LUVGLO! LUVGLO! LUVGLO!



Those shades look familiar...

WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING TONIGHT? There is so, so much going on this weekend. Here is what Effin' Memphis is doing. We are going to Trolley Tour to have a lot of free wine and socialize and say "hey gurl...hey gurl..." as we pass people we know, and then we are sticking around and probably maybe putting some glow paint on our face to support the runners in LUVGLO. Here is Effin' Memphis Playing Outside Reporter and Official Effin' Memphis Little Brother Adam Hurst to 'splain why that is where your ass should be tonight, also. -- Ed.

So when I was first asked to write for EM, I knew what topics I'd cover and that my first feature had to be on LUVGLO. Anyone who knows me could tell you I'm a shameless cheerleader for the LUVMUD/LUVGLO races, but literally none of them would tell you I'm a journalist. I'm so much not a journalist that sometimes I can't even words good. So yeah, I didn't write about it sooner because I'm not good at this. But this right here is a last-minute Hail Mary, which I'm told sometimes win foosball games.

Now, I could sit here and regurgitate to you all of the things about LUVGLO that have already been covered by actual journalists who don't suck at this, or about Habitat for Hope and all the incredible work they do for families of children facing the hardest fight of their lives, but instead I thought I'd tell you about my personal impressions of the race, and dispel any objections you may have on the ground of "I can't because I'm not in good enough shape."



It's soooo hard to have fun at these things.

Nonsense, I say!  It's not really that much of a race. You don't even necessarily have to feets good. Now, don't get confused about what I mean by that -- it's still very much a 5K obstacle race -- but it's not that competitive. I've heard people say that they'd like to do an event like this, but didn't think they could run that far or were turned off by the typical I TAKE THIS ALL WAY TOO SERIOUSLY Saturday morning race crowd. But this is no place for seriousness.  This ain't your average race, and these ain't your usual runners. You don't have to be an Olympian to compete. Hell, you don't even have to run the course.  I've seen many, MANY people (and dogs) happily sauntering through the course with their friends at their own leisurely paces, many of them wearing crazy-ass outfits complete with CamelBaks that probably weren't filled with water. Think of it all more as a festival, which, after all, it is.  I mean, if you're looking to obsessively pore over race times and view the other competitors as your sworn enemies, you might want to woo-sah yourself a bit, because this here's a party. And of course, there are great obstacles throughout the run that reminded me of those great field days in elementary school where you had to come to school, but you didn't have to learn and you could just plaaaaaaaaaayyyyy. But hey, if you're getting curious but still a little weary of doing the physical part, just show up and take part in the HUGE festival with all the food, music, vendors and, most importantly, BEER. My numbers are probably a bit off, but I think that the last LUVMUD/LUVGLO joint event got a few thousand runners and something like 8,000 festival-goers. This isn't an event solely for hardcore runners -- this is stuff you like and these are people you'd hang out with. I mean, hell, we're RUNNING THROUGH A TRICKED-OUT BREWERY WITH DJ'S AND GLOW PAINT. What's not to love about that?

So if you were planning on having dinner and drinks tonight like you do every Friday night, just plan on making it to South Main tonight. This event's going to be bigger and better than ever and easily cooler than any race your narrow little mind has heard of. The party kicks off at 8 PM at the old Tennessee Brewery, with racers leaving in heats starting at 9:30. Registration will be open all day at 495 Tennessee Street, right up until the first wave leaves the starting line. If you still don't believe me, check out the LUVMUD Facebook page to check out pictures and videos of this year's course. Come get in on this!