Pumpkin Pacer 2010

Sheila and I braved the cold weather this morning to do the Pumpkin Pacer 5K. It was a costume race in Deer Park. Deer Park is a little town north of Spokane. We decided to dress as 1/2 marathoners for lack of a better costume! We wore our shirts from Denver. I am not sure anyone would recognize the shirts as costumes. :-)Lots of people had the Halloween spirit and dressed up! Fun!

We wandered over to the start line!!! They marked all the miles with pumpkins that had the mileage painted on them. Cute! This is the Start pumpkin!
Cold wind = hats!
The crowds are heading to the start line!
Sheila spotted this sign. Funny. On the other side it says SAVE THE PUMPKINS!
Here we go! Look at the beautiful trees. It was an awesome fall day! Perfect!
We saw some scary sights along the way!
We even traveled by the cemetery!
Time to turn!
Mile 2 already! After doing 13 miles 2 weeks ago 2 miles feels like a warm up!
This street was going to be closed at 1PM for Pumpkin Lane. A festival in Deer Park. Love small towns!
Almost done! Just around the corner and we will be finished. Another fun run/walk completed!
The costumes stayed on even after the race!
These are the brightest shirts I have even seen. Love the design but the shirt is really bright. It is a good Halloween shirt!

Kristin and family live in Deer Park. We took a little side trip on the way home. Had to see Layne and Lucy. The first thing Layne wanted to show me is that she could drive the golf cart all alone. She did! She drove all around the house! Wow!

This picture is a bit blurry because she is moving.
Little Lucy has a cold but she was as happy as can be!

Another fun time with my training partner Sheila. We are going to have to get new dressers for all the shirts we have gotten. It is all about the shirt after all!

Ryland is 4!

Thanks for the pics Keri! Ryland is an amazing little boy! Smart as a whip and sweet sweet sweet! Happy 4th birthday to Ryland!

Denver Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon

Happy Faces! Why? Because we were getting coffee and then hopping on a plane to Denver to participate in the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon! We had been planning this for months and it was finally time to get it done! Do you know how hard it is to snap a picture of a sign like this that keeps changing? I finally got it but some of the Denver is missing.
The person at the Southwest counter grabbed us and stuck us under the sign so he could take our picture. Much better than just the sign! Jackie, Deanna, and Sheila ready to go!
Nothing like getting initiated into the family right away. Keri picked us up at the airport and brought us back to her house where Katie was waiting to make us smile. Silly girls having fun!
Ryland wasted no time at all making new friends. He loved having Sheila and Deanna around!
Game face time. Easton has a mean ol' game face!
Ryland does not. He tries but always has a smile underneath the game face.
We got up Saturday morning and went to the local coffee shop for muffins and coffee and juice for the boys.
That is one big cinnamon roll Ryland!
After breakfast we wandered down the street so Ryland and Easton could do the maze!
But first a visit with the gigantic spider that was lurking around on the street.
The hay maze. Ryland successfully negotiated all the twists and turns and Katie decide to hoist him up on the horse.
1 2 3 UP!
Easton was making his way through the hay maze too!
And here is Easton's spontaneous celebration for making it to the end! Do you think he might see a sporting event or two on TV where they celebrate when they complete the task on hand?
One more scary thing! Tis' the season you know!
Back at Keri and Mark's there was a baseball game going on! Easton and Ryland roped the newcomers into a game!
Then Keri, Katie, Deanna, Sheila and I left Ryland, Easton and Mark behind. We headed to downtown Denver to pick up our race packets. I guess it is obvious that this is a big blue bear leaning on the convention center downtown. What I don't know is why is it there? I am sure there is a story to go along with big blue. I am not sure what he is looking at!
Picking up our packets and race numbers was a breeze so...off to shopping at the trade show. Pretty sure Keri and Katie got every free sample available. Deanna, Sheila and I tasted every protein bar there! We did find some yummy brownies. Some of us went back to the brownies for seconds.
Here we are practicing our finish line celebration. Jamie on the far right is a friend of Katie's. She has done every Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon this year and will do all of them available by the end of the year. I think she had 3 left. AMAZING!
A little Rock and Roll fun!
We worked up an appetite doing all that shopping and it is always difficult to decide between all the yummy food.
Some of the lunch bunch!

OK this is a dorky picture of me but that is OK because the topic of the picture is dorky. If you spent some money at the trade show, which I did, and you spent enough...you got a little round sticker to put on your race number. Now this little sticker allowed you to use the VIP rest rooms before the race. NICE. Never saw them so never used them.
Here is where the concert happened after the 1/2 marathon! We walked around the park quickly to check things out. Why quickly? Well, because it was scary quite frankly!
Whew! Now dinnertime! We were hardly hungry but we managed to eat at this fine establishment. We needed our energy for the big day which was slowly creeping up on us. After dinner we headed up to our rooms.

Race day and the lobby of our hotel was buzzing with activity. Lots of racers. 15,000 participated in the 1/2 marathon and marathon combined.

Pre-race picture and I have no idea why I have my sunglasses on because it was dark outside.
See I told you it was dark. Look closely and you can see the capitol building.

Lots of athletes were making their way to the start line. We were trying to find Keri some food first but we never did. She had a protein bar with her thankfully.
We made it! It was pretty cold in the AM but it was a perfect day for a race.
We were in corral 13. Deanna was up closer to the start and so was Jamie. The runners of the group!
Keri and Katie participating in their first 1/2 marathon. I was proud of them. As we got started these two were singing and harmonizing and laughing. They kept it up for miles! It was fun to walk with them!
Here we go! The starting line!
I tried to take pictures along the way and did pretty good for about 8 miles. A lot of the pictures are blurry because I was not going to stop to get the shot! Lots of cheerleaders cheering us on!
And of course the bands along the way!
The course took us on a tour of the city of Denver. It was a beautiful course!

This water stop was my favorite. These guys got dressed up for us.
More cheering! There were tons of signs along the way. Two of my favorites were, "Sea level is for sissys" and "That isn't sweat it is your fat cells crying." Fun!
And look who came to support us! Mark, Easton, and Ryland. Mark said Ryland would only cheer for Keri. You could tell he was excited to see her every time she passed by. We all got high fives from them along the way. At the end of the race Ryland said, "Nice job ladies!"
Keri got a spurt of energy and pulled out in front of Sheila and I and Katie needed to run at about mile 6!

This was one place that we got to go out and back. It was fun seeing all the people especially when you are on the right side heading for the finish! At this point we had about 3 miles to go I think. The finish line was in our sights and we all crossed it and got our medals! The last half mile was lined with people cheering us on and it got louder as you got closer to the finish line. It made you feel like a super star! I always get a little teary when I see that finish line!
So what do half marathoners do after the race! Well, we had some Starbucks and headed back to Keri's for some relaxing in the sun.
Ah but one more thing to do before we hopped on the plane. While Katie, Jamie, Mark and Ryland enjoyed a Denver Bronco's game we enjoyed our lunch at the local Mexican restaurant! Snapped some last minute pictures of Easton and Keri!

Off to the airport for the flight home. I prayed that we would all complete the race and be safe and sound! Another answered prayer and a job well done! Thanks everyone for a great time!