The Running of the Bulls

“Weee-heeeee! What fun!”
Today marked the first day of the traditional Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. You may not know this but Pamplona, Spain is actually where the Fountain of Youth is located, except replace ‘Youth’ with ‘Stupidity.’

According to reports at least 9 people were injured in the festivities, which included being chased by angry bulls over a half mile course before finishing in the bullfighting arena. No word yet on how many bulls were injured during the chase but I wouldn’t worry too much about the bulls. Apparently they have some wonderful veterinarians (or “bullfighters” if you prefer) waiting in the stadium (or slaughterhouse) and if they deem any of the bulls to be too injured (or too bull-like) to live they humanely put them down. This is often a slow process that takes the bull many hours to die but I’m quite sure that they have the bull’s best interests at heart. Often, crowds of sympathetic supporters (or sadistic barbarians) gather to mourn (cheer) the bull’s passing.

I’m laying on the sarcasm pretty thick here, and I’ve never really considered myself an animal rights activist or anything. Mostly because that would require some kind of principles or commitment on my part and that sounds like a lot of work, but something about this 9 day festival just isn’t right. I’ll be the first to admit that I love me a good steak, and I don’t have a problem with the killing of tasty animals for sustenance, but I guess I draw the line at doing it for sport. Does this mean that I do have some principals? Is this what it feels like to take a stand for a cause? It feels kind of tingly with a faint air of superiority. I think I like it. Have I finally found an outlet for my bawdy self-righteousness?

Note: If you turn my comments section into an animal rights flame war I will run over the next cat I see.

Sampling the Denver Marathon Expo

I went and picked up my race packet at the Denver Marathon Expo this afternoon. When I first walked in the doors to the hotel ballroom where it was being held I was struck by how many older folks I saw milling around. ‘Wow, this is fantastic,’ I thought. ‘I had no idea that there’d be this many old people (we’re talking 65 years old and up) running the marathon and half marathon.’ And I had no idea that AARP was sponsoring this marathon... oh... crap... I’m in the wrong ballroom aren’t I? Yup. I’m the only person in the room that doesn’t have a good first hand story about what I was doing when JFK was shot.

When I eventually found the right ballroom I grabbed my race packet and made several trips around the booths, sampling everything I could as many times as possible. Of course being a marathon expo all of the samples were things like energy drinks and energy bars and shot bloks and shot gels and why am I typing this post so fast? I feel like I am flying weeeeeeeeeeeee look at how fast I am typing this post!

The expo was pretty good, but I was beginning to think to myself ‘you know what this expo needs? -- More cowbell!’ That’s when I came across the table pictured to the right. All the cowbell that you could possibly want. I grabbed 2 cowbells and shoved them into my goodie bag, one for my 2 year old and one for my 4 year old. If that isn’t a recipe for noise then I don’t know what is.

Check back tomorrow for the Weekend Splits, but in the meantime “I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription ... is more cowbell!”