Saturday was the 5th annual Fargo Marathon here in North Dakota, and Carla, Anna and I just had to be a part of it. Not the Marathon itself...but the 5k. Which, for as much as I love running, feels like a marathon! We took off from Carrington on Friday at noon. We had to get the the Fargo Dome to pick up our information packets and check out the Sports and Fitness Expo and Jonny Corino's Pasta Feed. (Now you know the real reason I wanted to go!) We had fun checking out the shops and the energy from all the fabulously fit runners. We listened to some speakers and ate some pasta. My favorite thing I heard one speaker say (his name was Dane Rauschenberg and he ran 52 marathons in 52 weeks, whoa!!!) was to wear your metal everywhere, and when people ask you what place you got, say 2nd. Nobody remembers the name of second place, so you can get away with it! Anyway, I bought myself an awesome headband:
and so did Carla: 
then we took off, went to a movie, and then to Anna's cousin-in-laws house to crash for the night. 
Next morning, we woke up at 4:30 (don't ask me why...my friends are freaks!) and headed out for the Dome at 6:00. The race started at 8:00. There were over 14,000 runners. 5000 in the 5k alone. We went in the crowded Fargo Dome for a warm up and some goofy pictures.
And a few more goofy pictures.
And then it was time to line up. Now, keep in mind there are 5000 people in the same race we are in. CROWDED! It took several minutes from the time they said go, to actually cross the start line. (We had chips on on shoes that don't start your time until you cross the start.) And then we were off. Now, I'm not a fast runner, but were were a tone of walkers and I was weaving in and out of people for about 2 miles. It was a pain in the butt! Next year I hope they keep walkers on one side and runners on the other because I'm pretty sure I would have finished a couple minutes faster had I not had to weave so much. Anyway, I finished. My time was 30:09. I was the 937th person to cross the finish line. Not bad out of 5000. Next year I'm doing the half. Eeerrrr, at least the 4 person relay. And here are a few pictures of us with our second place medals!
4 comments:
Way to go! It looks like you had a fun day other than waking up so early. I need to get off my butt and stat running again.
"Slow and steady wins the race" is really workin for me. Its should be my motto. Maybe my lisence plate should say SASWTR...If you sound that out it would sound like sas water....Oh ya, I like it!
I TOTALLY agree about the walkers. We did a race last week and had the exact same problem. I guess it is our fault for not getting to the race earlier. Good job. You can do the half. Just cut down on the coffee cake. Just teasing. It looks so yummy I am thinking I need to make some right now.
I've done a couple of 5k's and never experienced that "walker" problem. I applaud anyone for getting out there and moving their butts, walking or running, but c'mon...get out of my way!
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