Sunshine Festival 5k

Well, several months ago we said we'd do this race. Heck, several weeks ago we said we'd do it. Then it got hotter, I got bigger, and the doubts kicked in...

So, my mom told her friend and fellow Disney half-runner Betsy as of the night before, we weren't going! Well, I told myself I'd wait until morning to decide...

I didn't set my alarm thinking that if I overslept, it wasn't meant to be. I woke up to a lot of light in the room and thought "huh, guess I'm too late." Then I looked at my phone and it was 6:20 a.m. Plenty of time to get to the park and register before 7:30! Before I got too over-eager, I put on my clothes. I couldn't find any BodyGlide, which was disturbing indeed, but my shirt fit! So, after deciding I was not going to have a wardrobe malfunction and nothing really hurt, I called my mother, who groaned, and left the kids with Ted, who groaned.

I walked down to my mom's house, hurried her up, and we headed to the park. We got in the line to register. My mom was laughing at the "goobers" in their running clothes, but then started laughing at herself in her WISH shirt (mine stopped fitting after the Minnie). We registered and got our T-shirts. OK, dilemma. What to do with the shirts?! So, we walked over to the Village Inn and Pub. The clerk was fine with us leaving the shirts there. I captured this shot of my mother putting on her bib in their mirror...



We used their bathroom and headed back to the race, after a quick check in the mirror. I'm having doubts about how my mother will handle sitting in a parking lot before dawn and using a portapotty!

We stand around "stretching" and meet a nice girl from Gainesville. We talk kids, running, strollers, etc. I told my mom later that she was wearing a fairly subtle Boston shirt. I can't wait to see how she placed- she looked like she was going to be fast!

So we line up in back and entertain ourselves by scoping out our fellow runners. There's a fun game you can play- "who's going to take me?" and it's variation "who can I take?" (There's always someone who will surprise you!) I'm hoping we took the random people in jeans and khaki shorts...

The race started, after a really nice performance of the National Anthem. We hadn't really discussed race strategy, so at the last minute I said "let's start out running and see what happens" or something like that. It's a nice course- all neighborhoods, all flat. Several families came out on the course to cheer decked out in their Fourth finery- very nice touch. They also wrote in chalk on the streets- "RUN RUN RUN." Cute.

Guess how far we made it before we stopped to walk?! The first mile marker!! Seriously, if you haven't run a 5k, getting to that first mile marker is hard. We did it in around 13 minutes. We walked some, ran some the next couple of miles. We entertained ourselves by talking to every volunteer on the course- and there were a lot! My mom took to pointing to me and yelling "pregnant" and pointing to herself and yelling "old!" Yep, we were making a spectacle of ourselves. I think the WISH shirt brings out the crazy in wearers...



Here I am in all my glory with GoofyBaby. (We took this picture close to the end, but before the people at the finish could see us walking).



We blazed in somewhere around 43 minutes. As usual, I filled out the card thingy, got some water, looked around, and then remembered to stop my Garmin. The stupid part is that I thought of it about 10 feet before the finish line, but didn't want to hit it crossing the line. Oh yeah, because I'd hate to ruin the official photographer's picture-- as if! We ate some well deserved Oreos (well, generic Oreos), said bye to our super speedy friend, and retrieved our shirts.

Then we headed on back to home wearing our bibs, and strutting the walk of the pious 5k racer. (The walk is even better when you have a big medal!)



That night we did the fireworks thing with some friends. Harry and Emma were hanging with their buddy, Jessica. Emma wanted to do her hair; Harry wanted her popcorn. Harry was a little concerned about the fireworks, but got into the spirit of things pretty quickly.





Finally, the next morning we hit the beach. What you don't see in this picture is me being pummelled by waves trying to keep my camera dry (and reasonably non-gritty).



So, as far as I can tell, that ends my official running career until post-GoofyBaby. Sure, I may waddle around the block a few more times, but the next 5ks I can find that are nearby are in September. I'm completely convinced GoofyBaby will arrive on Labor Day, so that makes the September races difficult at best. Luckily, I have my coaching job to distract me! I'm already looking up 5ks (and maybe a few longer distances) to work into my mom and Betsy's training. As soon as I get them copies of Bingham's Marathoning for Mortals and make them a calendar, I'll be ready to coach... I wonder if I need a whistle?