The Winter Waddle
This entry was posted on 12/30/2008 10:20 PM and is filed under Family Fun.
The day after Christmas was the day of the Winter Waddle, the race my sister and her hubby sponsor. It's always run a day or two after Christmas, at night and it's always a blast. I don't run in it myself, as I gave up public competition...30 years ago. I'm no Brett Favre, retiring one day only to come out and play for another team the next. Nope, when I retired, I hung up my spikes for good. I'm fat Elvis. Best to just remember young Elvis and leave me to my peanut butter bars and prescription drugs.
I do help out with the race, however. This year I went over in the early afternoon and helped sign people up and fill the goody bags that were for the racers when they finished.
In addition to the race, the Franks were all due in town some time in the afternoon. They wanted to get here in time to run. Isn't that what you want to do immediately upon finishing a fifteen hour drive? Run a five K through the snow in the dark?
The weather was very cooperative. Although it had been cold and snowy all week, the temps climbed well above freezing and stayed there all day. The race was around Lake Calhoun, which was plowed and relatively clear of snow. There wasn't any ice, but it was pretty wet. The Franks reached town an hour or two before race time and we all headed back to the lake to get ready.
There were over two hundred runners ready to work off their Christmas over indulgence by the time the gun sounded. Josie, Billy, BJ and I watched the pack race off into the misty dark. About ten seconds later, a suburban screeched to a halt across the median, three figures leaped out and the car sped off. Two of the figures were Joe and Hootie, both late for the race. Bill tossed them their race chips (computerized time cards) and they ran off into the dark, chasing the pack.
Tucker joined us and we headed back to the finish line to await the first runners to emerge from the murk. It took about 18 minutes for the winner to circle the lake and about 22 minutes for the first member of our family. That was Cary, who ran for the fourth place finishers in the Colorado state high school cross country competition. Cary was closely followed by his Dad, Jeff. Jeff's old but he's a tough old competitor. Not too far off Jeff's trail was Hootie who had managed to make up a lot of time on his disastrous start. After that, I lost track of our people. I never saw Andy, Margy, Joe or Katie cross the line.
I did see one of my oldest friends, Martha, cross the line. She was running with another old friend of the family.
The after party was at a restaurant right across from the lake. It was fun. There was lots of people, food and beverages. The rest of Joe's family met us there, as well as lots of non-running friends. We filled four tables and I got to talk to Martha for two hours.
Martha and I grew up together. We were at ST. Thomas the Apostle grade school for eight years and South West High for four. Her oldest son, Thomas is five days older than my Katie. For a brief time we were basketball Moms together at DeLasalle high school.
She lives in Switzerland now. She's on a year long leave of absence from her teaching position and is teaching at a school in Lugano, Switzerland! I may have to go visit her there. I checked out her website and the pictures are fabulous. I gave her the name of this site, but I'll be shocked if she remembers it.
If you make it here, Martha, leave a comment, so I'll know.
She looked great. In fact, I think a guy tried to pick her up while we were talking. He kind of leaned over my shoulder and asked her if she wanted a drink. She smiled, held up her water bottle and said "No thanks, I'm okay." then he looked at me and said "That never works for me." and he slunk off without asking if I wanted anything. Nothing for Fat Elvis! So, either he was trying to pick her up or he was simply a terrible waiter. I saw him sitting at a cozy table with some woman later in the evening. What do you think? Terrible waiter? Yeah, that's what I think, too.
It was a really fun Winter Waddle. By Saturday morning everything that had melted had frozen again to deadly sheets of ice. I love Minnesota in December.
