Sun Run

Today was Sun Run day. In past years this has been a very annoying thing. This year it is already all over except for the residual motorcade of stupidity. I don't actually mind the event itself. It's not the runners, it's the gym across the street. Every year they set up a loudspeaker to advertise themselves to the tens of thousands of people running by - despite the fact that probably 99.8% of them live nowhere near this gym and would never use it - and annoy the crap out of the people who do live nearby.

This year they didn't set up and start making noise until 9:00 a.m., which is a distinct improvement over their former 7:00 a.m. sound-checks. This, combined with the foresight to close my photo booth and get out of the club at 1:00 a.m., fortuitously catching a cab right away, and getting into bed around 2:00 a.m. mean I got a decent seven-hour sleep (which is normal for me) and I'm not as put-out as I would be if I were sleep-deprived. They also seem to have streamlined the start so that by 11:00 a.m. the runners had all passed. In previous years the start began earlier and ended around noon. Four hours of false-enthusiasm by a minimum-wage gym employee-cum-cheerleader over a loudspeaker combined with "Chariots of Fire", "Theme for the Common Man" and (inexplicably) "Axel F" in a loop is nothing but annoying. Having this now reduced to two hours even though there are more runners is wonderful, so kudos to the Sun Run organizers for their improved organization.