#10 Highball Halloween

After a two week hiatus...I'm back!  I know, I know...you missed me.

#10 on the journey is.....the Highball Halloween 5K.

The Highball Halloween is a 2-day affair held on High Street in Columbus.  The street is closed off for several blocks and boasts a 5K, a fashion show, a costume contest, food and drinks.  What more could you want?

Costumed attendees swarm to the area.  There were Pirates, Zombies, Pirate-zombies, Zombie-pirates and so many "Waldos", that is was important to note where Waldo was NOT, rather than where Waldo was. 

Characters from the movies and TV shows abounded.  Top Gun, Minions, Gilligan's Island, Coneheads, Scooby-Doo, Star Trek, Fraggle Rock, Tele-tubbies, X-men, Black Swan, the Griswold's (from Family Vacation) and my personal favorite, the Muppets featuring Beeker and Dr. Bunson Honeydew. 

Super heroes were everywhere....Batman, Batgirl, Robin, Superman, and a bunch of guys in capes that I didn't recognize.  Other off the wall costumes included boxes of cereal, a mammogram machine, Shark-nado, a disco ball, a loofah, beer bottles, a pair of door-to-door Mormons, and firefighters.  No wait, The firefighters were real.

Some women use this particular holiday to wear their skimpiest outfits and parade as a prostitute.  Men put on a maroon suit, act like an asshole and call themselves "Ron Burgandy".  Hey, whatever works, my friend.

The best group costume can best be described this way....

There were 12 of them.  All dressed in blue dresses and straw hats.  They stood in 2 straight lines.....the youngest one was Madeline.  They were great.  

We arrived late. So late in fact that the registration table had been dismantled and no one could tell us where to start the race.  Finally, one organizer told us the route to take.  He warned us that the police would stop supporting the race and traffic would return to normal in about 5 minutes, but we could go if we wanted to...just stay on the sidewalk.  Then he told us to eliminate the bike path portion of the route because "you shouldn't be there at this time of night...especially alone."
("Stay clear the moors" starts to run through my head.)  So we opted to NOT do the 5K. 

We immediately ran across the finish line and gathered our priceless drink tickets and finisher's medal and preceded into the party. The hot chocolate with bourbon was over-rated, but the apple cider with rum was a winner.  The fashion show was over-the-top.

Because we chose to NOT walk the 5K, I walked a 5K with Pam, two days later.  Hey, it counts.  I got the finisher medal, the t-shirt and remember, you are not the boss of me.

I discovered who he is.....

Well, I just couldn't leave it alone.

I had to figure out who my mystery "Richard" was.  I did a little checking and googling and I discovered this article:

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/print-article-2409-print.html

and here:

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/northeastnotes/2011/06/30/blue-ash-resident-%E2%80%98knows-he-can%E2%80%99/

This guy runs every weekend and sometimes twice a weekend.  5K, 10K, half-marathons, full marathons.  You name it, he is running somewhere in the area.

Last year, he posted a list of every event he was running in and asked anyone going to those events, for a ride.  He is visually impaired.  I had no idea.

Kinda makes my piddly, little goal seem.....oh, I don't know, ...what's the word?

Lame.          

Yes, that's the word.  

#9 Running Scared 5K

Running Scared 5K is a small, neighborhood run to benefit the local Catholic school in Reading, OH.  It had all the aspects of an October run.  
- Costumed runners. 
- A race route through a cemetery. 
- A smorgasbord of food available at the after party. 
- A beer truck.
- A local band. 

I could write about the costumes.  A woman with a giant spider on her back and her friend, covered in cobwebs.  An entire family dressed as bumble bees.  Pets and their owners dressed in matching costumes.  Super heroes with capes.  The woman dressed in a bright purple belly dancer costume, cheering from the sidelines.

Or I could write about the food or the band.  (Lots of it and Good tunes)

But this story is about a fellow walker.  His name is Richard. 

I can't tell you much about Richard.  I don't know how old he is, what his back-story is, or even what he looks like, because Richard was in front of me for the entire race and I didn't get a good look at his face.  He did have a halting gait and I only know that his name was Richard because, in addition to having a halting gait, Richard also had a coach.  A mentor.  A cheerleader.  A fan club of one. Not really sure what to call this guy, but Richard's "Guy" (as I will now refer to him) was all of those things and more.

"Guy" cheered Richard on.... every step of the way.  "Doing good Richard.  Keep the pace.  We have some room to move now, Richard."  Richard kept pace.  Richard plugged away.  "Guy" ran the race backward, so as to face Richard, and cheer him on.  Seriously?  Backwards?  I would have fallen on my ass.  

Richard finished the race and so did "Guy"...... long before my daughter and I did, because we were the very last ones in the race and once you harness that position early on....you don't want to let go.  (Picture this if you will.......the police car is behind you, lights are rolling, following you at its slowest speed, in order to return the closed streets to traffic flow, and you don't speed up.  It's a pride thing.)   

Anyway....back to Richard and "Guy"......After the race, I lost track of the pair.  Maybe Richard and "Guy" went to party elsewhere.  Maybe they were taking a well-deserved rest.  Maybe the race was a first stop on a long list of to-do's for the evening.

But this pair got me thinking.  Every now and then, you have the opportunity to witness a slice of somebody else's life and get a peak at the obstacles they face and you wonder "how do you do it?  How do you get up and face the day? Each day?"

With a little help from my friends. I get by with a  little help from my friends.  - Lennon and McCartney

#8 - Reggae Run

Twenty years ago, Maria Olberding was a 27-year-old training for the Boston Marathon.  She was brutally murdered as she jogged through her Hyde Park neighborhood.  Shorty after her death, in an effort to mitigate their grief, her family created an event that combined Maria's love of running and reggae music and called it "Reggae Run".  

Held annually for the past two decades on the first weekend in October, this year's event was held for the first time in Eden Park.  The walk starts near Sawyer Point, circles around the baseball stadium, back to Sawyer Point and climbs the hill into Mount Adams, ending in Eden Park.  

The walk was hot, muggy and sticky.  As we approached the end of the race, it started to drizzle.  Seriously, it was gross.

However, once inside Eden Park, the party begins.  An array of food (sub sandwiches, cake, hot dogs, hamburgers, brats, metts, goetta, pie, cupcakes, pizza, chili, jambalaya, bagels, taco salad, fruit and cheese) and of course, beer and wine.

The Ark Band provided the music under the covered Seasongood Pavilion.  

In time we made it through the food booths and up to the Pavilion.  Did I mention that it was raining?  Not a light drizzle,  at this point, mind you.  It's a downpour.  Gallons of water.  We sought refuge under a tree.  It didn't help at all.  So we drank wine, listened to reggae and danced in the rain.

Some people feel the rain.  Others just get wet.  -Bob Marley

Thank you to the Olberding family who put on a great race and party.  

I am making plans to attend the party next year.  Who's in??

#7 Adams County Half Marathon and 5K

Describing a race route is a lot like reading a dating profile.  There is a code.   'a few extra pounds' means "I've never been inside a gym" and 'devoted to family' means "I live with my mother" and so on.  This race was described as a "rolling course in Amish country".  That means "steep inclines through paved roads while dodging lots of horse shit".

With that in mind, we headed the Adams county for the next installment.  We got up before God, (I know this because the sun wasn't up and apparently that's His job.)  Drove through winding roads in Adams county and discussed what we would do if we met "the Children from the Corn" during the race.  It was a lively conversation for 5:30 AM. 

It was a great day for a race, weather was cool.  As we walked, Amish kids handed out cups at the water stops.  They were dressed in their traditional garb and travelled by either buggy or scooter.  Their eyes grew very large at some of the colorful athletic gear worn by the runners.  

After the race, there is the table with the usual bananas, apples, water, and Gatorade.  This race also had pie.  Amish apple pie.  After inhaling the slice, you realize that you didn't use a fork.  

Who cares.  It's pie.  

Perhaps other races should offer pie.  I may start a movement.

The medals given to all the participants are pictured below.

How cool is that?