Albany, GA, is the birthplace of Ray Charles. And the town gets extra credit for doing the commemorative plaque at Ray Charles Plaza in Braille. Twenty four hours a day, Ray sings the songs there… and it’s quite a view of the Flint River to boot.
The packet pickup was across the street from Ray Charles Plaza, at the Hilton Garden Inn. Given the size of the Snickers Marathon race, I wasn’t surprised by the expo’s vendors or lack thereof.
But credit where credit is due… the swag included a Snickers bar. Mars Chocolate has a huge factory here so it makes sense they’d be a title sponsor.
Further props to the race organizers — they’re overloaded with prior year shirts so they had them appropriately priced:
I heard a few runners complaining the shirts weren’t long sleeve as they wanted to buy them to drop them tomorrow morning. Apparently we are looking at 39 degrees at the start. At fifty cents a pop, they should’ve just bought four and layered up. Sheesh … sometimes there’s no satisfying people.
I had briefly entertained the notion of going to see LOGAN at the local multiplex but the idea of sitting in a dark theater watching a nihilistic western swan song didn’t appeal. I was in the wrong mood to enjoy it so instead opted to check out the sights.
The town itself is still reeling from a tornado strike in January that ripped through large swaths. Damaged buildings and decimated landscapes abound. Somehow it’s a shock that even after six weeks so much damage is still readily visible… but given the realities of time and of the devastation wrought perhaps it should not be surprising.
Radium Springs Gardens is a former resort area surrounding a blue spring that has long thought to have medicinal powers. Creek Indians hid the location from Ponce de Leon; in the 1920s a casino and hotel sprung up only to eventually fall on hard times. Natural disasters and financial hardships led to the abandonment of the area and a town’s efforts to revitalize the area as a community park.
Somewhere along the way, folks discovered minute amounts of radium in the water and the place got renamed to Radium Springs… not to be confused with Carsland’s Radiator Springs.
It was a lovely spot… and if low level radiation was the price I paid, meh, I’ve done worse for less.
And now I await the dawn… which brings a marathon, a drive back to Florida, and another marathon on Sunday down in Jupiter.
I’m feeling rough around the edges; I don’t know what tomorrow will be like. But I do know that tomorrow there’ll be time enough for me his: