Bloomsday 2013

We (our family and Grandma Suanne) headed over to Spokane this weekend to visit with Bryon's family and to run/walk in Bloomsday.  When we got there on Friday night we found out that poor little Ayla had been sick with the stomach flu...uh-oh...we know what that's like since we had it last weekend.  It seemed she was on the mend...which was good because her 3rd birthday party was Saturday morning.  When we woke up in the morning, we found out that the whole family started vomiting overnight...all four of them.  Bryon and Sara had to cancel the party.  They didn't get to run in Bloomsday and pretty much spent the weekend resting and recovering from the stomach flu.  We felt bad but decided to still run Bloomsday.  

So, Brad and I took off early in the morning to run the race.  Then, Grandma Suanne tackled managing the double stroller, one 4-year-old, one 11-month-old, and a bus shuttle to the starting line...she was awesome.  She let Brad and I run while she pushed the kids in the stroller.  Brad and I ran the course and then started running the course a second time till we caught up with Suanne and the kids.  We found them around mile 2.5 and then walked the rest with  them. Our kids did great!!  They were super easy and pleasant for the entire course.  Anderson even got out for the last 1/2 mile and ran through the finish line.  He immediately asked where his medal was...ha!

The race was good...very well run for the number of people.  No complaints except for how crowded the course was!  I PR'd...however, I haven't run Bloomsday since 2004 so it wasn't a big surprise.  It's a 12K race with more than 50,000 runners.  My official time was 1:07:08 putting me at a 8:59 minute per mile pace.  Not great...but with so many participants the course was super, super crowded.  My Garmin had me running almost a quarter mile more than the official race distance because of all of the bobbing and weaving I had to do.  For the first two miles you really couldn't run with a full stride.  However, it was fun and great to be part of such a big race!  Next year we'll do it again with Suanne, Bryon, Sara, and all the kids and hopefully no stomach bug!

Brad and I at the start...Brad ran it in 58 minutes.

Brad taking a turn pushing the stroller.

We did it!!  Thanks Grandma Suanne...she also took about 5 minutes off of her time from last year.  And that was even after she had to wait for Brad and I to catch up!  Speedy walker!!