I Missed The Bus (and that is something I will never ever ever do again)

Since you're going to be singing it to yourself after the title anyway, here it is...

(Rest in Peace Chris Kelly)

Anyway, that's exactly what happened...

Jason and I drove down to the Art & Orchard Festival Fun Run in Washington Twp.  Even though we were there several minutes before the race start (we were delayed by traffic blockades), we missed the shuttle that takes you to the race beginning as we were registering.

At that moment you have 2 choices: seek a refund and forget about it OR get half-assed directions from some squirrely guy to where the race starts, try to find the start, try to run it and stay on the course, and hope you don't have to walk or run it again to get back to the vehicle.

We chose door #2.

We got to the race start 15-20 minutes late.  There was nobody there.  There was no starting mats, no starting line, nothing.  We weren't even 100% sure we were in the right place, or running the right way, until hitting the "Mile 1" marker.

Is this it?  Who cares?  Let's run.

We kept running, and eventually saw volunteers picking up a former water station around 2 1/2 miles (no water for us).  We didn't see any official racers until we passed the 10K start, and many were walkers.  That's okay, though, because the scenery was nice.  There were a lot of farms, streams, and even an overpass and pavilion styled to be like barns.  Also, since we weren't sure we'd ever get a finish time, we were treating it like a fun run, sticking together, and trying to enjoy the day.

Stream Shot

Ok, it's starting to get fun

REAL FUN!

That overpass is barn-like!!!

As we caught the actual racers, therre was a candidate for State Rep. named Peter Lucido who was bribing runners for votes by giving us water at stations.  I can't vote for him, so it did him no good in my case, but if I could...I'd still be undecided because I need to know where he stands on the issues.  Also, bottle with his face got littered all over that nice trail.  So, if those didn't get picked up, the environmentalist in me may say "Nay!"

Political Water Bribery...

Anarchy Ahead?

It's hot out here

Barn Pavilion

Motivation
(I wish I had a marker to add a "D" to this sign)

All Finished

After finishing the race, we still needed to figure out how to get back (preferably not on foot).  We talked to someone with the race about our situation, and they had the DJ announce that we would like passage back to our vehicle.  Just then, the Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive" was played, and we starting singing it with modified lyrics as "Give Us A Ride" instead.

Apparently that worked.  Some younger girl offered us a ride with her.  However, her mom noticed this and, since we're so incredibly scary with our pink sunglasses and breathable fabric, she offered to take us instead, putting herself in harm's way.

On the drive back, we stopped at Arts & Jakes for a beer and food, where I may have had the best personal pizza I've ever had.  When we pulled in, we almost went somewhere else.  I don't put any stock in mini-mall bars.  They usually have no charm, no specialty foods that are their own thing, and just no real variety.  This place had a little of all that.  Did I mention the food was amazing?

Anyway, we both had a hard cider called Flannel Mouth from a Blake's Cidery there, and we got to wondering where that was.  So we found out it was just on our way home, only about a mile or two out of the way.  SOLD!

I bought three 750mL bottles of different variety

Sadly, so far, none of them have topped the Flannel Mouth.

More recaps still coming.  It seems like I run more than I can write right now.  One of the few drawbacks of not having a partial desk job anymore.  That and not being able to waste half my day watching the World Cup.


P.S. - I did find the results to this race and, according to Hanson's Ract Management, Jason and I ran the 15K in a time of 10:19:55 with a 66:39 per mile pace.  Since this was my first ever 15K, if I ever run another, the PR bar is going to be set pretty low.  I did not realize we were that slow...heh heh.