The Reindeer Run

The Alamo Series is putting on its final race of the year and it is called The Reindeer Run. The Alamo Series is a group of races that were put together to help prepare people for the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon. They have awards for people that ran in more than 7 of the races. This run is a 5k fun run and there will be no official times. In fact all of the bib numbers are the same number - 2008.

This race is extra special to me for two reasons:

The first reason is that I will be running with Arin. This is Arin's first 5k race and I am looking forward to running with her. I plan on staying with her for the entire race. This will be the farthest distance that she has run.

The second reason that this race is special is that we will have a large cheering section as Jill, Larry, my Mom, Benn, and Mindy all got up super early to come and cheer us on. Any of you that know Benn then you know that anytime before noon is super early for him.

Benn and Mindy flew in late the night before the race from Michigan. They are spending ten days with us to celebrate the holidays. My mom and dad are also in town for a couple of weeks for the holidays. Add Jill's dad and Josh being home from college and that adds up to a house full. Glad we bought a big house when we moved here so that we can fit all of these visitors.

Okay back to the Reindeer run...
I reminded Arin that we needed to pace ourselves because we had to run 5k. When Arin and I did the SARR Fun Run she ran in the 1/2 mile and 1 mile runs and took off like a bat out of Haiti and ran out of steam before the finish line. I also reminded her to save a little near the end for a big finish.

Shortly after we started we were greeted by everyone and picked up a bottle of water for the rest of the run. We were on our way after the short break.


After about another half mile we came across everyone again.


It seems that Larry had done a really good job of staking out the race course and found a couple of places that they could meet up with us. This was not easy as we were running on a trail and they had to park in the business that were in front of the trail. On the way back we came across them again at the first location. It was definitely nice for everyone to see Arin run and for Arin to see everyone out there supporting her.


We took a couple of walk breaks along the way and seemed to be swapping places with a group of older ladies. As we were about a mile from the finish line I said to Arin that we got to beat these old ladies. She cracked me up when she said "I know that is what I am trying to do!!!" In this picture you can see the ladies that we were trying to beat in the background.


We took the lead from them about 1/2 mile from the finish and they were not match for us when we kicked in the BIG FINISH!!!

I could tell that Arin was having a hard time, but she kept going and finished real strong. Here are a couple of picks from the finish line.





Every one was very proud at how well she had done. Great Job ARIN!!!

May the Force Be with You!!!

Chad