It's Party Time, Vinny!

Good news from the 2008 trials camp in Eugene: They're gonna try not to be lame!

Foremost among plans to take the l-a-m-e out of Lananna's fun time Trials (it's in there Boggle fans, work it out), is a festival zone in the few blocks surrounding historic Hayward Field. The zone will include a bar, interactive exhibits to keep the kids busy while daddy's drinkin', a Niketown store (surprise!), food court, concert stage for live music, and two big screens showing what is going on in the stadium.

According to Vin Lananna, the King Midas of NCAA cross country, and some guy from Nike I've never heard of, they want Eugene '08 to not just be a "well-run track meet," but rather, a "spectacle."

If there is one thing we at LTOB love, its a spectacle. From sporadically in-/de-flating balloon people outside car dealerships (Jeremy's favorite) to a Tom Green stand-up comedy show (mine), we like to look at stuff. We consider it a huge bonus if we can look at stuff for free while drinking beer and eating (frozen beer cubes), which is apparently what Eugene '08 wants fans to do.

"Festival admission will be free, which means fans without a ticket can settle down in front of one of the screens with a beer and a sandwich (ed.: beer sanwich?) and not miss a minute of the action."

This type of forward thinking blows my mind. A track meet with stuff to do other than wait for the 100m hurdles to turn into the 110m hurdles? Wha-wha-what!!! Also, the festival zone will be open after the meet to give fans a nightcap after each day of the trials.

"After the last event of the day, fans will be encouraged to hang around for live entertainment and, perhaps, mingle with the athletes."

Let me get this straight. I can go to the Eugene trials, without a ticket (they are super sold out), sit in a mini-track-fan-village outside the stadium and watch all the events on a jumbo-tron with hundreds of my closest track fan buddies, all the while drinking and eating and listening to some granola eating, Oregon hippy pluck his weathered acoustic. AND THEN, when the meet is over, I can party to (let's hope) a real musical act (fingers crossed: SouljaBoy?) while Abdi and I form a break dance circle to impress Carrie Tollefson?

DONE!

(I hope Mo Greene shows up)