Saturday morning we drove into Richmond for Carol & Heathers first 10K! The out and back course is on beautiful Monument Avenue, famous for it's row houses and monuments of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B Stuart, and Confederate president Jefferson Davis (side note- In a obvious attempt at political correctness, a statue of tennis great Arthur Ashe was erected several years ago. Armed with a tennis racket and a book, not only is he completely out of place, some have observed that he looks like he's going to apply a "beat down" to the children that surround him).
With 32,000 participants and 50,000 spectators, it was an awesome scene to behold. They send the runners off in waves in 5 minute or so intervals. Carol has been diligently preparing for a couple of months and Heather was on Matoaca's cross country team this year, so they both felt confident they could set a good pace on the 10K (6.2 mile) course. While they were running, I took Jillian and her friend Bracey around some of the booths, etc. There were several music groups playing on different parts of the course and tons of people were running "in costume"as well (fittingly, they had their own wave). We saw Raggedy Ann, a team dressed as Pac- Man, Harry Potter, a viking, several men in business suits, a dude in a french maids outfit, a few people in bright green and blue skin suits, a man dressed like Indiana Jones pulling an inflatable rock, and most distubing of all- some fat guy from the cast of "Cats".
The weather was perfect for the event, just a tad chilly and most importantly, no rain! The local weather boobs had it completely wrong and this time the mistake was actually in our favor! About an hour after Carol and Heather's wave launched the girls and I grabbed a snack and found a place at the finish line. Carol and Heather crossed the line together in 1:26:48! Not to shabby at all for the first time! 6.2 miles is a pretty good haul! I'm extremely proud of them!
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