Bloomsday

Hey. Happy May! Can't believe it is actually May! Well, yesterday we joined +/- 50,000 other people in walking the Bloomsday 12k. The little boys have been participating in twice weekly "Fit for Bloomsday" afterschool running sessions. Our great friends from Oregon drove over to join us. We had a great time. The weather was fantastic, and we were all officially pooped out!

 The wheelchair racers were first

Aaron Gordian - Mexico - 28:03

 Followed by the Elite Women

Misiker Mekonnin - Ethiopia - 40:25

The Elite Men

Simon Ndirangu - Kenya - 33:58

That's him 5th runner from the right side of the picture! And strangely enough, as they whizzed by us, I decided that I was going to pick #107 to win. And he did. Maybe Mr. Simon Ndirangu ought to share some of his $7,000 dollar winnings with ME!!! :)

 The beginning of the rest.....

 And here was our group. The Lilac group. From where the previous pictures were taken, we had to walk 7.5 city blocks to almost the very back of the line-up. The announcer said as we FINALLY neared the starting line, "Okay, the Lilac group is not the fastest group, but they seem to be, by far, the happiest group!!" To which the many thousands of people in the Lilac group gave a fantastic cheer!!!!

Our lovely friends - Danna, Homero, Gio & Yaira Garcia.

Our littlest racers

Excellent pic of Austin & Lance

 I don't think you can even see the starting line in this pic. The clothes in the trees are a bloomsday tradition? I am under the assumption that they will all be donated to the homeless shelters in our city.

 Yay!! I think it took us 25+ minutes to get to the actual start line! When we arrived here, the little boys asked, "Did we make it? Are we all done?" Much to their disappointment.....we had only begun....

 Doomsday Hill

 crossing the finish line. Just over 3 hours....and that included a stop for a hot dog! :)

HOORAY!!!