Ukraine Do It 5K (PLUS) Recap!

On Saturday, Jeff and I ran the Ukraine Do It 5K (PLUS) - hosted by a local church who is raising money to send some people over to the Ukraine to help out an orphanage - one of their big projects on tap is to build chicken coops so they can have a protein source with the eggs.  The race shirt reflected that in a comical way:

The running shoes on the chicken cracked me up!

This was a small race - when we went to packet pick up, I think the organizer said they had about 65 people sign up...not bad for a holiday weekend and a first-time event.  Everyone was very nice and the route was good - we ran through a neighborhood that we've never been in before, so it was interesting - but the route was long, which is why I'm calling this the Ukraine Do It 5K PLUS.  A 5K is 3.1 miles.  We hit mile 3 and were still fairly far from the finish line...we ended up finishing at just over 3.5 miles and the only thing I can figure is that the person who mapped the route started it from the entrance to the church, but we started and finished well into the parking lot and around the backside of the church.  Not a big deal in the grand scheme of life, but it was funny to have the race keep going!

Ricky Bobby tells the REAL story!

The race started at 9:00 am - it felt so weird to sleep in until 7:00 am on a race day.  As it was just a couple miles from our house, we didn't even leave our driveway until 8:30 am - so casual!  The weather was warming up and the sun was out, which I really felt during the last mile.  I haven't had to wear sunscreen when I run for a long while, because we are usually out before the sun rises, but I'll have to remember it when we do these later-starting races.

Pictures!

Julia and I - you'll be seeing her in all of my spring race recaps!

The dynamic duo?  LOL

 

From a distance, I thought this box was full of donuts and I was all "Cool, sanctioned donuts!" (because I don't eat them normally) but no...just bagels.

This race was dog-friendly - they had bowls of water on the ground, and dog biscuits waiting with the food for after the race.  Paco didn't come because he can't be trusted to play well with others.

After the race - Jeff with a mouthful of bagel, me with my second bottle of water and a slightly-sunburned face.

Julia and I both won doorprizes!  That is another cool thing about a smaller race - your chances for winning a prize increase.  We each won a Road ID - I'll be using mine to get one for my son, Sam, who is a runner now.

Along with a lot of doorprizes, they also had medals for the first, second and third place finishers, both male and female...quite nice for such a small race.  I'd do this race again - my back, which I somehow managed to hurt in my sleep a few days before the race, was still bothering me and I didn't run as well as I could have, so maybe a do-over next year is in order.