a great weekend

Painfully early Saturday morning, a crowd gathered in Seward Park to set up for the Wondergirl 5K. By 7:30 am everything was ready for our 10 am race start...it was a long, cold morning. We walked around the park to stay warm. The sunrise was lovely, the park has a stunning view of Mount Rainier, almost made up for the bitter cold wind that came with the sunrise.
When people finally started showing up for the event I was banished to the far side of the park to function as an arrow, directing people to stay on the course...I was also expected to cheer. I happen to love cheering people on. It is one of the strengths that I bring to my job at the gym, and was one of my favorite parts of swimming in high school. I think if I were to enter a beauty pageant my special talent would be cheering, and I would cure aids by spreading awareness through the power of cheer...
Many of the running coaches were out with their girls, motivating and cheering them on. Two in particular really stood out. The girl they were working with was in no mood to run, at every opportunity she would sit down and complain. Her two coaches never gave up on her, they kept her moving, playing games with her to keep her mind distracted. At the end of the race they even had her running across the finish line. Very impressive, these two coaches really helped that girl accomplish something she can be proud of. And she was proud, her whole family was waiting at the finish line, thrilled to celebrate her victory with her.

Sunday I ran two laps at Bridle Trails with a group of people that had been off their feet since the Seattle marathon. All of us are planning to run the Bridle Trails 50k relay. My team is currently struggling with a name. I have been calling us "Eric and the hot chicks" which is a fairly accurate description of the team, although my modesty prohibits me from taking this name public. Instead I really like the idea of being "the all Bob band" this was the name of a group of math and science teachers from my earlier schooling that played a lot of Pink Floyd songs at assemblies. The moral of the story, I love running in the mud, especially when it starts raining.