September in Florida can either
be the death spawn of Satan, or it can be the beautiful beginning of fall.
Generally, it’s the spawn of Satan.
Today was no different.
The drive to Newberry was quiet
and quick, and I got to Newberry High School a little later than last year,
which meant that I had to park across the street, near the football field. It
still gave me plenty of time to go pick up my packet, walk around the little
“expo”, hit the potty and return to my car, though.
I love that Campus USA Credit
Union gives out these little bags for runners. They have muscle gel (like
BioFreeze), WetOnes wipes, some bandages, moleskin and pain reliever. There’s
other stuff in there, but I never get a good photo of what’s in there!
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| Zip-top bags of runner goodies! |
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| For all your painful, poopy or bleeding needs! |
I joked with the rep that I was
gonna take all of the ones on the table, and she told me to feel free to take
as many as I wanted. So I ended up with 4 (though, I really would’ve taken them
all!).
There was a nice note from the
Hersom family in the bag again this year, thanking us for running. Learn more about Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy here.
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| Nice letter from the Hersom Family |
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| Nice vinyl sticker - mine is on my treadmill corkboard |
We also got a really soft tee
(not tech, but I’m okay with that) which also had the logo on it.
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| It's a nice dark grey heather - and very comfy! |
Mani shot! In honor of the Hulk, my nails were green
with an accent of purple, in honor of his purple pants.
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| Sparkly green, dark purple - C'mon Get Happy Custom SparkleSkirt |
I made my way up towards the
start line, which was already getting busy, and I saw my run buddy, Betty! I
didn’t know she was going to run this. Yay!
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| Hi Betty! |
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| A fair amount of runners |
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| Ready to go! |
After a nice rendition of the
Star Spangled Banner, we took off into the hot Florida September summer. As always, I quickly fell behind everyone
else, and ended up behind this cute Mom/Kiddo duo.
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| Yes, a 2 year old in diapers is beating me |
The Mile Run and the 5k took off
at the same time, and at the turnaround for the Mile, there was adequate
signage!
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| Nobody cares if your arms are tired |
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| It's blurry, like my vision |
Thanks to Dave Chapelle pretending to be Rick James, and some thug who tagged a train car, any time I see a train, I
immediately think about Fuck Yo Couch.
Alas, no couch fucking on this train. Moving on. It’s hard to see the sign, but we’re going
right.
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| Just a boring brown train |
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| <insert tiny voice here> Turn this way |
I saw the cutest little rat of a
dog running with their owner, and the fact that they had a cute little cape practically
forced me to take a photo of it. When he
pranced, the cape fluttered.
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| Is that Wishbone? Ah, I'm old |
The Caped Canine and I made it to
Mile 2!
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| Yep, I'm getting beat by a dog with 2 inch long legs |
As you can see, Mile 2 was
apparently uneventful, because here’s Mile 3!
I’m close to the finish, and I’m so done. Unfortunately, I have to run
past the school, then come back in the bus loop from the other way.
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| It looks really boring over here, but the finish line is to the left, out of shot |
But, here’s the finisher chute,
let’s finish strong! Hell, let’s just finish.
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| Get outta the way, I'm comin' in HOT! |
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| Literally the same medal as last year |
First stop, sno cone!
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| Grape sno cone! |
Next stop, check my pathetic
results. Yep, that’s pretty bad. In fact, I broke a record… for SLOWEST 5k
ever…
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| The chick in the reflection looks a lot happier than I feel |
My official time was 52:37. I came
in 28th in my age group (out of 40).
I was #143 out of 165 total runners, so I at least beat 21 people.
I stuck around to watch the final
runners come in, also seeing the teenagers dressed up like super heroes again.
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| The Incredibly Sweaty Hulk |
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| Thor, the Newberry High School Drumline and Captain America |
There was a costume contest
again.
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| Superfox (?), The Incredibles, someone in a red hoodie, Sparkle Loki, Iron Man Princess, Cap, Superman, Batman |
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| Sam taking a gander at the contestants |
Thor won again!
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| This kid is so awesome |
At the awards ceremony, Betty won
an age group award!
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| Yay Betty! |
Once the awards were given out, I
headed back to the car. I didn’t care too much about the silent auction or
other things. I didn’t even stop
anywhere to change. I just headed home.
Location: Newberry, FL
Host: (Who put on the race) Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy
Association
Race Fee: $25
Packet Pickup: Day of race, very easy
Parking: Available at Newberry Elementary School as well as across
the street
Support: (on-course) 2 Water Stops
After Party: Snow Cones, Silent Auction, Costume Contest
Story in Alachua Today newspaper
http://www.alachuacountytoday.com/news-featured/latest/3704-sam-strong-annual-5k-is-more-than-a-race
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