Winterfest 2008

Joe and I never run together. It is usually not a very good experience for both of us. This year Joe is still battling a sinus problem and on a high dose of antibiotics and prednisone so he decided to run the Albany Winter Festival 5K with me. I was not planning on running very fast - I love to enjoy the lights in the park, forget about running fast through them, enjoy them. So we started in my normal starting position, which Joe has never started in before, in the back of the pack where I belong. As soon as the air horn sounded, the crowd lurched forward and then stopped. This is fairly consistent with a race of this size. Joe didn't know what happened. Then we were moving up the hill and into the park. Joe had never had this experience before. The lack of race etiquette that happens back here is sometimes funny, sometimes annoying, and sometimes dangerous. The kids that weave between people and get under your feet is not a good thing. Just because I am slow doesn't mean I am unexperienced and I welcome new people to enjoy the sport but they need to learn race etique before they race or else it is not fun for the rest of us. Joe was taking it all in though and running with me! We actually watched all of the animals that were portrayed in the lights and enjoyed the tour around the world with Australia, France, Piza, and Japan represented. Joe even let me beat him. I told him it didn't matter if he beat me or not but he let me win. Of course, he got to deal with the chaos at the finish line with people not stopping in the shoot and running into others or not understanding that there was order in the line, not just people hanging out. Overall, a fun day with my husband. We deserve a relaxing race every once in a while since the rest of the year won't be so relaxing!!