Watch Out For The Peacock!!!

Of that, I wish I had a picture.  Yes, during the race yesterday there was a peacock strolling along the course.  Granted, the course did run through the zoo, so some animal viewing was to be expected - just not close enough to trip over! 

The Timing Chip

So this was our first race with timing chips - not too bad.  It's just a little plastic disc that you attach to your shoe with a zip-tie.  In retrospect, I would've used 2 zip-ties though, since as I ran the disc would flop around a bit on my foot.  Not as bad as Jonnie's issue though - her shoe broke and was clopping for at least the last mile if not more.

This is Jonnie, pointing to her nasty energy bar.

The race had a lot of down sides, let's recap them shall we?

• It was cold and drizzling
• It was all uphill - you may think I exaggerate, but I'm pretty sure that there were exponentially more uphills then downhills
• There were no bibs!  So that meant no race number to put on the side of my fridge with the other ones
• The course was gravelly and pot-hole ridden in the parts not through the zoo-proper
• The results were not posted on-line, so luckily we checked the list before leaving
• There were no goodie bags
• The T-shirt didn't say the date on it, so it could be used interchangeably between years

On the plus side:

• Panera was a sponsor so we got yummy bagels
• We got to see: seals, lions, elephants, painted dogs, and the aforementioned peacock
• There was a volunteer at the top of the last hill cheering us on, telling us it was the last hill (super nice lady)
• We weren't last
• The medals they gave to the fastest people were around the necks of stuffed gorillas (really cute)
• We went to Starbucks after

Also notable was that it was Jonnie's first race, Alyssa kept cramping up, and I jacked up my leg on the 9 mile run the day before and so was limping about half the race.

All told, I'm glad we did it, but now I never have to do it again.

Alyssa freezing pre-race.

PS... I won the first 3 quarters in the football pool, and now that I am $100 richer, will be able to get new running shoes!