Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The Mug Challenge

Sure, everyone has heard the expression, "Two's company, three's a crowd." Well, here at Rise Up Runners, we don't mind a crowd, at least the early morning, rise to run type crowd.

To date, our runs have included two, sometimes three people at a time. Even when the odds look good for a fourth, things seem to unravel at the last moment. Take today for instance, Mike and I were joined at 4:30 this morning at Idlewild Park by Charlie Andrews, who agreed to give our little, and I mean little, running club a test drive. He joined us for about a 40 minute run around Easton at a pace that I think is a bit slower than he is used to, but he had to leave to get ready for work just as we were about to be joined by Don Marvel who made his second Tuesday morning appearance at 5 a.m.

Now, I am impressed that Charlie manages to get very much underway with work at an hour at which most folks are still sleeping, but it remains uncharted territory hitting that fourth runner for our morning jaunts.

Running with three is fun, don't get me wrong. I very much appreciate my fellow Rise Uppers and what they do to keep me motivated and entertained on our runs. It just would be fun to see even more people out there. So, for the month of April only, I am offering the "Mug Challenge".

The Mug Challenge explained: Show up and run with us in the early morning any time in April, and you may or may not receive your very own Rise Up Runners Coffee Mug. I should point out that these mugs do not yet exist, are certainly made in China, and may or may not contain lead paint. They may have fuzzy graphics due to my inexperience in "uploading" a JPEG or any other type of graphic file to an online printing company that may go out of business before the mugs are printed.

Further, the offer may be rescinded at any time without explanation or warning. You may be required to run anywhere from one to many more than one group runs in order to qualify. Showing up on a foursome day automatically qualifies you for a mug, should indeed the mugs ever exist, yet if your running pace is too fast you may forfeit your prize.

Please join us for the first annual "Mug Challenge" this month. You may be rewarded, but then again you may not!

Landy

3 comments:

Michael Valliant said...

To quote the Guinness commercial (a liquid which may or may not be suitable for the mug)..."Brilliant!" And lest anyone subscribe to the "I got up at 4:30am to run and all I got was this stinking mug," I may say that said booty (of the pirate variety) is more tangible than what we currently walk away with. I will say though, that even without schwag, the rewards are there. Great run this morning!

Runners on Trails said...

I like the way you write, Landy. I am going to have to figure out how to arrange my day so I can run with you guys one morning. I need that mug, desperately!

Anonymous said...

Let us know if there is a better day for you to run during the week, or if a traveling run starting from St Micheals would get you motivated.

The last thing I want is a big box of mugs sitting in my basement collecting dust. (If they are ever made.)