4:30 - The day starts like any other day. Matthew woke me up at 4:30am, and I was awake until 5:30. And then (my wife) Sharon's alarm went off at 6, so I got a whopping 1/2 hour extra of sleep. Yay.
6:30 - I got in the shower.
6:45 - Out of the shower, nobody's eating yet despite my wanting to leave at 7:30. And the kids are the slowest eaters EVER. I pin on my number and start to get really nervous. Let's just say I'm on a first name basis with the bathroom at this point.
7:45 - We finally get out of the house, and my stomach is doing flip-flops. Sharon drops me off a few blocks from the race and I walk in. Because the race site says parking is extremely limited, she goes to find a meter a few blocks away and will walk in with the kids.
7:50 - I get to the race site and see that about 75 out of 100 spots are still available. Damn.
8:00 - I find Vicky (@veamason) and her lovely family. Her older daughter is wearing a shirt that says "My Mommy is blogging about this," and her younger daughter is eating a plastic giraffe. Her husband, who is a marine (ex, I think), comments that "a 5K is a sprint."
8:20 - We wander over to the start line with the hundreds of other runners there. I'm guessing there were around 400 people running...the race was sold out and last year 383 finished.
8:29 - It starts raining.
8:30 - Run, Forrest, run! Or, because of the cause, rainforest, rain! Heh heh. That joke got me though a couple of kilometers.
8:32 - It really starts raining - as in torrential downpour. Noah begins building his ark.
8:32 to 8:59 - I felt really good during the race, and the adrenaline was definitely a plus. Unfortunately I was with a huge pack of people for about the first half of the race, so I don't know if I was doing my pace or theirs. I know I didn't walk at all for the first 15 minutes, and even during the second half I didn't walk very much. As I prepare to cross the finish line, Sharon takes a great picture of my hat.
9ish - Thank goodness it's over. I don't know my official time, but my watch says I did it in 28:54.
9ish - Vicky approaches the finish line, running STRONG!
9:25ish - It stops raining just as the raffle takes place. I win nothing, despite staying until the very end when they were practically begging for winners to raise their hands.
9:35 - We head back to the car, stopping for a couple of pictures before we get in. Everyone is wet and happy. Well, Sharon and I are happy, Ellie looks miserable but isn't crying, and we got Matthew to stop crying long enough to take a picture by giving him a granola bar. All in all, it was a great morning!
- Bill
