January 22, 2007

Acquired Taste

This weekend I ran the Auburn Classic Half Marathon. I finished. If you're ever interested in the races I run, and my results, they are posted on my other blog, which I now use as a race log.

Race organizers know that a race will get much more participation when beer offered at the end of a race. This race offered beer. Markers along the way reminded runners of the reward at the end. "8 Miles til Beer". That keeps some runners going.

They didn't have beer. They had low calorie, low carb faux beer, but they had no real beer. Michelob Ultra and Bud Light. What the FUCK are they thinking. I just ran thirteen miles, why the hell do I want this watered-down diet crap they erroneously call beer. That's the stuff high school kids use to get drunk, and even some of the immature college kids, but once you get a taste of the real classic brew, there is no going back to the kool-aid beers. There are decent mass-produced beers out there, there is no reason to go for the cheap Bud/Coors/Miller brands that are an insult to the beer industry. The last time I bought that swill was to fertilize my lawn. Age has produced a beer snob in me. I also spent some of my High School years in Germany, where they have laws about making beer. I cannot imagine what they think of the massively-consumed American beer posers.

Now, I can think of good uses for these American insults to beer at the end of a race; How about soaking your sweaty, hot feet. That would feel so good on my "dogs" after a long run.

These are beers: Newcastle (Draft), Carlsberg, Guinness, Various Microbrews to numerous to mentioned. Even Sam Adams produces good beer, and Warsteiner (German Budweiser) will do in a pinch. Some of my planned vacations are to do a beer tour of Belguim, hiking the Alps to taste the different local brews of Bavaria and Austria, and touring the cities of Prague and Vienna on foot, finding local food and beer that are unique.

I don't use beer to get drunk, like I did when I was a young dumb conservative. I've matured, learned a few things, became a bit wiser (or less wiser, some would say), and don't want to waste the last half of my life on inferior food, drink, or products.

Have I become a food snob?

Why are all the "American" versions of food so bland and tasteless. I don't go out to eat much, unless I really have to, and then I try to find locally owned restaurants. Why go out and get cheap food, when I can make something much better at home. Who knows what they put in the food to get people to crave the taste of junk food (salt?chemicals?fat?fat?fat?), but the people I know that live on restaurant are very unhealthy, overweight and usually obnoxious about their right to destroy themselves with cheap junk food. I don't live the way I do to live longer, but to live better. Ok, Time to go, I'm starting to get of f on a tangent, different rant for a different day.

Picture of niCk at the finish line. (Warning: it's not pretty)
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10 comments:

Pam said...

OK - so that picture shows you STANDING and BREATHING, so it's pretty in my book. I think I would be crawling to the finish line ;-).

And as for beer....I can't imagine drinking anything with alcohol (even beer light) after vigorous exercise. And I agree with you about fine food & drink. Life is too short to not enjoy what you ingest.

Congrats on surviving the run ;-).

azgoddess said...

agreed - life is too short to waste it on junk -- any kind of junk...food, beer, wine, sex...

nice pic...glad you enjoyed the race...too cold here to even venture outside for a walk...brrrrr

supergirlest said...

YAY! a face to put with the name!!!! it's a happy day in karaland!

i couldn't agree more - you should sue them for posing those beers as real beer! ;) SHAME on them!

congrats on finishing the race!!! i bet that felt GOOOD!

Blueberry said...

That was a crap choice of beer they gave you, has to be a corporate sponsorship behind it! Ugh! I used to drink that stuff (Busch Lite, Bud Lite, Miller) when I was young, but now I prefer something that can walk on its own: tasty and on the dark side!

Evil Spock said...

I'm partial to Harp myself.

Oh, and you're not what I expected when I clicked on the pic. Congrats on your run big guy!

Anonymous said...

Hey there!

It was great seeing you at the finish line... CONGRATS! mon ami! xoxoxoxox

I must say that I just can't stand beer but I would be more than willing to follow you around on this project : "Some of my planned vacations are to do a beer tour of Belguim, hiking the Alps to taste the different local brews of Bavaria and Austria, and touring the cities of Prague and Vienna on foot, finding local food and beer that are unique" I just wouldn't do any beer tasting but BRING ON the food... ;-)

It would be nice to have a pict for next weekend's run... ;-)

Talk to you later my friend...

XOXOXOXOXOX

BBC said...

Aorta, now that is amusing. You look pooped, lucky you didn’t pop yours.

Now just a minute you little twerp. We drink beer, any beer, and then we fertilize the lawn. I drink Natural Light, it gets a good rating from consumer reports. I don’t like stout beers, the alcohol content in them is too high and most of them taste funny to me.

It sounds like you have become a food snob. I just eat what is around and be thankful for it. Remember, there are starving people that would consider killing you for what you think is the worse food in your house. Or is in the dumpster behind a café.

Well, my comment is different than the ones from the spoiled folks, but what do you expect?

I wouldn't go somewhere to spoil myself with food and booze, only to help others make their lives better. Ta-daa

BBC said...

Running for beer, now that I think of it, that is funny as hell. I can walk a block to the store and buy a 30 pack of it for thirteen bucks and sit on the sidewalk drinking it while watching the fool runners....

LOL

Mary said...

Way to go on the race. I run much shorter distances but I did do the Cherry Blossom 10 mile once. It was great. I only do about half that these days and very slowly.
Sorry about the beer. False advertisement is always wrong.

pissed off patricia said...

I'm surprised no one was injured at the end of the race when the promise was a bit less than kept.