Tap N Run

Wow, what a full, fun weekend.

First, I took Friday off, that’s why there was no posting on this normally Monday through Friday blog on this Monkey Fighting Internet. That day was spent at the the Wolf Park up in Battleground, IN, and you can read about it here.

What I will be writing about here is Saturday. Saturday was the Tap N Run, a “marathon” that involved 4K of Walking/Running, costumes, beer, and being social, which meant I couldn’t just walk along listening to the soundtrack to The Muppets.

Starting line, about an hour & a half before festivities begin.

For those unaware, the Tap N Run is a 4K that involves 4 “Beer Chug” stations instead of water stations, each offering up about 4 oz. of beer. At the end, you get a full glass of beer, an awards ceremony for things like costumes, hottest mess, facial hair (which I missed), and other items. Plus, there was a nifty t-shirt and a medal that doubles as a bottle opener.

One of the "Beer Chugs"

I walked with Team Dolphin Rodeo in the race, which consisted of a group of people that, up until that point, I had never met. It made it rather weird when I was looking for my team at the Wave 6 starting point. However, I did find my team, dolphins were wrangled, the agreement to not sweat was made, and we moved to the corral for our first beer.

After the first beer, the gates opened and our wave, Wave 6, the slow group wave, was cut loose. Somehow, running became involved going out of the first gate when people were caught up in the excitement, but that didn’t last long, especially not for “Fatty and I Know It” here at the keyboard. After that initial excitement, most of Dolphin Rodeo regrouped, and we meandered on down the course, taking our sweet time.

How much sweet time did we take? We were moved off the road onto sidewalks because they were opening the road after us.

Team Dolphin Rodeo

However, we didn’t care. We were having fun, we were having beer, we were yelling at each other, and the Indianapolis Metro officers along the course, who were awesome as well. We had a good time, and while we didn’t come in last, we were close as we crossed the finish line.

To give you an idea, for my stats: Time was 56:08 (22:35 per mile), I was 1426^th of 1479 finishers, 616^th of 635 males, 266^th of 273 in the M 26-35 division.

Yep, I’ve got quite a future as a marathon runner.

I love a medal that will also open your beer.

As we crossed the finish line, to the welcoming embrace of our full beer, medals, and volunteers, the group got pictures, and drank beer, and swapped fake mustaches, and generally had a good time. At this point, I faded away from the group and joined some of the volunteers who I knew, and I was getting to know.

After tear down was done, we went to Chumley’s around the corner to get food in the stomach and sober up while the rest of Broadripple was getting drunk, and then I gave The Kahuna a ride home and went home and wiped out myself.

This was a great experience, with some great people, that I can’t wait to do again. Next year, I think I’m going to do a better costume, not just bad facial hair and a bow tie. No offense to Dolphin Rodeo, but I think I might do my own theme team next year, perhaps Lord of the Rings related. Either way, it was definitely a great experience, and I met some great people doing it.



Need to do better next year.

So, to everybody I met, thank you for a great day!  To everyone else, I’ll see you someday!
Tony