Shufflin' on down, doin' it for you

For someone who barely trained for the Shamrock Shuffle 8k, I must say I'm immensely pleased with how I did. The weather was crappy, but it was still warmer than those races I ran with Mike in January and February. The worst part of it all was how wet our feet got. Before the race even began my feet were soaked through my shoes and two pairs of socks. At the start my toes hurt they were so cold, but by about a mile either I couldn't feel them anymore or they just didn't hurt. Then around mile 2 or so my feet killed. By 3.5-4 miles my entire right foot, ankle and almost up to my knee more or less was numb. I think this maybe be the first time I truly ran through the pain. I ran the whole race with the girl who was standing next to me in the start coral. I think running with a nice stranger was the key to my success. We kept each other on task and on pace but we also didn't talk much throughout the who race. We talked a little throughout, but nothing too major. I improved my time by 3 minutes and actually ran the whole thing which can't be said for the Turkey Trot. Good job, Kim.

Scam service is more like it

I was reading an article on OnMilwaukee.com last week about how bottle service is illegal in Wisconsin, yet there are a number of "clubs" in Milwaukee that offer the "service." The gist of the article is that you need a different type of liquor license to sell bottles of alcohol to bar patrons over something like 12 oz. You need the type of license that allows you to also operate as a liquor store. Aldermen and the police department have both said that they are not concerned about enforcing the law, but owners should be aware of it. But, the politics of this ridiculous law are not the subject I want to talk about. The ridiculousness of bottle service is what I want to talk about.

The idea of bottle service is that you pay around $150 for a bottle of something like Grey Goose, you get VIP seating and the mixers to go with the vodka. First off, $150 for a bottle of Grey Goose? Second, if I am paying you that much money, I don't want to pour and mix my own drinks; I want you to make my drink and hold it up to my mouth for me to enjoy, among other things. Thirdly, there are very few people in this nice industrial city of Milwaukee that really qualify as VIP, maybe a few athletes but that's about it. So basically, this service is for a bunch of people to feel like they are important and to show off their money, even though they probably don't really have any. On top of the $150 for the bottle, you also most likely paid a cover to get into the place because those are the types of places that offer bottle service. Luckily, I choose not to patronize such establishments. If I ever do though, I'll push my way to the bar and order my drink from the bartender, pay my $5-9 for my drink and enjoy it with the other plebeians.

If you are interested in reading the article, you can find it here.