Q: What’s the best way to feel like a mini-celebrity at the Rock 'n Roll marathon without dressing up as Elvis?
A: One better them by running dressed as a banana.
This was the brainchild of my buddy Steve (left side of the picture, I’m on the far right). This is actually his second year running as a banana. What’s the payback? A Jamba Juica a week for a year. It was actually a lot of fun, and not as uncomfortable as I thought it might be. The fact that it remained overcast and kinda cool the entire day was a BIG bonus. I don’t know that I would want to run every marathon in a banana suit, but seeing the reaction of the people on the streets and in the race was priceless. People were just going nuts “Hey Banana Man”, “Go Jamba Juice”. Felt like a rock star, sorta, for a while.
The run itself wasn’t very remarkable. Steve got a little overheated, by mile 18-19 his banana was soaked, and he was having some cramping issues. I walked with him a little and then he told me to leave him at mile 20. I managed to pull off a 3:30. It was fun putting in a kick at the end and hearing people yell at the people I was passing “You just got beat by a banana!”
Priceless moments of the day came at miles 18 and 19. We came up on this runner who looked like a Marine, nice high & tight haircut. As I started to pass him on the right, he looked over and saw that I was dressed like a banana. He immediatly took off on a dead sprint. Steve and I looked at each other and laughed, I said, “Too bad we’re not feeling better we could really f*ck with this guy’s head.” Well low and behold at mile 19 his dead sprint caught up with him as did we. When we approached we split with Steve on his left and me on his right. As we passed him we heard an exasperated “AAWWWW FUCK!!” It was hilarious. Don’t take it so seriously dude, just cause I’m dressed like a banana, doesn’t mean I can’t run.
Biggest surprises of the day: Chafing. Not surprised that I chafed, just surprised where I chafed: right in my ass crack (wow, can’t believe I actually just typed that) and also my belly button, and I’m an inny not an outy.
If you look closely, you’ll see that I am acutally wearing Peaceful Tribe gear. I wore my wife’s long sleeve AfterDark shirt to “prevent” chafing. Better luck next time.