For a second year, the Schuyler Miler “marathon” (and I use that word loosely), was thoroughly entertaining. You can see a bunch of photos on the Your Pix section of the Web site.

Here’s a general rundown of what happened.

• Runners (mostly men but a couple of brave women, and also a wheel-chair bound young man) gathered in the parking lot across from the Paramount Theater to warm up. That included downing a few beverages, smoking cigars and modeling the various costumes. I mean running attire.
• At 11:30, participants began jogging down Schuyler toward Court Street, patiently waiting for the traffic lights along the way. They caused general alarm and confusion among passing motorists, but managed to make it down the hill toward Merchant Street, where they refueled and rehydrated with more hoppy beverages and Twinkies.
• A block later, No Dogs bar proved a distraction, as one runner noticed they had opened for business and headed inside. This being a team event, the others had no choice but to follow. The wheelchair wouldn’t fit through the door, but a baby stroller did. (I think the mom and baby joined the race at the last pit stop.) More Miller Lite was consumed.
• Sadly, at this point race ringleader Bill Yohnka had to depart in order to attend another community function. There was brief talk of calling a taxi to take him back up the hill to his car, but he decided to risk the danger of actual exercise.
• After quenching their thirst, the crowd spilled out of the tavern and back onto Schuyler Avenue. They headed east, dodged cars while crossing the street, cut across the Aldi parking lot to save time, apparently barreled over a squirrel that was too slow to get out of the way, and soon after arrived at the finish line — the beer tent at the Half Paddy Festival.
• No one would admit to actually winning the race, for fear of being publicly ostracized.
• I actually worked up a sweat, being the only person who actually ran during the race. But I had to in order to get ahead of the participants to get better photos. The things I do for this job …

P.S. No actual squirrels were harmed in the running of the marathon. It was like that when we got there.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 10:56 am and is filed under Photos/video from events I attended. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.