The 5 Miler

 Here I am looking all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed before the Moonlight Five 5 mile walk/run that I completed last Saturday night.  I did the event with a couple of friends.  I couldn't have asked for two better women to walk this event with me! We got to the event and we got a free glow stick since it was a nighttime event.  We brought extra glow sticks, so we were able to adorn ourselves all fancy-like.  

                                                  Me right before we started...

Off went the horn and there we went.  I have to tell you that after my last post, I had pretty much been dreading this event.  I was so annoyed with myself that I had registered, and was really not into it at all.  The fact that I had paid $30 to do it, and had convinced two of my friends to register is what got me there.  

We started in the back of the pack so as to avoid getting run over by any hardcore runners.  I was fine with that as that is my usual spot in the event anyways.  

 There were two things about this event that I really loved: the course and the fact that the entire course was lit by a path of luminaria (white paper bags with flameless tea lights in them).  Being dark, it was really awesome to be walking through that.  It was almost magical.  The path itself was so new to me, since it was somewhere I never really go.  We walked on the sidewalk, we walked on the road, we walked through parking lots (including the parking lot at the emergency room and that was pretty awkward when people are driving through the parking lot).

The luminaria lit path....

I tried to get pictures of the mile markers, as I normally do...the mile 1 marker was totally dark...sorry about that.  The 2, 3, and 4 mile markers came out great though...

 Of course this story has to have something annoying, sketchy, and obnoxious, right? 

 OF COURSE!!!

So no sooner are we out of the parking lot when the event starts, do I hear a motorcycle cop pull up behind us...oh shit.  Are you serious?! Is this guy going to follow us the entire freaking event...?  No, just drive back and forth for a while.  We all had a good laugh out of that though for sure...see this post for more on how that feels.

Anyway, so we keep on walking. Around mile 1.75 or something like that, we are walking down a poorly lit bike path, and notice a middle aged man sitting 

on a bench and he asks, "are you trying to be in last place?" 

Um, no ASSHOLE, we aren't, but fuck-you-very-much for making us feel like shit!!!

Not too long after that, we're getting close to I'd say the 2.5 mile marker, and the two younger ladies in front of us decide they'd had enough, and cut off the course.  I couldn't believe it!!!  Why would you pay a ton of money, then buy about $30 worth of glow sticks and light-up shit, to not finish the event?  Honey's, I'm WAY fatter than you, breathing heavy, want to sit down and cry, but there is NO WAY I was going to give up!  All they did was cheat themselves.  No outright cheaters this time, unless those two chicks got around to the finish line somehow.  I don't think they did.  I think they went home.  

We continued on.  

Man, was 5 miles a long walk! I haven't walked 5 miles in a long time! 
That day, according to my FitBit, I walked:
17,559 steps and a total of 8 miles
which is a record for me since beginning this journey.
Here I am just past the finish line.  I was proud of myself.  
Feet were throbbing, feeling like cinder blocks.  Hips and thighs and knees screaming at me.  Sweaty.  Exhausted.  Proud to have finished.

Thank you friends, for walking with me!