My Olympic dreams are dead, but my hitch-hiking career is strong

On the 11th, I decided to get out and run the TosaFest 5k (shhh, I didn't register!) and the results officially we the all time low of my running career. I was passed by the following:

1) Not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 runners pushing strollers (which has to be at least an extra 20 lbs!)
2) A blind runner - not that being blind means you can't run fast, but it's pretty impressive since you have to completely trust the person leading you.
3) A woman so old that I'm pretty sure if you touched her, she'd turn to dust. Think less like a raisin and more like a old plastic bag left out in the rain.
4) A power walker.
5) A midget.

I finished in 35:56 (Don't knock the 12min mile!) and I can at least say I ran the whole thing (which, given the waistlines of the majority of Wisconsinites, is more than most can say!)

Unfortunately, this 5k was not in a loop. The end of the race dropped you off in a food/craft festival which was nice, but I then couldn't find my way back to my car. Thinking I could just walk the race backwards, I ended up terribly lost. Lucky for me, the first people I asked for help opened their car door for me and took me for a ride! While not nearly as epic as my 5am hitch hike with a trucker when my cars transmission went out on a roadtrip, it was a successful endeavor!

In other news...Earlier in the week, my friend Jim invited me to a Brewers game and had tickets for the front row! It was a great time - I could smell the dirt! And (amazingly) they won and fireworks were set off!

The 'oh so serious' photo

I had to capture the sausage races! The one I was rooting for lost :(

Also, the group of girls- we all went out to a comedy pub. It was a Thursday night so the venue was pretty dead meaning we got picked on being in the front row. The comic was a bit raunchy, but we had a blast!
The end of the weekend brought on a zoo trip! Woot woot! While thoroughly enjoyable, I think I was most excited about the 'Mold-a-rama's' First of all I was thrilled when recalling this childhood memory of the silly little plastic animals at zoos that Jim actually knew what I was talking about and then secondly the Milwaukee zoo actually still had them!!! We got a lion. If you still have no idea what I'm talking about, you need to come to the zoo here (so worth it!) Haha.

Elephants!

Here is the mold! Freddy Mercury the Lion

I make good friends who humor me and ride the Sky Safari with me (aka- glorified ski lift)

That's it for now! I hope wherever you all are you are having as much fun as me!

Mud Run Update!

As promised - here's the Mud Run update!

I had a whopping finishing time of 56:04.7!!! Pretty outrageous for a 5K, but I think most people were around the 40min to an hour mark. I'm pleased I was actually under an hour and I wasn't last! I really hauled butt the last stretch to not be beat out by the 60 year old guy (Which I think I accomplished only due to the fact that he had previous lost his shoes in the mud and was a little slow going over the gravel...but still!) Actually, looking at the age brackets at the times they finished, most of the people in the 60-64 range beat me! hahaha!

Here are some pictures !

Entering the pits of muddy water! I wish they would have had pictures of the one we had to army crawl through! I was singing "I feel Pretty" at this point in time.

Damn hills...

Meg had been unfortunate to lose her shoes, but amazingly - she retained them through the mud pits! She finished 10 minutes faster than me - that's what I get for running with someone who trains for marathons!

You can tell this is Nick's first time around as his shirt is still white. We all look like we're walking because I'm pretty sure there's no humanly possible way to run through mud like this!