Cirque du Soleil 5k

Yay!  Another official 5k race is on the books!

This race was called "Run Away with Cirque du Soleil" and it was at the Springs Preserve which is kind of an outdoor garden, nature, conservation center here in town.  The race was to raise money and awareness for One Drop which is an organization dedicated to ensuring that everyone has clean and safe water.  The chairman for the charity is the founder of Cirque du Soleil.  They said today that a child in the world dies every 20 seconds due to not having access to clean water. 

So I got up at 6:30 and I was about to put on my cute new running skirt and t shirt and lo and behold I let the dogs out and it was 52 and cloudy and overcast and windy (NO SUN) outside - in other words, it was COLD.  So I got out my compression pants and I had to search for a long sleeved running shirt.  Luckily I found my Full Moon Extraterrestrial Midnight marathon shirt from when I did that race last year and I was set to go.  I tried to wake Scott up but that wasn't happening, so off I went alone!  This isn't a problem for me except that when I'm alone I don't have a photographer.  I didn't want to run with my camera so I left it in the car but for the future, I am going to just have to learn to do so, especially if I want to be a blogger.  Not that anyone reads this anyway.

Here I am in the mirror before I left the house:

I think my hips are looking a little slimmer, but that could just be wishful thinking on my part!


So off I went.  When I got there I left everything in my car except for my car key and my iPod.  It was pretty darn cold.  Actually it wasn't sooo horrible except for my fingers and I really wished that I had brought gloves.  But alas, Starbucks was there so I had a small cup of Pike's.  I told the Starbucks girl "bless your little hearts for bringing coffee".  lol.  There were about 20 Cirque characters gadding about for photos while we were waiting and they were on stage talking about the charity.

There was a lot of waiting and they did this thing where thy had the parachute sheet from the bed scene in Love and they had painted it with the One Drop logo and they took it and stretched it over the whole crowd, so we sat under it, which was nice because it was warmer under there due to the wind being blocked.

We had a warm up and Mayor Oscar Goodman came out and spoke for a few minutes.  This was the 10th annual race, and the first time they affiliated with a charity and didn't have to use the Springs Preserve as the charity.  And off we went to the starting line.

Cirque characters at the starting line, I'm way back there somewhere

Mayor Goodman shot the starter pistol and off we went.  The run itself was pretty easy and I warmed up quickly once I started moving.  I was moving along pretty fast until after the turn around and I had to run INTO the wind.  Ack.

I still made decent time overall and my time was a mere 30 seconds longer than my six tunnels run.  Which I think was amazing considering that I was running into the wind for half the race.  And I got sad because before I knew it, it was over...

So, here's my overalls....

I finished 38 out of 73 in my age group (women 35-39)

I finished 484 out of 827 overall.

Chip time: 32:56

Pace: 10:35

Honestly, I just wanted to finish in less than 35 minutes, so I did good.  Someday I will get my 5k pace under a 10 minute mile.  Someday.

When I finished I got my picture taken with some Cirque characters:

Look at those pearly whites - got the teeth whitened yesterday and they are looking good!

That was my favorite part of the whole experience :)

They had all sorts of events after the race, they had a Cirque band play, they had circus stuff for kids, like a tightrope walk and balancing on balls.  They had these high schoolers with big like 10 foot kite butterflys, they had Whole Foods there with fruit and a big piano with bubble mix in it and all the kids were blowing big bubbles.  It was just a fun event overall and I was sad that no one else went with me - not because I was alone but because it was just such a good time and I thought that other people would have appreciated it and had a good time.

I stayed for the raffles and awards (I didn't win anything) and then I was off to my car where I blasted the heat and went HOME.  Overall, a great time, I am glad I went.  I have my sights set on a 8k next which is about a 5 mile race.  Wish me luck!