The original plan was for him to go to his meeting and then we'd meet up and tool around downtown when we were done with our race/meeting. I thought he might be busy until after 10 so I also planned to sneak in a run before he caught up with us.
Turns out the gun show was at the fairgrounds so the guys at his meeting talked him into going with them afterwards - he did call and ask me if I minded and I was like, 'heck no!' He needs guy time as much as I need to run. :D
So the race. It was the Inaugural Habitat for Humanity 5K - there seems to be a slew of Inaugural races lately. They had about 300 runners/walkers and the running club I belong to was in charge of the finish line.
By the time the finish line guy got to me, he had doled out all of the assignments so I just stood around cheering, taking pictures and keeping one eye on Shane.
Aren't they cute?
The theme for the race was "There's no place like home" so they had a bunch of The Wizard of Oz characters there. We didn't see them all together at first and wondered who the weirdos were that were going to run in such crazy costumes, with heavy makeup on no less. We thought the flying monkey was a mouse or maybe a dog. When someone gathered them all together for a photo the light clicked on for me. Yes, I am a super fast brilliant rocket scientist...Not!
Cool shirts
As soon as the runners took off, we put the finish line chute together.
Ella and Hank helping one of the volunteers
Did I mention that Ella's birthday was Saturday? Don't even start talking about what a bad mom I am because that will get it's own post. Yes, it's that bad. I stink, more than sweaty armpits, stink.
Ella posing with the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion
It was a run/walk so the speedsters came in around 19 and change which seemed kind of slow considering the weather so nice - not that I will EVER in my wildest dreams run that fast, but it's not uncommon to see 18's or even faster if you have some punk high school cross country kids running. - not that I call them punks because I'm jealous...well, ok fine, that's why I call them punks, but I'm sure they're ok with it because I'm too slow to even eat their dust - it has settled by the time I arrive.
Anyway, it took about an hour for everyone to make it in and the kids were getting a little bored. Since there were only 300 or so runners there wasn't a steady stream of folks coming into the finish to cheer for which meant there was a lot of standing around time.
You talking to me?
The last walkers crossed the finish and we tore down the finish and scrammed. We parked about a 1/2 mile away so we trekked to the truck to unload the kids' blankets and extra coats. I also left my big camera in the truck but forgot to bring the little one so I didn't get any pictures of us running.
We decided to do the 5K course since most of the cones were still out. It was during the run that Bill called to see if he could go to the gun show. He was going to swing by a little shop in downtown to pick up something for Ella but now he wouldn't have time. That meant we needed to do it so our little 3mile run needed to be longer.
I didn't mind it a bit, but I was worried about Jake and Hank since Jake won't run with me anymore and Hank has never run more than 2 miles (they're pretty hilly, but still). They did a lot of sprint ahead, walk until I catch up, sprint ahead.... so they were fine. And once we got into the business part of downtown we had to wait at traffic lights and slow down for pedestrians so our 4.1 mile run was a nice and easy 11:37 pace.
It was a gorgeous day for a run and I'm so glad my little flying monkeys could come along with me!
1 comment:
That's so cool that Habitat for Humanity had a 5k!
I love the theme - the costumes were awesome!
Post a Comment