Never before have I made a 600 mile round trip drive in crummy weather for a 5k run, but the USA Jag Spirit 5k is no ordinary race.

Picked up Brad Friday afternoon for what would ordinarily be an easy 4 hour drive to Mobile.  It started off okay with only light rain, but it was not long before we got into the cow-pissing-on-a-flat-rock variety.  We rolled into the hotel around 7:30 or so and I was whipped from the drive.  Quick shower, then we headed over to Macaroni Grill for steaks.  It seemed we might be mistaken for a gay couple, so I set the waitress straight on that.  Well, verbally.  From there, a pleasant cruise down Government St. in a light rain to the Soul Kitchen in the heart of downtown Mobile, which was surprisingly well lit and nice looking, like a smaller, cleaner French Quarter.

The Soul Kitchen - what a dump!  And I mean that in the nicest possible way.  I've spent thousands of hours in dive bars and SK is up (down) there with the best of them.  And smoky - holy crap, it's smoky.  Couple of pool tables and a small bar in the front, and in the much larger rear of the club is the stage and another two bars.  No waitresses, and very little seating.  Basically stand up and watch the band.  Dancing?  Not hardly.  I never did make it to the men's room in the four hours we were there, a record for my bladder I am sure.  Brad said it was brutal.

The Dexateens were up first, some good ole' boy country punk rockers on meth and maybe hallucinogenics.  Normally that style is right up my alley.  They were good, but not great.  They were extremely hampered by the house PA which I must say sounded like shit.  The mix was muddy at best.  They played for 45 minutes and it was all their fast stuff.  They did not play the much slower Can You Whoop It?, their best song.

As soon as they finished their last song, the drummer (probably my favorite Dexateen) immediately began to break down his kit, which I figured meant not only no encores, but not too long of a wait for the Drive By Truckers, the band that we had come to see.  Sure enough, about 45 minutes later they took the stage.  We had great "seats".  We stood in the second row, less than ten feet from the stage.  Somebody told all the fat girls in town that Brad and I were coming though, because we were surrounded by them.  One kept dancing and swaying into me, but I would not yield ground.

Anyway, they kicked off with Carl Perkins' Cadillac, and played a pretty amazing two hours straight; okay, one 5 minute break.  It was too dark to see, too loud to even exchange a sentence with Brad, and too smoky for any mammal, but still I loved every minute of it.  I would say This Fucking Job, Girls Who Smoke, and maybe Feb. 14 were my favorites.  They played Dead, Drunk and Naked pretty well, but unlike Brad, I'm not crazy about that one.  There were a lot of songs I would have liked to hear that they did not get to.  They have eight studio albums and they put about 18 songs on each one so there is a lot of material to choose from.  I'll probably go see them again in March at Tipitina's in N.O.  Besides Bad Religion and maybe Cracker, there is no one else I would drive so far for I think.  The house PA sounded much better for the DBT's than it had for the Dexateens, though it's still pretty weak.

Got back to the hotel around 2:15, thoroughly smoked out and ears ringing a little, but not as bad as expected.  Showered up and hit the sack by 3:00, and up at 6:00 to get ready for the big race.  Forced down a little cereal and then we set out to try to find the University of South Alabama and the race start, which took some doing.  Anyway, eventually we got signed up and all.  It was cold and windy.  We ran the 5k loop once to loosen up.  Not super hilly, but not flat.  There were about 160 to start the race, not bad considering the conditions.  I took off a little easy in the hopes that I would pick off a few later and that is how it worked out.  I was in thirteenth a little before the mile mark, and was able to pick off 8 to move up to fifth.  I could see Brad in third 100, then 200 meters ahead, but I knew I could never catch him.  He was third, and there was a pretty quick 67 year old (!) in fourth between us.  We ran the course a third time for our cool down.  An outstanding workout, making for a great start to the trip home, and of course we both enjoyed the contrast of the two extremes of human behavior in the space of just a few hours.  From major depravity to fairly serious fitness.