Hold My Beer

I seriously thought about being a no-show at this morning's 5k when, heading out to package pickup on Saturday, a Black cat came out of nowhere and crossed my path.

Having composed myself, pushed through and gotten out on the road, I was just a few miles from the complex when a tire ran over something that flew up and sounded like metal when it hit the ground.

I was anxious about continuing on after a second omen, but told myself, if there was tire damage, I could take care of it once I reached my destination.

Fortunately, whatever bad omens were plaguing me gave up at that point. Hotel check-in was fast, I got a great parking space at the hotel, and there were no hiccups at package pickup.

It was blue skies, perfect weather, good energy and a drone watching us at the Start Line this morning.

I’m over 45, so ...... safe

Mission Inn Museum come to life

Using trekking poles on the inclines, meant I had to pass on a lot of great photos during the race, but I did pause to capture the butterflies going and then coming back around when they pulled way ahead of me and then looped at the turnaround.

If anyone is looking for Waldo, I think I spotted her.

Official race photo, as I crossed the finish line, is supposedly to arrive via email later (we’ll see), but the organizers came through with results in record time.

The Overall shows I finished 49th out of 481 in the 5K — that’s male and female, all ages and 39th out of 348 women — that’s young and old.

Would have been nice had they broken us down further by age groups, so I could see how I did against my peers. But then again, maybe not, because those little old ladies had wings. They were flying, leaving me in the dust.

At any rate, inasmuch as my normal daily step count is between 3,000 and 5,000 and today’s count racked up to 10,926, I finished a little stiff and sore from pounding the pavement, but nothing that a little soak in Epsom salt didn't take care of.

One young lady was unconscious when dragged across the finish line by two big burley dudes.

Dragged instead of carried because, had she been conscious, she would have wanted it that way to get credit for having crossed the finish line.

The two guys whisked her away out of sight rather quickly and I later heard sirens, which I assume was fire department medical emergency.

I was surprised to not see a medical emergency team near the finish line, as is usually done, because that’s usually where the body give out and participants collapse.

The new organizers did a great job this time, but I guess they’d not taken into consideration someone might get hurt.

Hope she’s going to be okay, and I hope the two guys who were assisting her remembered to pause her watch.

That’s not a joke.

The first thing she’s going to do when she opens her eyes is check her watch/fitbit to see how she was doing before she collapsed.

That’s what runners do.

"Because that’s what’s important" said one in the group above, when I complemented them on their shirts.

Note to self: I need one of those shirts.

So anyway, though no photo of my crossing the finish line yet, I did get my medal to go along with a few extras I’d been given on package day.

The extras being Legacy Awards — a hat and pin for having participated in the race for the last three years.

I’ve participate for more than three consecutive years, but three is what the organizers are recognizing.

I don’t wear hats, but wanted the world to know I’m no rooky, so I attached it to my waist band (yellow item in Photo No. 2 above).

I was also entitled to go to the Beer Garden after the race, enjoy the after party, collect a free beer.

I don’t really like beer, but I would have done just to mingled with other participants, except I was anxious to get home to an Epsom bath.

Hold my beer for next time.