And 1st place goes to....

Kibbie and I ran in a "Holiday Festival of Lights 5k" tonight. I had major concerns about running in frigid weather, but it was perfect...if cold can be perfect. There was minimal wind and the temperature was mild. Just to be safe I dressed in layers!

Kibbie, me, & Raegen....Kibbie said he was clearly offended....he puts in just as much practice and never gets to run the races!!

After Santa hollered "Ho, Ho, Ho!" and blew the airhorn we were off....and Raegen was too!

It seems it didn't take him long to find a new interest.

She is smokin' him! And the sad thing is he looks like he's giving it all he's got.

The course consisted of four laps through a holiday light display. With each lap I discarded a layer....gloves first, then scarf, then my jacket.....

Kibbie at the home stretch...Billy was the "photographer" and didn't get a shot of her zooming past the clock. I think she finished around 25min.

With Coach Kibbie nowhere in sight I had to dig deep to motivate myself to keep running. On my last lap my saving grace was a 9 year old boy. I could hear him long before I caught up to him. He was making so much noise I thought he had bricks for shoes. :)

He asked, "Mam, mam...what do we do when we have three popsicles sticks?"

"You'll have one more lap and then you're done."

"YES! I'm about to die. I can't do this any longer."

It was at this point I realized this child had just as many popsicles sticks as I and there was a chance he would beat me! Oh the horror! He told me he was nine and then a smaller girl running with us said she was five!! Did I make a wrong turn somewhere? Am I in the "Fun Run" instead of the 5k?? No, these children surrounding me were there for the real deal.

I did my best to encourage them while secretly praying I would beat them to the finish line.

Once I broke away from the 9yr old I kept a steady pace gauging the clomping of his shoes. In this picture he's four or so behind me in the blue shirt.

During the last lap we were instructed to keep to the left and run until we reached the lighted arches. The man in front of me stopped running so at this point I'm yelling, "Go! Go! Go!" I was partly trying to help him with his time and selfishly trying to better my time! I squeaked in at 29:35. The nine year old found me later to ask my score...he came in at 29:41. Sweet kid.

Yay!! We are DONE!

Kibbie placed first in her age bracket! YAY Kibbie!!

Her prize was a small Christmas tree...very practical! She and Jeff have opted not to decorate their home this year because they will be out of town for most of the month visiting family. This tree will be perfect to bring some holiday cheer to their home.

I really, really, really thought that when I finished the race and placed my card in my age bracket basket, that there was only one other card in there. So I really, really, really thought I probably came in second for my division...so we all stuck around to hear the rest of the results and I really, really, really did not place. :)

So we took Raegen to see the model trains....need I say more??

Family and friends...if you come to town between now and Dec. 27th I will take you to see the model train display...it is awesome! There are all kinds of stations set up where logs are loaded on trains, dropped off at the sawmill...then ran through the sawmill and come out as slabs of wood, blocks of ice are pushed onto boxcars...

there's even a "train washing" station...

Overall, another successful run...I finished! :)