Expert advice and porta-potties
I just got back from the YMCA in Schertz. I gave a little talk about pre-race preparation for the San Antonio ½ Marathon. I’ve never run the San Antonio ½ Marathon. In fact, I’ve never run a half marathon. Still, I think the talk went relatively well. I told them about checking for safety pins in their race bag and corral starts and making sure to get their morning cup of coffee. They wanted to know about Porta-potties. I hedged. Surely there will be plenty? How many johns do you need for 30,000 runners? I’d love to see the porta-john equation. (Not really.)
Asa and Eliot came along for the 40 minute ride out there and played on a huge playground while I said wise things like “bandaids on your nipples can prevent chafing.” (Every time I think about pursuing a PhD, I think about how I’m putting my other degrees to use these days.)
All that profound thinking has left me utterly exhausted. These few sentences have taken me about an hour to type, so I think I’d better call it a day before midnight suddenly rolls around.
Big news: I’m turning off the air conditioning tomorrow. It’s September 15th for gosh sakes. It’s unseemly to need air conditioning after Labor Day! No more high electricity bills! And it’ll only be 96 degrees tomorrow anyway. Fall sweater weather.
Running: 50 minutes 70% effort
9 thoughts on “Expert advice and porta-potties”
Leave a Reply
Upcoming Races
Upcoming Races
Race Reports
Post Archives
Archives
- May 2013 (6)
- April 2013 (13)
- February 2013 (3)
- January 2013 (28)
- December 2012 (7)
- November 2012 (18)
- October 2012 (9)
- September 2012 (7)
- August 2012 (13)
- July 2012 (7)
- June 2012 (7)
- May 2012 (17)
- April 2012 (10)
- March 2012 (15)
- February 2012 (17)
- January 2012 (15)
- December 2011 (16)
- November 2011 (17)
- October 2011 (17)
- September 2011 (12)
- August 2011 (30)
- July 2011 (25)
- June 2011 (28)
- May 2011 (30)
- April 2011 (31)
- March 2011 (31)
- February 2011 (28)
- January 2011 (31)
- December 2010 (29)
- November 2010 (27)
- October 2010 (24)
- September 2010 (27)
- August 2010 (24)
- July 2010 (18)
- June 2010 (14)
Can you please let me know how you keep the house cool with the air off? The heat just broke in PHX (a brisk 96 degrees! LOL), but I think my family might hate me if I turned off the heat. Actually more specifically, my sleepless 6-year old might get up at 3am for the day more often (which makes for a really happy day at school!).
Paulette,
It’ll be hot as heck in this house. Picture us sitting around sweating profusely while we build Legos tonight. But someone has to take a stand if we ever expect a change.
I will also be keeping the windows open at night to take advantage of the cool mid-70 temperatures — and keeping the fridge stocked with popsicles.
Turn off the air! I am lucky ours is off by late October. I grew up in Schertz. Samuel Clemens graduate.
Can we come over tonight?
(Just if Asa’s showing signs of heat exhaustion…)
I saw Samuel Clemens (school) last night!
I can relate to their porta-potty worries. Last year there had to be at least a 30-40 minute wait to get into one, assuming you heard the call of nature within the hour prior to race start. Of course, by that time there was no TP left. Thankfully, I had planned for this and brought a bunch and gave some to the nice woman I met in line behind me.
As long as they “use the facilities” prior to that rush hour I don’t predict any issues, as they have 2 or 3 sections with dozens of units.
Another interesting thing was that the race organization has people to walk around and pick up discarded clothes. In turn, they donate these clothes to local shelters/homeless. I’ll be snagging a cheap jacket and maybe pants to keep me warm the first few miles this time (and the two hours I’m standing around pre-race).
Ooh, I wish I’d known to mention the TP. I did talk about the throw away warm clothes.
Liza, I forgot about it being after Labor Day… do I have to put away my white shoes? And, I guess there aren’t portapotty issues at ultras. If you ever need an expert, I have perfected the art of Finding A Place To Pee Since The Portapoty Line Is 3 Hours Long. I would be happy to give a talk on such, complete with Power Point.
The new rules say to wear white shoes whenever the white shoe wearing mood strikes. But silver shoes are better. And I’ll need your expert advice about how to invest the scads of money I’ll be saving on air conditioning bills.
I think the best thing to do with the scads of money is buy stock in popscicle companies.