Labor Day 26.2 Fun Run

The running cult I belong to has three free marathons each year, New Year's Day, Memorial Day, and Labor day. Today I showed up for the ultra runners' version of a fun run. The race started at 7 AM and the sun hadn't quite come up yet, but there were some folks that had started an hour or two or even three hours earlier because they had things to do later in the day. This race was run on the honor system, you had to do five marked loops and then write down your time on the clipboard when you finished. Since most of us were ultra runners, there was an ultra type aid station with water, Gatorade, cookies, granola bars, potato chips, etc for us at the end of each lap. It was kind of fun showing up as a 100 mile finisher because I now felt like I had all kinds of street cred! The loops were uneventful until the third loop when I took a detour to K-Mart to use their restroom. I did my business, then was on my way. About 1.5 miles later I realized that my fuel belt (with my phone inside) was still hanging on a hook in one of the stalls. I turned around and fortunately it was still right where I had left it. Now I had the problem of my laps being messed up, so I just made the decision that on my last lap I would turn around when my Garmin said that running back would give me a 26.2 mile run. After I finished I wrote my time of 5:15:35 on the clipboard, got my medal out of the tupperware box, and sat around with some of the other finishers to swap stories and wait for the remaining runners to finish. All in all, a pleasant way to spend a holiday morning.

Aid station before the start

Relaxing after finishing

Finisher's Medal