Fun Run

Well the one mile fun run on Friday night here in Havana was interesting. I arrived early to warm up and scope out my competition and was surprised to see quite a few people with dogs. Since the run benefited the Gadsden County Humane Society I figured they were just there to let the dogs socialize with each other; until they called for us to line up for the start and they brought the dogs with them. It really wasn't a very big crowd, maybe 35 people and 10 dogs, and I noticed that I was the only one wearing real running clothes. I lined up way on the outside since everybody with a dog had gotten to the front and I didn't want to get tangled up in all the leashes when they blew the start whistle. I had spotted the only 2 people in the crowd who even looked like they could run a mile without passing out and one of them had a dog. When the start whistle blew it was kaos as dogs and kids spread out over the whole street. I stayed behind the top two until the half way point when the one who had a dog took a sudden turn as the dog pulled him off the course and the other runner just lost steam. Once again my superb pre race planning and my awesome physical ability allowed me to win the thing overall with a time of 6:38, and further boost my local reputation as the old man who runs.

I had volunteered to work this run but they insisted (because of my local celebrity status) I run the race instead. As for all the people with dogs, children, and mothers with strollers, they never saw me coming. I almost couldn't breathe at the finish. It was harder running this mile than the 3.1 mile races I normally do. At least in those you can pace yourself, here it was just flat out from the start. In the prize bag was a new pair of Red Star sunglasses, a $500 gift certificate from them (must be a catch), and another gift certificate from a local restaurant; Oscars for $40, not bad for a little local run. We put the Oscars prize to good use right after the race with a couple of frosty Becks and some great Italian food. It turns out they also had a class for runners with dogs so they got some goodies also. Oh, and I got this cool first place medal.

Saturday was a record day at the Pumpkin Festival with more kids than I have ever seen running up and down the streets. We stayed busy at the fire truck the whole time we had it set up.

Sunday I took an old friend of mine from the moto days, who just got into cycling, on a tour of TB. He was impressed and I resisted the urge to pound him on the ride as he had done me when we rode moto. I did put in a little extra there at the end so he'd feel like he had had a workout. There is that temptation to do that to newbies isn't there? I know the first time I went cycling years ago with another moto friend who rode MTB a lot I came home and fell asleep on the porch I was so tired (thanks DD).

I'm trying to get a small group together on Saturday to pre ride the Amsterdam trail to see if it's suitable to hold the poker run on in February. I went over some of it in my pickup this week and I think it'll be a nice ride. Nothing really technical but nice views and it's someplace different. I need to know if it will work before we start having committee meetings next week and I'd like to get it done before Thanksgiving since that would make the hunters happier.