“It says that we don’t care about local athletes. It says we don’t care about competition — just give us your $150 and everyone gets a medal. This is already happening in the color runs and mud runs — just pay your money and get your muddy shirt. No need to worry about actually trying hard. – The Walmart of running.”

We’ve all had a bit of fun these past few weeks between the Bakersfield Hash House Harriers and Tap N Run-Bakersfield faux-feud.  We certainly didn’t take it seriously – which for anyone who knows Hashing we take NOTHING SERIOUSLY – to our surprise that some in our local community did.  I didn’t know we had such power.

None-the-less this issue still brings up the point that our wonderful Bakersfield running community is beginning to increasingly be overrun (pun intended) with for profit running corporations that could care less about local runners and any valid charities local races support.   On the day Tap N Rip off was running downtown there was an infinitely more important for charity run “Anthony’s Seeing is Believing” that had less than 10 percent of the runners.  This issue isn’t going away so stay tuned for more.

http://azstarnet.com/lifestyles/column/support-your-local-runs/article_06330ef4-153e-5f8e-8f35-df5fb45d678b.html

See Race Results – Anthony’s Seeing is Believing Bakersfield, CA February 1, 2014 – 10 Kilometer Race

http://www.bakersfieldtrackclub.com/2014anthonyseeingisbelieving10k.htm

“[C]aballo had the only funeral he would have wanted: his friends spent days running in the wilderness in his honor.” Cris McDougall