Buckley 5miler

us (with Jill) after the run......showing off the cowbell to the kids and Chris's parents

Claire -- sleeping in style on the way to Chris's parents house

me -- getting my awesome cowbell prize!

my calves....nowhere near as muddy as they felt

Chris's muddy calves

This was a weird race. and everything leading up to it was weird.

If you know me, you know I am pretty OCD and very into my daily schedule, I need thing A to happen before thing B, and so on and so on.....I think this is one reason why having had 4 kids in 5 years just seems to fit me fine...I keep a pretty tight schedule........

This was another race that I had our new sitter lined up for, and, she bailed on me on Wednesday night -- which was pretty last minute for us, because it is hard enough to find a sitter for 4 kids, let alone someone who will watch them at 6:00 on a Saturday morning.......as luck would have it, Chris's parents volunteered to watch them, as the race was only 5-7 minutes from their house! OK, check -- one thing done.

Next thing -- figuring out just where to go....this was a very well un-organized race....some races are completely unorganized and its pathetic, this was unorganized, but in a friendly way -- if that makes any sense....The website was little help as to where to go, sure we knew where Buckley County Homestead Park was, but WHERE do we go?????

Race day morning -- we wake up at 6am to rain. UGH. I have to come to hate running in the rain -- I'm ok if it's sprinkling, or if it is an all out down pour, but I hate running in just plain old rain (weird, i know) We were supposed to leave the house at 6:15, at the latest, to get the kids to Mom and Dad H's by 6:45, registration by 7am......It was 6:25 before we left the house, then we had to stop for gas....then it started POURING, so we had to drive at about....oh......20 mph!!! It was just after 7 when we dropped the kids off!! We pretty much threw them at C's parents and ran out the door......we found where we were supposed to park, and there was a small building in that parking lot, so we just knew we'd barely get there in time, but we'd make it.......FAIL.

That building was merely the Welcome Center, we had to go down the road and around the corner to the barn to get our packets......so, away we ran. Got our packets and shirts (mind you, this race was $23.50 for BOTH of us to run, and we got tech-tees here!!!!!), and THEN we discover there is no gear check, at all. So, Chris went to use the porta-potty, while I ran the .25 miles back to the van to put stuff away, just to meet him another .1 miles from the barn for the start line!!!! As we near the start line, we realize they aren't kidding about the 7:30am (sharp) start.....We lined up, and pretty much started the race right after. The race did start with a school bell ring, the old 1880's school bell, so cool :-)

Miles 1-3 were an out and back on the street, nothing super cool, or horrific, just a regular ole street run. Chris's heel has been bothering him for several weeks now, so he decided to see the "slow" point of view and run this one with me..... At mile 3, we head into the woods for the "cross-country" portion of the race. This was super muddy!!!!!!! We ran through puddles that easily as deep as my entire foot, and mud as thick as that.....and it was slippery!!!! Somewhere around the 3.5 mile mark, I feel something I've never felt before.....I felt everything just drain out of me. You know that cold feeling you get when you get scared, really scared??? It was like that, but not so cold......(after talking to Chris, he assumes it was my blood sugar dropping)......and at that point, I realize.......I FORGOT BREAKFAST!!! I don't do anything in the morning until I eat my MultiGrain Cheerios.....and, here I am trying to run 5 miles on nothing! After the 4 mile mark, I could see Chris chomping at the bit, trying to go, but feeling bad, so I told him to just go......after several times, he finally realized I was serious and he went ahead. It was somewhere around here that I began to doubt my ability to finish this thing.....and as much as I wanted to walk, I knew that would be the end if I walked at all, so I kept pushing, knowing the end just had to be soon!!!! I was getting passed by quite a few people, but I was really just focusing on getting one foot in front of the other. At about the 4.8, I got dizzy......like, the whole world was spinning dizzy. yikes. Then, just then, I hear this tiny crowd of volunteers cheering us on, and I decided that I had to just focus and finish this thing. I thanked the lady who told me there was 100 yards left, and I tried my best to just stay upright and running.

Chris was (of course) already at the finish line by the time I crossed, and he knew I wasn't quite right......instead of asking me how I was or seeing how it went, he simply said "water's over here", then we headed to the barn for the post-race food.....of which I devoured 2 doughnuts, an orange and some watermelon slices before feeling human again :-)

After a mini-feast, we decide to check the results before leaving to hop in the van. I was freezing (something about an hour of wet running, then standing still makes you cold to the core) and I was ready for the heat in the van!!!! Chris checks his time, and on a whim checks mine......then re-checks mine...it appears I placed 3rd in my age group!!!!! After confirming this (as best we can with 8-10 people crowded around this tiny paper) we call his parents to be sure we can stay the additional 20-30 minutes to get my award.......we had seen earlier that the award table was full of cow-bells!!!!

Chris's parents are thrilled for me, and state that the kids are all doing great, stay and enjoy!!!!

As they slowly get to my age group, I begin to wonder if I really did place -- seems so unlikely, this was NOT a good time, and I felt like crap......He gets to Females, age 30-34, 3rd place....not me. I nearly cried. We had waited all this time, and I had kinda gotten excited about having my very own cowbell. 2nd place, Julie Hasara......????WHAT?????? turns out, the #1 female 30-34, had advanced to top 3 females, so I bumped up a place in my group!!!! And, went home with a cowbell.

Now that I am showered and warm at home, this is a definite for the 2011 bucket list, and, we actually put it on the list while we were walking back to the van. There were no big drama problems, those poor volunteers never once made me feel like they were giving up their warm dry beds to stand out here in the freezing rain to help us, and it was nice to run with Chris.....I just hope I can sucker my lil sis into running it with us next year too :-)

Official results:

Chris

47:19

9:28 mile

5 out of 6 ~~ male 30-34 years old

78 out of 172 total runners

Julie

48:33

9:43 mile

2 out of 6 ~~ female 30-34 years old

86 out of 172 total runners