About us | Ann Arbor's Bad Decisions Track Club

Details

Run FOR FUN!

WHEN & WHERE?
Thursdays at 6:00 PM - Almost always Ferry Field.
Sign up for our email list to know for sure, or check out the workout announcement on Strava / Google

HOW FAST?
However fast (or slow) you want. A few of us are kind of fast. Some of us are pretty slow. This truly is an "ALL paces" scene.

HOW FAR?
We try to get 2-4 miles of good, hard running in. Warmup and cooldown is usually another 1-2 miles. We only "plan" a single workout each week, but you're welcome to modify it however you see fit.

We're not coaches and we in no way claim to know what we're doing. Our most experienced regulars competed in high school track. Most of us had never done a track workout before joining BDTC.

HOW BIG?

Attendance varies, but usually we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 people. It's maybe 5-10 folks who basically come EVERY single week and then maybe another 25 regulars who pop in & out as their schedule/enthusiasm allows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

HOW MUCH?

It's free, y'all—The last thing you need to worry about at BDTC is whether someone's gonna ask you for money.

HOW DO I JOIN?

Just show up! We use our email list to announce each week's workout as well as any other events:

Add Your Email

HOW'S IT WORK?

Folks warm up in small groups (or solo) starting at 6:00. If you see us jogging feel free to join!

By 6:10 we'll be at our standard meeting point near the the SE corner of the infield (See pic below) We may also have a sign that says "MEET HERE!" :-)

Then we do some form exercises / "drills" which will be explained & demonstrated for anyone new.

After that we'll circle up, do a round of introductions, make any special announcements, and explain the workout.

After the workout we may jog a few cooldown laps and/or stretch. Then (usually by 7:30?) we'll pick a spot to grab food/beer. All are invited to join!

Never run track before? It's as easy! Just run fast, turn left, and repeat :-)

But also check out our handy FAQ / Track Guide. It will lay out some basic Track Etiquette, as well as answer all sorts of questions, from "Which direction do I run?" to "What's a 400??"

A BRIEF MYTHOLOGY OF PAIN

A story of stupidity and friendship. But mostly stupidity.

Mid-December, 2016... It was 5 degrees. There were 4 of us.

The "track club" already had a name, but there was no track in sight... just one great big bad decision of a hill waiting to be repeatedly scaled by Walsh and Alex—our two founding fathers—plus Niki and Walline, the next two biggest idiots on a 20-idiot email list.

All these folks were already members of another running/social club called the Hash House Harriers*, where "hares" lay elaborate trails for the "pack" to follow, like a sort of running scavenger hunt for beer... But this involves a lot of false trails, short cuts, dead ends, check backs, splits, and other tricky things that are just plain confusing for idiots like Alex and Walsh, so they started their own group where all you do is run in circles. So many circles. Laps and laps and laps of circles. Or whatever hecking shape a track is. Repetitive. Predictable. Idiot-proof.

Since 2016 we've run in thousands of circles, turned hundreds of heads with our snazzy pink & purple livery, and made dozens of new friends. We've made up workouts with dumb names like "Pyramid Scheme" and "The Terrible Twos." We've jumped in the river, we've run some Beer Miles and done some bar crawls. We've thrown snazzy banquets with kickball and dance parties, and we've even run a bunch of fun races. We're happy and proud to have carved out our own oddball slice of the rich Ann Arbor running community, and grateful to everyone who's ever come out to join us for an evening of #CoolRunnings.

Strictly speaking, we don't really know what we're doing... But we're doing it every damn hell ass Thursday—moving our bodies and testing our fitness and soothing the pain of BAD decisions with GOOD company. (And beer!)

* Speaking of the Hash House Harriers, here's a link to the Motown Ann Arbor HHH (MoA2H3), which is the local group. They meet most Sunday or Saturday afternoons in Metro Detroit, and several Bad Deciders are still regulars. It's a bit more eccentric than a typical running group, but it's very welcoming. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

MoA2H3

A WHAT?? ...YUCK

Res ipsa loquitur.

Listen. This is the BDTC Turtle Burger... our mascot / deity / ornery autocannibalizing "passion creature"

The Turtle Burger mascot of Bad Decisions Track Club

It's very good at three things only:

1.) Running, as you can see from its lithe legs and sporty, wing-ed trainers.

2.) Making fun of the people it cares about. (We keep asking it to seek therapy, but it pretends not to hear us and then makes a joke about that time our crush saw us picking our nose in algebra class, followed by a joke about how we failed that algebra class ("You kept picking your nose like there might be answers to math problems in there instead of just a trove of Lindsay-repelling boogers! ). As the shadow of long-suppressed shame swims across our faces it leans in, nudges us conspiratorially and whispers, "Who needs therapy now?"

3.) Making bad decisions, as you can see from its habit of eating and exercising at the same time, gastrointestinal consequences be hecked. The fact that it's eating itself is just a weird flex.

That's about all there is to say about the Turtle Burger. Not really role model material. If you want that, you should get a load of our other Passion Creature: Rod Dixon.

Now there's a role model.