Wandering Along, Walk Report, Liberty Day 5K 2024

Awareness of the outside world. MPRNews/North Star Journey: Inside Hmong Cornhole, the largest cornhole club in Minnesota, Cipolle, May 23, 2024.

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Liberty Day 5K
Columbiana, AL USA
29 June 2024

52 minutes
Overall – 214th out of 218 finishers & 1 DQ
Age group – 8th of 9

Revisiting Fitness Friday because this may be my one IRL race this year. Races(walks) are on Saturday mornings. Would rather do horses. This one was not all the way into downtown Birmingham and therefore wouldn’t take up the entire morning. Or at least the race wouldn’t. The post-race nap was a different story.

Logistics

It was small race, so they didn’t close the roads. Instead they had a rolling blockade. Car in front. Car at end. Cars temporarily blocking major roads.

Guys from the local high school track team – it was all guys – manned the turns. Most were well marked, both the turns and the track team. I had to ask for directions once when we turned onto the main drag where vendors where setting up. After that I was able to follow a woman in orange shirt off in the distance. When I finally lost her, I was near the start and almost at three miles so I was able to guess.

Of course, cars came in from side roads, and drove alongside the racers because cars always have priority. What? You can’t – IDK – turn around and take another route through town? Or maybe wait a few minutes? I fussed about this more than I should have during the race but it is so symptomatic of this country’s car culture.

Dress

I did not get the dress memo.

T-shirts. I had one of the few garden variety cotton t-shirts. Racing tank tops were the order of the day.

Shorts. Ditto garden variety shorts. Most had the scalloped running shorts.

Non-technical sneakers. I was the only one.

Glasses. Again, only one. (Hanging on collar in photo.)

Red white & blue. Totes forgot.

My Race

Started at the end per usual. Stayed more in touch with the sag wagon but it was hot & I was strolling.

I did not have the gear change from a one-mile walk to a three-mile walk that I often have. [Moseying to the Music]

Halfway through the race, my joints wanted to point out that all my walking lately has been in the pasture, on dirt. I haven’t been walking on hard surfaces. Just pointing this out. Make sure you know. Don’t want you to forget.

No medal. Sniff. At the finish, someone handed me a bottle of water, which was probably better for my health and my packrat house. Do I really need another medal? You might as well ask if I need another horse show ribbon and that’s just absurd.

Onwards!
Katherine