There is no race day pickup.
So they said. As a result, I’m spending the night down in Palm Beach, FL. It’s about a 2.5-3 hour drive from my house so I suppose this is better than getting up at 2 AM and driving down on the day proper.
And yet… I suspect there WILL be race day packet pickup. And the more time I spend here in West Palm Beach, the more I think maybe I shouldn’t have come back here.
I ran this race a few years ago. It was fun-ish. While it was always the home to Mar-A-Lago, now it’s home to the INFAMOUS Mar-A-Lago… and the even more infamous insurrectionists and anti-democratic coterie of sycophants… who may one day be back in the White House, god help us all.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, given its proximity to the inferno of misinformation and outright lies that is Trump Et Al, but I still am taken aback by the aggressively non-masked populace. There are signs advising people to wear a mask on all the businesses… and yet no one seems to be, neither employees nor customers.
I still wear the mask.
***
It’s hot and humid… and will be tomorrow as well. Somewhat mercifully the race starts at 6 AM so we should have a good hour pre-sunrise before the big ball of fire in the sky beats us down with its rays.
I will not be wearing the race shirt. It’s long sleeves. That seems a recipe for disaster.
Meanwhile, I am staying in a hotel 7 miles from the race start using free Orbitz points… and it’s, um, quite a hotel. Why the “stars” stay here, I’m unclear — Pretty sure not Bogey, nor Marilyn, nor Elvis stayed here… but in TrumpWorld, maybe one can force such apocrypha into the history books.
