Cheryl's Race to Home..2016.

1st place age group!

The Trophy Table!

Cheryl ran the Race to Home today...and did pretty well.   She placed 2nd overall female.   Meaning there was only one woman that was faster than her...total.   Not too bad I guess.  The bad news is that even though she placed first in her age group....she did not get a medal.  And I was soooo looking forward to that.

The 2nd Overall Female Prize!

But...She did get a bat....which is kind of cool....and USEFUL!   Even though we do not play baseball,  we can use it for home security.   And keeping those rascally dogs at bay.  Cheryl urged me to think up a bunch of Baseball puns to add a little zest to the post.   I'll see what I can do....

Early Morning packet pickup.

But before we skip ahead too far....let's change gears and switch things up  back to the beginning.

Cheryl checks out the Goodie Bag.

Time to dress light for the race

We were forced to get up way too early this morning.  We had a short window to pick up out packet in Davenport.   As with the previous race....doing a race for a second time is so much easier.    We missed the window, but still had an hour before the race began...and picked it up then.    Easy!   Cheryl inspected her goodies and had a much easier time securing her bib and chip.
  (Even though the safety pins were missing...)

Cheryl feels like she is being watched...

By someone...or some- THING!

Cheryl had to make a decision on how to dress and eventually went with the lighter clothes....since it was warming up rapidly.    I snapped a few pictures of he start.  To Cheryl's delight,  there were plenty of dogs there.

Herding the slow group along...

Race officials applying motivation

 I know that they are there mostly to provide motivation for the slow group.   But if they end up helping Cheryl run faster..then I guess that is a good thing.

Cheryl at the start!

Cheryl in the Fray...

Start photos are always a hit or miss thing.  Sometimes I capture Cheryl in focus and alone.....other times I strike out totally.   Today I mostly caught her shoes and a few glimpses of her back.  I quickly ran to the finish line to see if I could do better.

Cheryl runs by

As she ran to home,  I barely noticed that only one other female had come in before her.   When we looked up the results, we found out that she had, in fact, placed 2nd  as the over-all female finisher.

Cheryl running up to the gate.

It was a bit confusing at first because they did not have a medal for her...but then they remembered they handed out bats for the top three overall finishers for male and female.   Cheryl really wanted one of those bats...

Running home.

Just don't slide....

At the finish!

Time for Beer!

So after the award ceremony,  we headed back to home.   It was a late night and early morning...and I'm hitting the part of the day where a nap or anything else that does not require my brain sounds the most appealing.   So ....as a result....I'm afraid this blog post will suffer a bit.   But who really cares what I have to say anyway?   It's all about the pictures after all.

Second only to Super Girl!

Cheryl show off her bat

I guess I should point out that Cheryl put in her second fastest official 5K time.   (22:32)  Second only to that infamous "Turkey Trott".   At least she did not hurt herself on this one.

Time to play Jedi Master

And pose with the T-Shirt

I think they spelled the "K" backwards.

   In reading past blog postings;  last year,  the day after this race,  we ran a long 20 mile run that ended in a melt down 18 miler.   Similar to what happened last Sunday.   So...I'm hoping that we already got that meltdown run out of the way and can look forward to a nice pleasant long run tomorrow without the drama or blood loss.   We shall see.