I know when it’s coming.  It starts out as that little ominous tickle, itch, or pain in the roof of my mouth.  I know it will turn into a cold.  It started on Friday morning.  I was a little concerned for my long run, but it was fine.  Saturday morning, my throat was as little sore, but I took some Tylenol for my DOMS from the long run, and had some hot tea in the morning and it was kept at bay.  But this morning, there was no avoiding it.  I’ve got swollen glands and a sore throat!!  ugggh.  I’m not sure how that happened.  It did everything I could to avoid it – ran 3 1/2 hours in the chilly weather Friday, stood outside for almost 2 hours in the chilly weather on Saturday, AND I drank lots of water!  🙂   Guess I needed more water drinking.

It’s a good excuse for me to bond with my computer more (sorry kids, your Mom is a total dud today), get that yearbook finished, read magazines and get my inbox down from 300 unread emails to maybe just 50!  Big goals today.  Alan is gone most of the day at a training run for his 100 miler this summer, running at least 24 miles today.  Yep, he’s running 100 miles at a race.  He’s got much bigger goals than me!!

Let’s focus our energy back on Saturday… and the awesome water stop we were volunteers at!  Our town has a lot of races, and a lot of opportunities to help out.  I try to get the family involved at least once a year, but  honestly, we could do so much more!  On Saturday a race was happening on the same trail I ran Friday.  Since I promised my family we would sleep in on Saturday, I inquired about helping at a water stop around 10am, and close to our house.  No problem, they could always use our help!

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The race had 3 distances going on – 5K, 15K and 25K.  We were stationed right before mile 12, so we got to see the 25K participants.  Unfortunately something went wrong with the directions on the course and the first runners that came through were actually running the 15K and somehow got directed to us.  Bummer!  They weren’t too thrilled.  But hey, we cheered them on, and helped them out as much as we could.  “Nope, this is the 25K course.  Keep going three more miles, then you’re done!!” 🙂

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We all thought it was pretty funny that we’ve all run *many* races, but none of us had great skills at successfully handing off a cup of water to a moving person without spilling it all over!  That made us all appreciate the volunteers we’ve encountered over the years.

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Don’t be concerned about that huge power transformer behind me.  It just part of our lovely landscape around here!  I didn’t even think anything of it until I saw this picture.  Simply picturesque!

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The kids provided some extra cheering power when they weren’t handing out GU packs or picking up cups. Sydney said that cowbells are annoying.  Seriously, what’s a race without cowbells?!

It was fun, although quite chilly.  We were there for almost 2 hours and the temperature was around 45 degrees.  Next time we’ll dress warmer, and bring some tunes to keep the runners motivated!  We did see one surprising person – a lady running barefoot!  The entire course was a paved path, and I can only imagine how cold the pavement was.  brrrrrr!

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At night we played a Family Challenge game which involved many skills – such as being able to knock a disc off our noses only by wiggling our nose!  That was actually way harder than it looks.  Kids won.  Great job kids!

Q: Have you volunteered at a race before?  Do you do it on a regular basis?

A: The other race we help out at is during the summer, but this year I might want to race it instead.

Q: Water or Gatorade while working out?

A: I stick with just plain water.  During a race I’ll take a few sips of Gatorade, but I could do without it.

Q: Barefoot running – painful, or bliss?

4 thoughts on “That familiar feeling”
  1. Hope you’re feeling better soon! If it helps I would definitely have gotten sick from that I’m sure! Haha that game with th disc looks like so much fun 🙂 I can’t believe that lady was running barefoot! I can’t imagine how uncomfortable that would be! I ran barefoot one time on the beach a few years ago, promptly hurt my ankle, and will never do it again. My weak ankles do not need any incentive to get sprained! 🙂
    I have never volunteered at a race but I really want to now 🙂
    Jessica @ kiwiyogirunner recently posted…The one with the one word MondayMy Profile

    1. It was the cowbells that got you, right?? It is a lot of fun to help out. I think the reason we don’t do it more is that it could be a very long commitment, based on the length of the race. 5Ks are perfect for the attention span of my kids 🙂

    1. Too late – it’s a full on attack of the the throat! I’ve resorted to some Ibuprofen 800’s I found from my gum surgery in the medicine closet. boo.
      But if I could slather the oils down my throat to calm it down, I’d be all about it!!

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