George W. Bush famously described Donald Trump’s inaugural address as “some pretty weird shit.”
I kept thinking about that assessment as I ran the Bend Marathon up here in Oregon.
After some flight delays, I finally got into town around 8 PM. Whilst driving to my hotel, I passed something straight out of 1995 – a fully functioning and operational Blockbuster video store. Turns out this is the fabled LAST Blockbuster on the planet. It was a surreal experience to walk inside and see the shelves lined with copies of new releases… and actual new releases, but new releases circa 1995. A wave of somewhat nostalgic memories washed over me, remembrances of wandering the aisles with my high school girlfriend trying to find something neither of us had seen. And I was actually there to witness someone signing up for a membership… complete with advisories on late fees. The future is the past, the past is the present.
And me being a wannabe hipster, of course I splurged on some merch. Hell, if John Oliver can support this place (after the one in Alaska finally closed, leaving Bend last vid store standing), then so can I.
It’s a Blockbuster. And it’s open! And people are renting movies there!
That’s some weird shit.
As for the race itself, they’ve been doing this for five years and apparently this is the third or fourth “new” course. From the first mile marker, they seemed to be a little short… and it really only got worse from there. I now can say I’ve run a marathon circa pre-1908. That’s the year the Queen of England insisted the race finish in front of the royal box s d the contest was so heated that it set the 26.2 mile length as standard. But today’s course, at least by my Garmin, was closer to 25.5 miles.
That’s some weird shit.
The majority of the course was on bike paths/paved walking trails… and there was a lot of issues for me with the altitude and the elevation changes (seriously with this hill along the river, guys? Seriously?! I was enjoying the view up until that moment).
I found myself slowing a lot in the back quarter, despite them being a MOSTLY downhill 6 miles. I just don’t have the endurance or stamina I did. On the plus side, I think I was doing better than at SLC last weekend. Still hurting, but less than last week. So… progress?
At the finish… or st least what they said was the finish and I say was more likely mile 25.5, more weird shit awaited. You crossed the line and then were directed to the finish festival… but it was really hard figuring out where to go to get one’s medal… or where food was… the beer tent was easy to spot as there was a line for that… but everywhere else was just chaos. I finally found a station where medals were handed out in zip lock pouches… same medal regardless of distance run. The whole thing had me thinking, “that’s some weird shit, Bend.”
But I guess weird shit is better than normal shit, n’est-ce pas?
All told, I was in Bend for 18 hours. And while I’ve probably conveyed the opposite of my opinion here. Because unlike with Trump, for all the weird shit here, I kinda dug the place. I wish I had built in more time to enjoy the natural wonders of the area. Maybe when I have to come back to return my copy of Howard the Duck to Blockbuster…
