Beer cures cancer, right?

Things with Team-in-Training have been busy recently. Monday evening I met the group for my first run in two weeks!! We did the usual hill workout at Torrey Pines, but this time I opted to run intervals so I didn't aggrivate my injured foot. Coach Kerry recommended I try 5 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking for the entire 5 miles- it worked out really well. My overall time was almost identical to workouts where I've run the entire time. I'm able to run at a faster pace for 5 minutes and recover quickly with the 1 minute walk break. I felt great after the run, and I'm going to continue experimenting with interval times so I can use that method in the marathon.

I slacked a little bit on Tuesday and didn't a solid cross-training workout in. I decided that having clean clothes to wear was more important than spending 60 minutes on the elliptical, so I headed up after work instead of going to the gym. I ended up doing laundry and cleaning my car, so I'm counting that as an upperbody workout. Just to be on the safe side I did a couple hundred situps, some bicep curls, lunges and squats. It's probably a good thing I took it easy, because Wednesday was the longest day I've had in a while.

Twenty-five TNT members were allowed to volunteer at opening day at the Del Mar races. The food service provider at Del Mar would deposit money into each of our fundraising accounts, and then we would be able to keep any tips made and deposit those into our accoutns as well. Everyone has been looking forward to this all season, as we had been told it was a great way to raise a lot of money.

I wanted to get a workout in before hand, so I met my friend Bryan for spin class at 5:30 a.m. Spinning is an excellent way to cross-train as it really works your quadricpes. Running is great for the hamstrings and butt, but the quads need some attention as well. Anyways, I headed home for a quick shower, and then left for Del Mar at 7:45, where I met Anne Marie, Julie and Tauni:

Yes, Tauni's hand is very clearly on my butt, and neither of us are quite sure how it ended up there. Moving on...
After standing around for 10 minutes, our Del Mar contact told us to take our lunch break. So, at 9:10 a.m., we took our 20 minute lunch break. We had all eaten beforehand, but we took advantage of the free breakfast buffet and forced down some oatmeal, eggs and fruit. This ended up being a good thing, as it was the last time any of us would eat until we got home at 8:30 p.m.

After lunch (brunch?), we stood around for another hour. We took pictures with a woman who was waiting for the hat contest to start:



Julie and Tauni are pros at the hip tilt action, but I don't forsee myself gracing the fashion pages of Vogue anytime soon.

Finally, at 10:45, the four of us were designated as barbacks for four bartenders near the main gate. We helped them set up, and then poured beer for the next 8 hours. Tauni and I lucked out in having two bartenders that were pretty experienced. We also developed a "Circle of Trust" with these two guys:

The one of the right tipped me $25, so he was allowed to be as crazy as he wanted to be.

Anne Marie and Julie got stuck with two women who didn't know how to tap a keg and poured beer that was more head than anything else. Towards the end of the day we all started getting a little punchy (funny how not eating will do that to you), and were looking forward to getting tipped out and going home. Ah yes, the tipping...

It became somewhat evident that none of the four bartenders were looking forward to sharing the fruits of their (and our) labor. Julie and Anne Marie were tipped nowhere near enough for the hardwork that they did all day long, even though their bosses were thanking them profusely and admitting that they would have been lost without their help. Tauni and I were actually going to get stiffed entirely, until Julie came over with her tips and made it obvious that they were expected to thank us for a job well done. After Tauni's bartender tipped her out, my bartender asked him how much cash he had given her. He then deducted the $25 given to me by the gentleman above from Tauni's tip amount and handed me a wad of crumpled bills as thanks. "So, you should be even with her now."

I understand that, between payment from Del Mar and the tips, I was able to raise close to $200 while working for one day. However it was really, really frustrating to me that we weren't tipped out fairly. The four of us worked hard, placated customers that had stood in line for 30 minutes to buy overpriced beer, and kept people coming back for more drinks. Each bartender made several hundred dollars in tips, and it's ridiculous that they sent us home with such a small percentage of their profits. The verbal appreciation is great, but all of the "thank yous" don't result in more money going to LLS. Again, I was greatful for the opportunity to raise more money, but would have appreciated being given my fair share of the profits.

In any event, we are all still looking forward to continuing to raise money while training. For those of you in San Diego, we will be selling beads at this weekend's Gay Pride festival, so look for us at the corner of Centre & University, so please come say hello!