You Say Potato

This evening, running home from work, I sweated my way through gaggles of good looking people who were probably heading somewhere to hang out with other good looking (and non-sweaty) people. Meanwhile, I was thinking about potatoes. My train of thought began with how weird I felt because I ate too much sugar today. I felt similar while running in the most recent NYC marathon, at least during the last half of the race. And I attribute it to eating too many caffeinated energy gels. That led me to thinking about the "refreshment stations" that are going to be along the course of the Two Oceans Marathon. On its website the race organizers say that potatoes will be provided as one of the refreshments. But it doesn't say anything else about it. Will these potatoes be baked? Fried? Will there be a potato bar with butter and sour cream? Will they be mashed potatoes? Potatoes au gratin?

I follow the Two Oceans Marathon on Facebook and decided I would take my question there. I noticed that the person running the page is very responsive to questions and suggestions on the page. There are lots of interesting conversations on there (and not so interesting posts pleading for bibs to the sold out Half Marathon). Earlier today Two Oceans said,  "70 days to go to race day - that's 10 weeks...hope you have some great training runs planned for the weekend or maybe you're doing a race. Let us know what you're up to." See, so friendly! There are 22 comments so far, including one from a koala bear (judging from the profile picture). It just says, "Knee injury :-("

Recently I followed on their facebook page a controversy over the price of the Trail Run that is happening the same weekend as the marathon (there are several other races that weekend, including a Trail Run and a Half Marathon, which are both sold out). It seems that the Trail Run was posted as being a certain price and then suddenly the registration price was raised on the website without an explanation, but it included a free t-shirt. Subsequent complaints on their facebook page included stuff like, "I don't want to buy the t-shirt. Why are you forcing us to buy a t-shirt. This race is too expensive. You're never going to get locals to run in this race. This is highway robbery and we really want an explanation for why you are ruining this race." Then someone would respond with, "Stop complaining." The 22 km Trail Race (and free t-shirt) costs 550 Rand. I'm not sure how much that is in regular money, but it sounds expensive. 


So I posted this question on their wall: 

Greetings from Brooklyn, NY! I am running in the 56 km marathon and I would like to be prepared for the food provided at your refreshment stations before race day. I want to try eating potatoes on my long training runs. Is it possible to learn what kind of potatoes they are and how they are cooked? Looking forward to seeing you all on April 7th.

It will be fun to see what kind of response(s) I get.