The Race!

PARTICIPATION RECORDS SET AT FIFTH THIRD RIVER BANK RUN
An alternate 25K course due to flooding, early morning thundershowers and a steady drizzle just in time for the 25K's new 8:20a start didn't stop a record number of participants from taking to the streets of downtown Grand Rapids for the 32nd Annual Fifth Third River Bank Run! Thank you to the 17,564 people who participated in the May 9 Fifth Third River Bank Run 25K, 10K, 5K Run and 5K Walk events. Thanks, too, to the more than 2,000 volunteers who handled a variety of race management tasks to ensure a successful 32nd Annual Fifth Third River Bank Run event.

The race was AWESOME! Thanks Andrea for flying all the way from FLORIDA to come run with me! It started POURING rain on us 5 minutes before the race started. The first 2-3 miles we were jumping over puddles and could hardly open our eyes. Our shoes were soaked all the way through. Things cleared up pretty nice. Andrea and I kept a pretty easy pace for the first half of the race. The first 8 miles seemed to breeze by. By about mile 10 I was starting to get tired, took my gel pack, and put in the music to give me a boost. We picked our pace up quite a bit and kept pushing to the end. It is an awesome feeling to starting passing groups of people in the last miles. The last two miles seemed like they were never going to end for me and I was trying desperately to keep up with Andrea. Dixie Chicks were a HUGE help too. It felt so good to feel like I gave it my all as I sprinted hard for the last stretch. We finished in 2 hours and 30 minutes. Whew! How do people do full marathons? The 25K is a little over 15 miles. The thought of doing another 10 miles on top of that scares me to death! I'm definitely not there yet!

I have a big list of reasons why I love to run. I am not going to list them. But, I would say that one of the biggest motivators to run is because I want to stay healthy and set a good example for my kids as well as live a long, full life.

We had a very adventurous drive home! We thought everything was good until we heard a huge bang and could tell something was going on under our car. We pulled over and saw that the muffler and exhaust pipe were dragging on the ground. A bolt had come out. We didn't have any rope in our car so I took off my shirt (don't worry, I had another one on!) and tied it up and around. Then, I did something really cool....I put my keys in the trunk and slammed the door. Oh my gosh, we were stranded on the side of the freeway and could not get into the trunk. This was my first time driving Dave's new car and I could tell that the back seat could open up, but we didn't know the trick. After 10 minutes of calling our husbands on the phone and working up a sweat trying to get the trunk open, Andrea did something amazing! She pulled this little lever on the driver's side of the seat, and low and behold, the trunk popped open! (Duh!) We felt so stupid. (We are both pretty blond.) We then found the nearest service station and were thrilled to find someone who could fix it. It took a little over an hour and we were back on the road........the wrong road! We had no idea that we had been heading north instead of south. This story is getting way too long so I will just end it by saying that Andrea missed her flight out of Detroit and had to spend the night with the Orme's! We were happy to have her for an extra night. Thanks for the adventure Andrea. It was a trip to remember.