Mission Accomplished

Whew! We did it!
So... it rained all night before the race and the rest of the day after the race... we had a 3 hour reprieve - thank goodness. We got there to set up at 7AM and I briefed the finish line volunteers on how it was all supposed to work. As far as I could see (and my scope was limited) the event was a great success! For the most part people actually showed up to run in the wet and cold (about 40 degrees). Roy-son, my brother-in-law and right-hand-man, kept time AND kept the timer dry with his ingenious plastic bag. Plus, my sisters came and ran the 5k - which was great - although I missed running with them. But the coolest part of the day was watching Noble WIN the mile. Everyone was standing around waiting for the first finishers to come in, thinking we might see some teenager or adult - when we see this little kid rounding the bend of the river. I think, "That really looks like Noble." It was indeed. So a second grader dominated the fun run - outran 100 people - and scored a pretty decent time too. I had to run to catch him in the chute because he didn't know he was supposed to stop. Me: "Did you run all the way to the pond?" (I was suspicious that he'd cut the course - because Mike wasn't with him) Noble: "Yes." Me: "Did you know you WON the race?" Noble: "No. There was a girl behind me and I didn't want her to pass me." Classic. (There was no danger of that since the girl in question was like 30-40 seconds back). Me: "Noble, did you hear all those people cheering for you?" Noble: "I thought that they were yelling at EACH OTHER. ?" Awesome. (The other coolest thing was the dream Mike had earlier in the week about HIS race - which ironically Noble lived instead. You'll have to ask Mike about THAT. I'm still laughing about it.)
Sadly, the camera's battery was dead when I tried to take pictures. I'm really bummed about that. So you'll just have to visualize.

Game Time

So - tomorrow's the big day. I met with Arb this past Wednesday and he set me straight on race organization. (Wow. I'm glad I talked to him.) Weather forcast is predicting rain off and on...I'm crossing my fingers (I gotta keep that clock dry). ANYWAY...I hope we've planned for just about every eventuality (rain, cheaters, injuries, last minute registrations, etc.) but we don't have a contingency for me just screwing up. It's turned into a much bigger event than anyone anticipated - we'll raise around $10,000 when it's all said and done. Who knows? Maybe we'll grow so big in coming years that we'll break into the prestigeous circle of Ironman qualifier races! :) Or at least the Wasatch 100 (Casey...). Go NPA Eagles!

Spinning plates.

Lately at church we've been involved in the big Temple Youth Celebration which includes every teenager within the temple districts of the new Draper Temple and Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It's a giant music, dance, cultural performance downtown at the Conference Center the end of May. The weekly rehersals have been a logistical challenge - to say the least (especially with our family's schedule). But it really is a cool opportunity for the kids to have some involvement in the process of building a new temple.

I wasn't busy enough SO... I volunteered to help out with our school's fundraising event - a 5k, thinking that they would have me handing out water bottles, pulling tabs in the chute, whatever. Turns out they were desperate for help - because they put me in charge of the finish line committee - and apparently I'm the only one who's ever been involved with racing before. To begin with I asked if we had a race clock lined up. We didn't...and the expectation was that I would locate one...for free. Someone had to do it. So I've been on that one for about a month. Long story short - I tracked down my old cross country coach from High School - Coach Arbogast, to ask for some direction. He graciously offered to let us borrow a clock. I'll be picking it up tomorrow morning from the school (that will be a blast from the past! -walking the halls of Bingham High again - I hope the kids think I'm cool!) Hopefully he'll be able to make it clear how to use it. I don't want to mess up with 220 runners counting on an accurate time. The race is this Saturday (at the same time as Jessie's first horse show - wouldn't you know.) I'll let you know how that goes.

Quote of the Month

Talking to Jessie about how it's her turn to change and wash the sheets - Tillman walks past and says conversationally, "Yeah, I think I peed the bed again." - as if this happened days ago - and he wants Jessie to get on that. ...and then he just walks away. ???