Champion?

Ridgefield is this cute little town (but growing fast) 20 min north of Vancouver. They have a 4th of July parade, Fun Run 10K, 5K and 1/2mile kiddie dash, Salmon Bake and other various activities all to celebrate Independence day! I have been eyeing their 5k run for a few years now, and decided to do it this year! None of my running friends wanted to join me so I flew solo (really solo, I forgot my i-pod at home!). We wanted to take the kids to the parade that started later that morning, so we all went up for the race and parade. There were a few more hills than I am use to, and steeper at that! But I did it! And my best time yet! 29:05 (I know slow to some of you, but good for me!) Blake and the kids were at the finish line cheering my on! I was just glad to have done it and get some water and fruit! There were to be awards at 9:15. The run started at 8:00, and I finished at 8:29. We decided there was no way I could win anything, so we went to get out parade spot. We hung out there for a while and then the kids needed to move and it was getting time for awards so we decided to head back to the race area. They started announcing the top 3 in each 10 year age group. Guess who came in first place in her age division??? That's right ME!!!! Talk about shock! So I went up front and got my little metal and pair of socks (that they gave to all the winners!)! It was a happy day! There were about 200 runners there, some did 10k and some did 5k. Now I might not be as fast as some of you and there might not have been very much competition, heck it is a small town fun run! But I felt Great about my personal accomplishment! I AM A CHAMPION!!!!!
Blake took a picture of me the last bit, not very good and way too dark for the blog. We thought we had more, but not so much!


The parade was great too. The kids had so much fun! This is a total hometown parade! They THREW candy!!!! (that brings back memories of parades as a kid in Excelsior Minnesota!) The kids got plenty of candy! and saw some fun floats. Or favorite was by a dental practice. They had a guy with a molor costume on that said 'Molar Man'! They had 'tooth fairys' that twirled giant toothbrushes like the color guard does with flags! Then they had a bunch of 'little bitty tooth fairy's'!!!! It was soooo great!
Our other favorite was the Scottish Bagpipers! Gotta love those kilts! Best yet, put your dog in a kilt too! We had to take a picture!!!
Over all, it was a great start to our day! I love that my family will come and do fun things with me. It was a bit of a long morning for the kids, but they did really good. I appreciate so much that they were willing to come along and cheer me on and then stay so we (me especially) could enjoy the parade! I totally enjoyed my day!