Run for Suds

I was too cold to hold the phone & push the button,
so Chris had to think really hard about reaching out
to push it himself!

A RAINY Saturday morning (9/13/14) ~ and when I say rainy, I mean pouring & dark clouds & wind & mud & 55 degrees.  If I hadn't preregistered...I would not have driven to Chardon for the first Brewfest 5K ~ Run for Suds.  We just ran...and didn't stick around for the Brewfest, because our families are sick of us racing & we had other stuff to do.  I was actually surprised that Dodd drove into my driveway & didn't text me he was ditching.                                                                    We whined & complained the entire way to Chardon.  Used an UMBRELLA {you don't use an umbrella on race day} to walk to the little trailer building "Chip's Clubhouse" to get our packets...And I have to say this event had the BEST goodie bags for any 5K I've ever done.  T-shirt (of course), a water bottle, a chapstick, a bag of coconut chocolate (which was good...but my mom ate all of it), and a $5 Heinen's coupon ALL in a Heinen's reusable grocery bag.                                              On the walk back to the car I realized I needed to wear a long sleeve shirt...so Dodd got in the car & I made him look away as I stood outside the car to change my shirt...with the whole world watching and rain pelting my bare back.  That was some smart thinking. ~ then I used the woods instead of the port-a-potty...and I'm pretty sure there were cameras because it was by a drainage thing by this business.  So there's some more smart thinking (did I mention I had my NAME on the back of my shirt?)  DUH all around.

BUT.  It stopped raining by the time we started ~ and we started running up a road, went about 1/4 mile & turned around.  Literally ran around a man standing in the road.  Ran by the 1 Mile mark with my watch (and my brain) telling me we'd only gone .5 miles.  Booked it up to the center of Chardon...and back to Heinen's.  Pretty surprised to see the clock reading 19:something as I was coming up the parking lot.  Decided to try and actually have a 19:something time...but didn't get there quick enough  ~ a 5K PR of 20:01.  however this particular 5K was actually 2.67 miles.

It was enough to win my age group (the one who beats me turned 50!)  So now I have an awesome coffee mug & am first in my age group for the NERC Grand Prix.  Trying to get enough points to get back into the overall top 5.