The Tenth Annual Point Invitational

Bryan Carlson texted, and then called, me Thanksgiving morning at 6AM trying to find out if I was going to run the Point Invite. I tried to explain to him that, since this is the tenth anniversary of the first Point Invitational, that he should know that every year since the first it is ran on Black Friday, not Thanksgiving. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't.

At 10am I met up with a bunch of random people and played some football at Kerr Park, Joe Harahan was there, and Carlson showed up. He was much too quick on the field to have ran the Point course only a few hours before like he claimed. Joe, Carlson, and I then went to Chelsy's Tavern, the only place other than Wawa that was open in Downingtown on Thanksgiving (they are open 365 days a year!). I forgot my ID, was carded, and convinced our barmaid I was over the legal drinking age after talking enough about working for Manhattan Beer Distributors. Then, after I knocked over my second beer, we tried to explain to our barmaid that that's what happens when she serves minors. She gave us a hard time and refilled my beer.

Thanksgiving was awesome. I ate a couple plates of food then fell asleep. When I woke up, we took a couple family pictures and I sat down and tried to decide what to do with myself.

My boss told me that we were starting work at 8:30 Friday morning. Do I run the Point at Midnight in the dark alone? Then what? sleep for two hours and drive back to NY? Do I sleep for a few hours, wake up at 2AM, run the race, then drive back to NY? Do I say forget about it, leave my parents house around 11PM and hope to be asleep by 3AM and get up in time for work? None of these options were easy. And since I just started my new sales route, I couldn't realistically call off sick the first working day after the year's largest on-premise drinking day. Plus, I still need my new boss to help guide me on this new route, telling me which accounts are important to see on Black Friday, and which are not.

So I chose to say screw it. For the first time in ten years I did not run the Point, which was basically designed to see who had the balls to run such a difficult five miler the day after gorging on turkey and stuffing.

For the fist time in ten years I did not run the Point Invitational. Another small part of my youth has flaked away. Maybe next year I'll run it twice in a row. That's not to say it would realistically make up for this year.

The only people who finished it this year were James and Bertha, and apparently Carlson on his own time. James is now the only person who has ran it every single year. I am now the only person to have ran it nine out of ten years.

Bertha said he's going to make shirts to commemorate this year's Point, which, well he said the same thing last year when there was only five finishers. I asked him if he would make me one, and he said, "No, you didn't run it." Of the seven of ten years my parents bought and gave out shirts, I am sure Bertha's got a least one or two shirts from years he too did not run.

Oh and, as for my boss making me start at 8:30AM that Friday morning, I was done by 2:30PM and totally could have stayed and ran. Also, my boss left my by 9AM to handle some other stuff. Oh well, I guess.

-_o_-