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<\/a>I hadn’t slept much and I thought the race was scheduled to start at 5:30 AM. I had arrived early, at the race director’s advice, and had parked in a city lot. But this being a beach town, the city lots were 24\/7 and charged exorbitant fees. I thought parking at Walt Disney World was excessive. But here in Fort Lauderdale, it was $4 an hour, any hour, and so I had to guesstimate my finish time and hope I made it back in time. Maybe I could have gotten away without paying but the way my luck has been going, I had visions of a yellow boot being affixed to my car’s tire and a city fine a hundred fold more expensive. So I paid the fee… only to discover they tack on a “convenience fee” on top of everything else.<\/p>\r\n
And while the race activities began at 5:30 with a pre-recorded National Anthem. \u00a0The marathon itself didn’t start until 6 AM (well, 5:58 AM because even the DJ grew impatient standing around). \u00a0With all that time to kill, I wandered about and thoughts of accommodation, covid, and annoyances rattled round the brain.<\/p>\r\n I kept rehashing the things that were bugging me about this whole event. \u00a0And even while running the race, I couldn’t let it go.<\/p>\r\n Say… that’d be a great title for the song. \u00a0I should write that. \u00a0It’s a billion dollar plus idea!<\/p>\r\n ***<\/p>\r\n Stray shots from the road:<\/p>\r\n The finish festival was jammed with folks who had run the half or 6K. \u00a0The lines were so long to get post-run food that I gave up and shuffled back to my car.<\/p>\r\n I remained in a snit… it was just one of those days.<\/p>\r\n On the plus side, the sail boat moves on the medal. \u00a0So there’s that…<\/p>\r\n<\/a>
The recommended lot was 0.7 miles from the start… which was fine until I got to the pre-paid VIP lot right next door to the start that would’ve been CHEAPER than what I had just paid. And again, despite clear instructions that all runners had to attend the previous day’s expo to pick up their race bibs… no exceptions… there was per usual a race day packet pickup. Not that I should have driven 3 hours at 1 AM to get down here this morning… but at the same time, it’s not like my “sleep” the night before was anything more than an arduous sweatbox due to a failure to communicate.<\/p>\r\n<\/a>
I was as I said in a snit… and I couldn’t stop thinking about the death by a thousand cuts of the experience so far. The race had been upfront about their Covid protocols, or dare I said, Covid nonchalance. But to their credit, they HAD said what the plan was. That’s way more than the previous few races I was at.<\/p>\r\n<\/a>
I had hoped the corrals would be spread out but as you can see, the definition of “spread out” means “packed in like sardines” in Flori-Duh.<\/p>\r\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\r\n