Painesville Sunrise

Dodd, me, Mike ~ morning of  weekend race #2

Who thought running two races in one weekend was a smart idea?  Yesterday was the Kirtland 5k ~ today was the Paineville Sunrise 5 miler.  Originally Mike and I had signed up for the 5 miler {more Grand Prix points than a 5k}  But the $10 appeal of the Kirtland was too much...and the NERC points too tempting, I suppose.

After some confusion about the start time of the race...and how early we needed to get there...we posed for our pre-race selfie...trying to look tired.

This race is run the same weekend as Painesville Party in the Park...so the key benefit is the number of port-a-potties!  And Clemson was just finishing cleaning them out!  They were all wet & filled with new blue water {what a difficult job it would be to be in charge of cleaning port-a-potties ~ UGH}

So...the weather has been more than odd this summer.  Lots of rain and cool days, but when it's RACE day(s), it's hot and humid.  Once more it was 77 degrees when we woke up this morning...thankful, yet again, the sun didn't come out until way after the race was over.

This race started in downtown Paineville, ran around the square and then east on route 20,  We ran by the Sidley plant and through a cemetery...finally running DOWN into Rec Park.  For most of the race Mike ran with Leslie {my former nemesis, but now we're not in the same age group}  I kept them in sight, but they had a great pace.  Finally Mike pulled away and caught Dodd.  They ran together for a little bit, but Dodd pulled ahead.   Mile 5 started DOWN in the park...and then we had to run UP, out of the park to finish the race. Just as we were headed out of the park, I finally caught Leslie.  I thought she'd hook on to me, but she let me go.  {was only a few seconds behind tho, for her first place age group finish}  As much as I 'hate' hills, I really love to run them.  There was a 20 something dude WALKING up that hill and I just "one-foot, one-foot, keep moving, you've got this, BEAST" ran right by him...and he never caught me.

A PR {since I have never run a 5 miler before} 41:28.  AND my second FIRST PLACE finish of the weekend.  Mike was 41:16 and Dodd was 40:23

Funny story: As we were waiting for the start, we were walking around the Party in the Park booths.  We'd all commented on the Madtown Zombie booth, wondering exactly what all that all was about.  Do they make money with Zombie runs?  Are they just having fun?  Who are these Zombies?  Dodd and I walked over to see what was in the booth.  We were talking as we walked up and we both looked and were stunned silent.  Laying just below the 'counter' was a couple, sound asleep.  Such a unexpected shock to see people spending the night in downtown Painesville.