Another Saturday: Another Race

Last Saturday morning, before the birds even began searching for worms, Morgan and her father left for the running of the 10-miler. They look rested and ready to run don't they?

The rest of us hurriedly got up, gathered food, blankets and poster-making supplies and drove into town for the watching of the running of the 10-miler. We parked at church and walked up the hill to the 3-mile mark, where we waited only a short time before the first (very fast!) runners came speeding by. Soon we began to see people we knew, and sooner than we expected we saw our very own people! They looked good, but due to their thoughtless decision to run on the far side of the street I was unable to get any good pictures of them at that point. (Reminder: next time run on the sidewalk side so I can get pictures that don't include body parts of fellow runners!)

The girls and Will worked on posters to help our runners move faster. As they finished their great works, the kids handed them to our good friend Valorie to hold. That's her arm you see getting tired!

Once our people passed by the 3-mile mark
(in under 11 minutes per mile!) we headed to Starbucks for hot chocolate and coffee. The line was long - road races must be good for business - but we waited patiently and were rewarded with some wonderful drinks! We then continued our walk back to the church where we settled in to wait for the runners to get to the 8-mile mark. This wait allowed us to eat - even Will ate a "gross" bagel - it wasn't gross, but that's one of his newest favorite descriptive words! It also allowed me to realize that we'd passed by the best photo op portion of the race - not that I was going to be able to get my brood to go back there - but I'm making plans for next year (that is, unless I get to run next year!).


So, Caroline "cheered" from her perch and from behind her hot chocolate, while Katherine & Will ate their breakfast. I scouted the best vantage points for my photos - none of them ideal. Still a bad picture has to be better than no picture, right?

It wouldn't be much longer before we saw our favorite runners again. They came running up as though they'd just started the race - remember they were now over 8 miles into the run. Have I mentioned that Morgan had never run more than 6.6 miles before this day? Isn't she amazing?! Talk about grit! Woowee!

I digress. Here they are now!
Wow! Looking strong! Only 2 miles to go!

Once they passed by and we cheered on a few more friends, we packed into the van and headed to the finish line. With only a few minutes to get there, we missed their finish but caught up with the runners afterwards! Here they are, all refreshed and ready for another run!!

Here are some other photos of the race and the finishers!

These pictures show our friends Tom & Billy, as well as Kathleen's sister, Patty and Morgan's teacher, Joy! There's also one of Caroline's 4th grade teacher, Eileen and her husband in his first 10-miler! Way to go!