The Blackbird 5k

Sat. morning started out in the low to mid 40's, sunshine and beautiful blue skies. It was the perfect morning for a race. This one was held in Brandon, MS at the United Methodist Church. It was a benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. It's also a memorial to a former member of the church who had been a coach. His nickname was Blackbird. Even my hubbie had coached against him years ago.

In addition to the 5k a 10k and a mile fun run was being run. All in all over 250 runners participated.Before any race the setting looks much like this. Racers visiting with other racers. My last post was about reasons I run and me not being really sure why I do. One thing I am sure of is the friendships that are made before. We're not really here to compete against each other. I think our biggest opponent is the clock. The 10k racers took off about a minute before we did and then it was our turn. Luckily, the start was downhill. See the guy in front? What an awesome runner! He ran a 5:30 pace. I can't imagine it.This is the uphill that led to the finish line. Uphill finishes are no fun.But I have to say having your own personal cheerleader cheer for you is really great!In the end I finished 1st female overall again. Sweet. All that hard work does pay off. They had wanted to do a big group picture of all the overall winners but unfortunately most of them had left at the end of the awards ceremony. See the young lady standing in the red next to me. My hubbie use to coach her when she was in the 8th grade. She's real sweet. She came in second right behind me.My final time was 22:23, the same as the Wellsfest run. I was 13th overall. Even tho this run was fairly hilly I still enjoyed it.