During a recent trip to Buffalo, I had a very different experience. My brother asked me if I had any interest in running with him, my sister-in-law and a few of their friends in Buffalo's Moonlight Run. I accepted the invitation and was pleasantly surprised when I crossed the finish line to what can only be referred to as a race after-party. The food I am accustomed to was nowhere to be found. In its place runners came face-to-face with Sahlen's hot dogs (the official hot dog of the Buffalo Bills- who knew a professional sports team needed its own official hot dog?), oversized chocolate chip cookies, bowls of pasta with parmesan cheese, bruschetta, and pitchers of Labatt Blue beer. This particular race was quite the social event. We ate and drank while listening to a local band play under Buffalo's nighttime sky. Beer after beer, no one cared that we were clearly putting way more calories into our bodies than we had just worked off.
Two hot dogs and beer in one hand leaves room for cookies and pasta in the other
The oversized chocolate chip cookies were my favorite treat after the Moonlight Run
Pasta from Citta di Militello was topped with grated parmesan cheese
Bruschetta compliments of Citta di Militello
A messy looking Sahlen's hot dog- with ketchup, mustard and relish
My brother and friends happily gorging on post-race hot dogs and beer
Now let's not forget, we have to feed the machine! After all the hard wok put into the race, it's nice to treat yourself for a little while after. I enjoyed this particular race, because of the party afterwards. Being about 15 years past my competitive prime, and after about 5 years off of running, I slowly got back into the Western New York racing circuit and believe me, nobody does it better! Where I once picked races that I could compete for trophies in my age group, I now select based on the post race parties. Like you stated in your blog it is a social gathering. There is a saying in some local running groups that "we are drinkers with a running problem." That's not to say that we don't take our running seriously; running has gotten more popular and thus more competitive than when I was running more seriously. We Western New Yorkers just like to have a good time afterwards. But don't worry, I train extra hard in the days after each race to account for the hot dog and beer intake during the post race celebrations. Just a part of Western New York running!
ReplyDeleteGeorge Harvey WNY "Runner"