Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino...

Well, today I got my kicks on Route 66. Or at least a finishing kick. Kind of. I ran a 10k race in Kingman this morning.

I really did not think it would go well, since I was up until almost 3am with stomach upset and then we had to get up at 5am so we could leave at 6. Yikes! Cissy went with Poppy & me and she woke up at 2:30am. Gee whiz! So, we all went up to the Heart of Route 66 for a fun morning. We arrived at the starting line about 25 minutes before the race. I took as much time as possible in the lovely port-a-potty (nicely name the "head" quarters) -- hoping that this race was going to go better than expected if I could, you know, ... I was really hoping for more port-a-potties along the route or I would probably be in trouble. The 5kers and 10kers lined up at the start and it was time to go (run, not back to the little blue buildings).

I'm the one in pink shorts, under the "n" in LINE.

I was feeling a lot better than I thought I would -- yay! The course was in a street that was open to traffic but separated by cones. It went at first through a "small -town" downtown type area. Then we turned toward the Hualapai Mountains and the scenery was pretty nice. The weather was warm & sunny and wasn't really a factor for most of us. After going solidly UPHILL for 3 miles, it occurred to me that the turnaround was just ahead and it would be DOWNHILL from there on! Made that last bit before the turnaround much happier for me. The last half went pretty well - no, duh, really, ALL downhill. So I didn't need a finishing kick, I just coasted in. This is a shot Cissy took just before the finish line --

I finished in 1:04:07, nice & slow, but 3 minutes faster than the 10k I did a couple of weeks ago. Wow, it's a lot easier if you DON'T donate blood 2 days before a race. The fun thing is, it was enough for 1st place in my age division - 46-55, except there weren't any older than 55 so it was just 46 & up. See what happens when you just keep running -- you can be slow but there aren't too many others out there!

An early Happy Mother's Day to any mommies (or mommies-to-be) reading this! I hope that it finds you all feeling loved and appreciated. I will be lucky enough to be with my Mom tomorrow!