Day 394 -- Freedom Fun Run

Today I ran in the Freedom Fun Run in a little town near Grandma Jogger's town. It was fun. We're down here for a week, and I figured (correctly) that I could find something to run on the Fourth of July. I was just going to pop over and run, and leave the kids with Grandma, but it turned out to be a family outing. Everyone else did the 1 mile, and I did the 5K. The oldest and newest Little Jogger, the first Little Jogger, and the medium Little Jogger all ran it. Grandma, her housemate, and the littlest Little Jogger all walked.

It was a good race, although not fast. In fact, this is the first time in my six organized races that I failed to set a Personal Record (PR). Of course, the previous five races were at four different distances, so it wasn't hard to set a PR. This was, in fact, my third 5K, and the slowest of the three. But that's OK. The weather was pretty hot, and I haven't been training for a 5K. I messed up the pace, as usual. I went out too fast, and faded at the end. You might detect that by comparing the above photo, of me just crossing the starting line, to the below photo, of me about three blocks from the finish line.

The Little Joggers enjoyed themselves. They are talking about doing it again next year. We'll see where we are for the Fourth next year, but we will undoubtedly be able to find something nearby.

The rest of the day was jam-cram packed with activity. They had a kids fishing thing, where they threw some fish into a little artificial pond in a local park. That was not really successful. There were too many kids, and not enough gullible fish. The littlest Little Jogger was devastated that he didn't catch anything. But he got over it when we took him to the rest of the fun -- frog racing, sack racing, pony rides, and the dunk tank. Hot dogs, root beer floats, and ice cream. A great parade. It was pretty hot. By the time we'd been out in the sun for five or six hours, we were medium well. But it was worth it.

Tonight, there will be fireworks, of course. We'll all stay up late, and then, I hope, sleep in tomorrow. I'm not committing to running. If I get up, I will, but if I sleep in, so be it.