Family News - August 23 2008

Up at 5:45am. Make coffee. Check Olympic results on TV while waiting for coffee. Ignore cats. Get newspaper. Read front page. Pour coffee. Continue ignoring cats. Wonder when my chauffeur will wake up... oh, sorry... not chauffeur... husband. Drink little more coffee. Read paper while listening to Olympic results. Coffee starting to wake me up. Notice now for first time that the weather isn't full of rain and wind. Tropical Storm Fay might have moved on then. Seems like a good day for a 5K run.

Ahh, now chauf... ahh, husband... is drinking coffee. All is looking good. Cats! "Do you think you're going to get fed at 6am!" Dress, pack some stuff. Tell husband, we're leaving at 6:30am. Feeling little butterflys - thinking this will be fun. Oops, "Hey! We gotta go! It's 20 minutes to 7!"

Take freeways and drive fast to not far from Disney World. Make it to start location by 7:15am. Jump outta car and let husband worry about parking. Nice crowd. Not too big though. Fellow runner remarks there are less runners this year. Organizer Track Shack has everything under control. Get radio timer device [RFID] attached to a shoe. Cool! Can't tell it's there. This is the 12th Annual Xentury City I-Drive U-Run 5K, and the morning is beautiful. Muggy, high 70s (25c) or low 80s (28c), but clear of rain.

Starter counts down... bang! We're off! Where's that chauf... ahh... no.... photographer of mine?!? Will he notice me from the others? I'll find him so he can't miss me... hello! hello! Here I am! See it's me! ... Over here!!! Ahh... there... he found me. All is good. Wonder if my hair looks good. Never mind. First mile of the 5K ahead. Notice that everyone is comfortable running 5K. They don't even question it's advertised in metric distance. I won't be surprised if they later tell their friends they ran 5 miles, or more. 5K, 5mi.... about the same thing.
Here we all go. Looks like everyone is having a good time. Chat for a bit with a fellow runner. Get to first mile... wait! The first marker is at the 1 mile marker! Why is that?! I thought we were doing a 5K!?! Now we're in miles again??? Sigh. Ok. It's hot now. Slow a bit and take it easy. Then pick up the pace. Heat feels worse. Slow a bit. 2 mile marker.. Yes!! Pick up the pace again and hold for a good distance. I wonder how Sweden's Jorgen Persson is doing against China in table tennis...
3 mile marker passed. It's hot! I see the finish line ahead! Whew!! This is going well. Ahh... there's my photographer! He's getting my picture as I come in. Cool! This was fun!
Crossing the finish line! Way to go! Woo hoo!! Not bad! I think I did a personal best!! Man it's hot! Sweden crosses another finish line!!
It feels great to finish! Soaked with sweat...

After some water, walking the run off, sitting for a bit, cooling down, ... and shopping for breakfast in nearby grocery store (oohh... I'm hungry!), I think the effort was good, and the weather, though hot, could have needed just a little, little bit of rain. Just a few drops... no, strike that. We just got 24cm (9.5in) of rain in the last 4 days! This was a great thing to do on a Saturday morning!