Yep, that's right. Jamie and I recently ran our first official race, the Rumpshaker 5K. We previously ran the Ketchup Run 5K at Earthfare in Montgomery, Al. However, the Ketchup Run didn't require registration or announce official results; so, the Rumpshaker was our first REAL one.
It was ALOT of fun. My sister, Janelle, was awesome enough to come down and spend Friday night so she could babysit K for us on Saturday. After the hectic "Where-in-the-world-is-the-ipod?" debacle which ended unsuccessfully Friday night, Saturday morning got a slower start than we had hoped as we ran back and forth from the car for forgotten items (like headphones). Nevertheless, we were out the door before 7am for our 8am start time. We ran by McDonald's and started the day right (did I just say that???) with fruit and yogurt parfait/fruit and oatmeal. We then met up with our good friends, the Johnsons, and carpooled it on up to Sloss Furnace in downtown Birmingham.
After parking the car, debating whether to bring jackets, and witnessing an older gentleman with his shorts on backwards, we shuffled on over to the start line. We then preceded to wait in the abnormally long port-a-john line with just minutes to spare till start time. I was absolutely amazed at the amount of people present for this race. We found out later that there was around 2600 people!
I was also amazed at the annoying, live hard rock playing a 7:45 in the morning.
So, after patronizing the port-a-lets, we got in line somewhere in the middle of 2600 people and wondered how this was going to work. It turns out that it worked out just fine thanks to these handy-dandy little shoe sensors. I'm pretty sure that they are RFID tags. Anyway, they are linked to your individual race-bib number and record each runner's start time when they cross the start line. So, even though we didn't cross the start line until 5 minutes after the green light, we were able to get our official time.
Wickedly enough, the first thing on the route was a steep hill over an over-pass. This was made even worse by the fact that everyone was still really bunched up at this point. But, once you got over it (literally or figuratively) it was smooth sailing. I actually really enjoyed running through downtown.
Jamie and I did not stay together for this one, but I am super proud of her for RUNNING the entire thing! Although she sells herself short, you would never guess from watching her run that she has only been doing it for a month or so!
My advice to people running big 5K's like this one would be to start near the back because it is much more encouraging to pass all the slower people than to start at the front and be passed by all the faster people!
After the race was over, they had the assembly area set up with all sorts of awesome stuff. Not the least of which was a 20 foot inflatable colon complete with polyps!
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| Anthony and I fighting colon cancer. |
we hit the road and headed on over to Dunkin' Donuts where Jamie and I were introduced to blueberry flavored coffee (??)!! Don't knock it 'till you've tried it.
All in all, I'd say it was a pretty awesome day complete with people running with fake butts on the outside of their shorts, copious amounts of bowel & backside jokes, and tons of good laughs! And no one made fun of me for being the dork who ran in the official race t-shirt. I guess its kind of like wearing a band's t-shirt to that band's concert. Faux Pas galore.
On a more serious note, this cause was very close to our hearts because my father, Rev. John C. Policastro, is a colon cancer survivor. He has been cancer free for 4 years now and we are SO proud of him. We ran this race in his honor.
On April 2nd, I am running the Amphibious Warrior Mud Run put on by Auburn University's Naval ROTC. The proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Project which is a FANTASTIC organization that was a huge blessing to me when I had my hernia repair during OIF 07-09. If you are any where near Auburn, COME OUT AND RUN!
3 comments:
You guys are awesome :) But I do want to know why I didn't hear about the guy in the backwards shorts?? Haha!
5ks are fun, but are more fun if you are doing them for a great cause.
Thanks for sharing.
Just catching up on a little blog reading...love this! :) Though, perhaps there should be a more specific shout out to the saintly person that introduced you to blueberry coffee...
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