Story
Nearly done with the Tarmac Challenge, I just needed the track mile at T-Burg High and then Run Rabbit. I went for the Sweet 1600 first to avoid running the track after dark and risking a ticket or whatever.
@scottpdawson told me correctly that the THS track would be accessible during Grassroots weekend. But what I didn’t realize was that the school’s parking lots were reserved for official festival parking. $20 a day for some kind of fund raiser. I’m all for supporting community-funded school initiatives but $20 to park for 15
minutes was too steep for my liking.
I explained to the woman at the entrance that I was only there for the track and would be back out in 15 minutes tops. I declined to get into details about why. At first she seemed skeptical, then took down my name and plate number and told me I had an hour before the cops would come back looking for cars to tow.
Then I asked which way to go for the track since I’d never been to the campus. “You know, I really don’t think you’re just here to run.” Ugh, now I’m getting unwarranted attitude, though I understand why she might think people would try to take advantage of it. “No ma’am, I’m not selling my integrity for 20 bucks” is what I nearly blurted out. Instead I reassured her I’d leave quickly and let her know on the way out. She gave it some thought and waved me through, but not before another stern warning about getting towed in an hour.
Negotiations took longer than the 8 minutes 11 seconds I spent running four laps. Afterward I ran straight back to my car to get out of there stat before further incident. I gave the lady a friendly wave and “thank you”, letting her know I was indeed not trying to pull a fast one. Then back through festival traffic down to Taughannock.