The tailgate challenge usually splits the runners into Michigan and Michigan State fans with the home team for that weekend running clockwise on the inner loop, and the away team on the outer loop running counter-clockwise. Due to a breast cancer awareness walk going on at the same time, the route was cancelled and we just all ran the same way on the Retread route. It's too bad they didn't schedule them back-to-back, because I know a lot of people would have been down for both. I could have dealt with a cool down.
Anyway, the route change was kind of a downer, and you'd think they'd be able to work their way around it to preserve the tradition of the run. It's not like it is a certified course or anything, and you can just estimate a 3.1 mile loop. That's one of the best things about the course; going against the rival school and doing a little stare-down and a bit of taunting about the game to come.
Like many big in state rivalries, both sides have their reasons for coming out on one side or the other, and sometimes these reasons drive people on the opposite side nuts. Then we do a good job stereotyping the other side, and pointing out the worst in them. Those of us that are more civil in the matter understand that both institutions have their merits and are generally filled with decent folks.
I come from a divided family as far as MSU/U of M goes. My parents didn't attend either, but members of my extended have gone to both schools, and my uncle actually went to one for undergrad and med school at the other. Given my parents extreme indifference to the whole thing, I could have went either way. I was even dressed in clothing from both schools when I was little, but hopefully any photos of me wearing a block M have been destroyed.
When I think back, I have a vague memory of the moment I chose my allegiance to Michigan State. It was during the rivalry game weekend, and I had made the statement "well, they're both from Michigan, so what's the difference," while my Dad had people over at our house watching the game. One of his friends rooting for Michigan said something to me, I can't remember what. Either way, I didn't like it, so I rooted for MSU the rest of the game as they were whipped to a pulp and I was being taunted by a cocky Michigan guy. That's pretty much how it's gone ever since, until fairly recently.
In addition to going to many more Spartan games with my uncle, and fighting against a majority of Wolverines (at least people that claim to be) for the most of my life, I completed the process of becoming a Spartan in 2001 by graduating from Michigan State. I love my school, and I don't take to people berating it, or making assumptions that I went there because I couldn't go to the other one.
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| I'm with this guy |
Newsflash kids, I never applied to Ann Arbor, and I had the grades to go anywhere I damn well pleased. There were even moments where a few complications at my dorm upon arriving at MSU made me threaten to disenroll, take a semester off and apply to Michigan for the next term. Yes, it almost happened, and I would have become one of them, but I stuck it out and I'm glad I stayed put. It was one of the best experiences I've had, and I'm not sure it would have been as good in Ann Arbor, or that I would have even survived in that town given that the place is just so expensive. Even in East Lansing, I was usually flat broke and got dinner on many many occasions by taking a box cutter with me to the dumpsters and cutting off the "collect 10 for a free pizza/pokey stick" cards off of discarded Gumby's pizza boxes. How about you guys? Did you make any sketchy moves to survive at college? I made quite a few. Nothing that hurt anyone else, just general loss of self-dignity type stuff.
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| That thing in the top corner (used to be on the bottom right). |
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| Trophy games are a great thing |
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| "Well... that'll be an interesting day" |
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| Ick |
