run, rest, eat, bitch, buy things, cross-train, blog, repeat.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Q & As with the Race Director

Yesterday, I went to the Grizzly Marathon website to print out a race registration form. (Yes, I'm cheap and always print out the paper forms and send them in and no, I hadn't signed up for the race yet. What? I have commitment superstition issues. Sue me.) I happened to notice that the race director has put up a blog on the website to update participants on various goings on. I perused through the blog and found some pretty interesting snippets.

All the text in red is pulled directly from the Race Directors Blog, so they are her (I think it's a her) words and not mine. Did I ask for permission? Not exactly. Do I have responses? Of course.

The last part, and I'm sure the person from Arizona was chuckling when I wrote her back, is due to the expected heat. We will start on race morning with temperatures in the 30-45 degree range and quickly heat up to a high of possibly near or past 100 degrees by noon. In the higher elevations like we are, that is a very dry heat and if you are not used to the elevation the combination will dehydrate you very quickly. HYDRATE, HYDRATE, for goodness sake, HYDRATE.

Are you shittin' me? Seriously? One freaking hundred degrees? Dude, I could stay in my own state and run a marathon if I want to run in 100 degree weather. Hell, I would have just ran the Country Music Marathon this year. It's MONTANA. It's not supposed to be hot there. I get texts from Vandy-Montana every other day telling me that he's running in snow and sleet and shit. And now I'm hearing it's going to be hot as blazes? Awwwww... Hells no. By the way, what is this "dry heat" you speak of?

Her question indicated that since there were bears and mountain lions and rattlesnakes - were spiders a problem too?

First of all, I'm not even going to address the fact that someone is more concerned about damn spiders than they are bears, mountain lions and rattlesnakes. What the hell? Second of all... MOUNTAIN LIONS? RATTLESNAKES??

(Mosquitoes, however, may be the size of hummingbirds by then....)

Haha. Good one.

Wait. That is a joke, right?

Top ten reasons to "Run wit da Griz"!

10. You might meet (or beat) David Letterman.

9. 26.2 miles seems shorter under "The Big Sky".
8. Your chance to test your speed versus Ursus arctos horribilis.

Wait, they speak Greek in Montana? Oh shit, I just looked it up. It's the scientific name for grizzly bear. Ummm.. the scientific name includes the word "horribilis?" That just sounds made up. Scary, but made up.
7. No better place to run your first marathon than "The Last Best Place".
6. Aid stations with water, energy drink, food and Copenhagen.
5. Only three people per square mile (one person per square kilometer!).
4. To survive, you only need to beat one person.
3. It's safer than running in mountain lion country...uh..wait...scratch that...you are in mountain lion country!
MOUNTAIN LIONS??????
2. Chuck Norris is afraid to.
1. Any idiot can run a marathon but it takes a special kind of idiot to run a
marathon in grizzly country.


and my favorite... a late entry..

From Tim:

"Because those who walk it are usually eaten."


Awesome.

6 comments:

Vandy-Montana said...

First of all, there is NO WAY it will be 100 degrees. My best educated guess is that at 6 am it will be 50-55, and by 10 am it could be 70-75.

I met the RD, not a big fan.

I laughed very hard about the walking and getting eaten...The thing is they changed the race course, so it's not as close to the mountains as it was last year when a grizzly went through the course during the race. Don't be worried. Also, I've done tons of running here so far and haven't seen a rattlesnake, but my dad says to give it time. I guess the moral of the story is don't listen to anyone about the race, they are exaggerating...except for me.

Vandy-Montana said...

And yes, she's a she...

Anonymous said...

4 and 6 were my faves. Copenhagen. Eww. And beating one person who gets eaten. Ewww...

J said...

Sounds like a fabulous race....just dont walk.

ps love the comments by you. I think we have the same brain.

Old Man said...

sounds like a destination marathon to me. beats dodging cars in the city.

Melanie said...

I am not jealous of you and this race. :)

I always print the forms and mail them in as well. I get really irritated when I can't find one. I refuse to pay extra money to active.com just to sign up to run a race.