Trevor across the street is a firefighter and calls Thursday night "Gary!  beers on my deck!" and I go over and relax with the tasty brew and he is like "Ithaca fire dept. has a team running in this competition against ambulance crews, police teams, etc.  Our tenth man dropped out.  You're a runner...?" and the vibe was mellow and Trevor is awesome and I am a runner AND I happen to have a pet sitting gig downtown Saturday morning...so I say "sure, I can do the cat thing, come over and run with you guys THANKS!" and Trevor sends the confirmation to the captain and he is like "it is a mud thing....a 5k in...2 hours..." and I am like "?!!!" and he goes on, now that I am signed up and deep into the beer "like the Marine Corps, 20 pull ups, carry tires up a hill, 100 squats, jump over sh!t, crawl through crap, that sort of thing..." and I am like "!!!!!!!!" and he goes on "we will have beers after....and maybe before! And some guys are thinking...during..." (that is a JOKE) "until we all puke our guts out!"  and I am like "......!......"
and Then later Trevor, who is a huge six foot something tall 200 + pounds tells me "yeah, we also have to carry each other on our backs at one point...everybody wants to carry you!" (I am the size of a sixth grader...really! I have been 5 foot 8 since sixth grade, and weigh about 125 pounds...) and I ask "God, I have to carry somebody too, I hope there is a tiny little woman around!" and Trevor tells me "yeah, we do have one woman...who is about your height...".  Anyway, there will be photographs I am sure...

(it is a fundraiser--an area guy died from battle wounds in Iraq and to honor the memory a bike trail is being worked on to be named after him)