Rage Against the Machine…trying to calm people the fuck down.

This post was inspired by my two buddies out in Arizona who are currently training for an upcoming Ironman. I’ve been following their progress via their blogs, A Mighty Adventure and More like Aluminum, Less Like Iron. They’re doing it for charity so if you feel like doing so good, head over.

I’m a runner, which is to say I can do five miles without vomiting my insides out, but I’ve never done a 3K, Marathon or an Ironman (which combines running, bicycling, swimming and, for those who don’t train, crying).

So I’m always fascinated that these two dudes who I’ve had some epic drunken nights with, can muster up the desire to push their human bodies to the limit.

It got me thinking about running and listening to music, and those drunken nights (one in particular involves a Cure concert where we mocked opening band Interpol by screaming “McFly!” at the bassist…we felt he looked like Crispin Glover).

What concerts were you at that inspired you to run around like crazy and into the mosh pit to challenge some dude you had no business challenging in the first place?

The first time it happened to me was during a Green Day concert, circa 1994, when “Dookie” just came out. It was the one in Boston when the band left the stage because the audience started throwing mud. It was my first official mosh pit-crowd surfing experience and I went nuts. At one point, I’m pretty sure I was running around in circles.

After that, a Distillers show comes to mind where I through myself into the pit while my buddy hung out in the back drinking beer from a broken glass bottle (somehow, his insides weren’t ripped apart). After that, I rode a bike home drunk off my ass and came close to hitting a couple of trees.

That’s about as close as I’ve ever gotten to an Ironman. How about you?