, ten minutes with a pair of scissors to trim the excess.

My bike "pusher" is having a women's cycling seminar in a coule of weeks. I almost wanted to know whether he thought about calling it "chicks in slicks." One of his bike suppliers has begun to focus on womens' specific bike frames, clothing and gear. It's a good thing, too. I like seeing hot pink bike shorts and knowing they won't be stretched across the fanny of some high school dropout waddling barefoot through the local Winn-Dixie frozen food section.

If that doesn't scare you, I don't know what will.