"Be Somebody's Hero" 5k Race Report

Event shirt and goodie pumpkin. Dog not included.

This morning dawned clear and cold, about 50 degrees when I left the house. I picked up my sister and off we went to the Hero 5k, benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Sig couldn't do this event - she's off at the firing range with the Citizen's Police Academy, shooting all kinds of guns and probably holding some of her classmates hostage. Priorities, people!!  :-)

Anyway, I remembered to bring a light jacket but forgot my Road I.D. and my ear buds...and found myself wishing before too long that I'd worn long pants, ear warmers, and gloves. It was freakin' COLD!!

The theme was "Be Somebody's Hero" and we were supposed to dress up like our favorite superhero. I really don't have a "favorite" - to me, they're all pretty cool (except Aquaman - what the heck?) - so I felt bad singling just one out. My first idea was to get a cape and wear a Darth Vader mask, but Sig scornfully gently reminded me that, contrary to popular belief, Darth Vader is NOT a superhero. Sigh. Nothing is easy these days, is it?

Anyway, my sister and I decided to get matching Spider-Man shirts, which at first glance looked pretty cool. However, when I put it on and looked in the mirror, I realized that it...well...you'll see when I post the picture later. 

We got to the event site and there was a pretty good crowd there. As always, the sight of extremely fit people doing warm-up jogs and test laps inspired me, so I carefully stretched my legs...twice...then stood there like a fool without my jacket and slowly froze my...well...you know. I wasn't alone, though - lots of other people were standing around looking cold, too:

The crowd headed across the street to the starting point, where I took a couple of pics just to show that we were actually there:
 

We made sure to stay well to the back since we knew we were going to end up there anyway. Keep in mind, these are not really "races" for us at this point - we're just trying to get out there and be active and help out good causes. We're hoping to be able to run some events next year, though.

I need to remember two things next time I do one of these things in chilly weather - GLOVES and EAR WARMERS. I didn't mind my legs being cold, but my hands and ears were cold to the point of aching. Not fun.

We didn't do a true 5k because we were directed to take a different path than the runners, but we were still pleased with our results. We did 2.26 miles in 00:37:49, which is pretty good considering we usually do about that distance in an hour. I guess it would be considered a PR for me, then! Right??

After we got done and the rest of the people finished, we stood around and waited for them to announce the winners:

Okay, so we hijacked the trophies...but they were just sitting there!

After the race director pried the trophies from our hands (or out from under our shirts, where we tried to hide them), we stood around some more to wait for the door prize winners to be announced. Neither of us won anything, but we had fun watching everyone receive their awards:

Superheroes do more than just fight crime, apparently

We had a few people ask if they could take pictures with us, which kind of baffled me...then it hit me when I realized it looked like we're wearing Spider-Man bikini shirts. THAT'S why they all wanted pics with us! They mistook us for superhero bikini models!

All in all, a very fun morning and good time for a good cause. I'm looking forward to the next event (assuming I find one)!

The "Not-So-5K" Race Report

Yesterday was the "Soles for Soles" 5K, and I was very excited to be on a team with Sig and my sister Kristi. We had a surprise addition to the team - my 5 yr. old niece Kacie - which kind of explains the "Not-So-5K" part.

Preparation actually started the day before, when Kristi and I picked up the race packets, then Sig and I drove all over town searching for pink shirts for us to wear (this event was benefiting breast cancer research). We finally found these AWESOME pink camo shirts (and on sale, too!). I also found some pink ribbon wristbands at a sporting goods store.

Go Team Ta-Ta!!

 We had originally planned to walk the 5K and see if we could break our last time of 00:53:00. Kacie brought her bike to ride along with us, but the streets were uneven so she didn't feel comfortable riding it and ended up doing the walk instead. We realized pretty quickly that her little legs probably couldn't handle a fast-paced 5K, so we decided as a team to do the 1 mile walk instead.

Now, if you recall, the last 5k Sig and I did was kind of a disaster. We literally got up off the couch one day and decided "Hey! Let's do a 5k!", then got our butts kicked by an elderly couple pushing a baby stroller (and yes, a baby was in the stroller). We did absolutely zero preparation, we in terrible shape, and had no idea what we were getting into. This time was different - we've been working hard to lose weight, have been going to the gym and walking, and we felt like we were a lot more prepared.


Our decision to do the 1 mile instead wasn't a difficult one - we were not out to win anything, we just wanted to do this thing together and have fun.

Kacie was having a hard time keeping up...

...so Mom came up with a temporary solution

We were ALSO determined not to come in last, and I'm happy to say we were among the first walkers to finish. As we were coming to the corner before the finish line, my sister noticed the first runners coming in a ways behind us. We decided to start running as we rounded the corner, and Sig turned to the walkers behind us and said "Come on everybody, fake it!" and THEY started running, too. Don't worry, we came clean at the finish line! We finished in 18 minutes.

Showing our support

Participant ribbon given to all walkers

 We hung around a bit after the race because there were supposed to be activities for kids, but all they had was a bouncy house and a face painter. Kacie got her face painted, but there was some punk kid in the bouncy house who was playing too rough so we didn't want Kacie to go in there.

She doesn't look too sure about this

The end result - not bad!

Kacie was getting tired and we were all hungry, so we left and had post-race tacos.

It was a fun day, and I'm excited about next weekend's 5k (benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation). We're supposed to dress up as our favorite superhero, so that should make for interesting pictures!