"Spring" Runoff Race Report (100th post edition)

The only thing missing this morning's Spring Runoff was the "Spring."  Instead, morning dawned and it was a balmy 9 degrees or so.  As I sat drinking my coffee, I checked the weather.  This is what the hourly forecast looked like:

That's kind of cold.  As the family began to wake up, it was anybody's guess as to how many of us would make the starting line.  I was resolved (I hate to register and not run a race) but I wasn't sure if anyone else in the family was too excited to go out and brave the weather.  When all was said and done, 50% of us decided to race.  Here we are pre-race in a "classic" Amazing Race pose:

Then we were out the door.  It was a bit cold, so we waited as long as we could in the car . . .

Once we got outside and to the starting area, we found plenty of people waiting for the race to start.  While we were waiting, Maya snapped this picture (please note the giant fingers ready to crush my head):

 Eventually we saw Uncle Kenny who was there to run the 10 mile race.  After a few minutes of waiting the race started and we were off.  The first part of the 10k and 10 mile course are run together.

Waiting w/ Uncle Kenny

You've never seen so many people so excited to start running 6-10 miles!

Here we go!

The first mile or so was chilly.  Maya and I agreed that it was quite difficult to feel our toes, and every time I took my mittens off to take a picture, my hands got really cold.  The camera even stopped working at one point and I had to pop the battery in and out to get it working again.  Still we made it to the first mile . . .

And then before long, we were at the second mile where Maya celebrated!

The winter wonderland along the course was really quite picturesque . . .

Before long we reached the turnaround point, and headed back toward the finish line.  It was across the bridge . . .

and up the last big hill . . .

and then around the track to the finish line . . .

We finished the race in about 1 hour and 16 minutes which is a PR for Maya.  Congratulations!  Here's hoping that the weather will be a bit nicer next year too!

That was fun, but let's go get some Coffee!