The White House

The White House

Monday, June 20, 2011

Saturday Night!!

Saturday night was the Midnight Sun Run.  Homer and I have walked with all the kids, a few of the kids, last year we watched the race with the kids and this year I walked with Emily. (Notice...we are always about the kids :)
Our first stop at UAF was the bathrooms. There were 3500 people registered for this race plus another 1000? not registered (we weren't). They had 8 port-a-potties. Eight! Who plans this stuff?  Off on the other end of the parking lot was a  construction zone with its own. We went to that line. It didn't take long to calculate that each person had roughly 20-25 seconds if we were to make the start of the race. See the gal in the black with sunglasses?
From her back we all used the bushes in the parking lot in true Alaskan fashion.  Em and I made the start of the race.
I don't know any of these people, but I took random shots of costumes before the race and throughout our walk. (Could you imagine walking in those boots?)




I cannot imagine how hot these people were by the end of the race!  It was a very warm evening.
This is the stage where they do the costume contest and Jazzercise, etc., but we didn't go down to the race until right before it started. Poor Homer didn't even get home from work until around 8:00pm and had to eat before we picked up my van, dropped it and he shuttled us to the race start.

This is me and Em looking through the crowd for Tisha and Jadyn. Would you believe we found them? Jadyn walked with us while Tisha took off running with her sister-in-law.


These two shots are looking back from the bridge at what was behind us. There were also lots in front of us!  If you go to this link and cute article there is a video of the start of the race at the bottom. If you pause at exactly 4:28 on the left of the screen you will see a blond in a bright orange tank top and a mom in all grey turning to take a photo. That would be us!! (Jadyn was on the other side of Em and you can't see her).






Homer, Olivia and Lucas sat on the corner to cheer us on. Jadyn and Tisha went running to them.



Around the halfway mark and you can see the cars backed up along University Avenue.

The river is so high!

The girls are cooling off in a sprinkler. All along the race route there are sprinklers, hoses and people with squirt guns. There are also several water stations.
Can you stroll through the neighborhood at 11:15 PM in the sun?  We are so lucky!

Cute, but could you imagine carrying that for six miles?!!


The entire route is lined with spectators and plenty of parties. This year there were two bands along the way!

Can you see Marsha waving to me under the left umbrella?

This is probably the biggest party along the route.... or at least the one with the most beer! :)  This is where the second band plays.


Here's the finish line. We had to go to the side instead of down the chute because we were not official racers with numbers.

Yay!! We did it under two hours! By the time we got home about 1 AM Emily and I were already so sore. Walking six miles with zero training isn't recommended, but it's how we roll here in the Land of the Midnight Sun.

2 comments:

stace41971 said...

wow great job!!! It looks like so much fun...but 6 miles would probably kill me....:P LOL

Janie said...

Cute costumes for the race/walk. Looks like a fun event.