Paul runs for fun

I took Matt and Hayley with me to volunteer at a 5K/half marathon race this morning. Paul ran in the 5K and Matt, Hayley and I were course marshals--we cheered the runners mostly. I think we were also sort of making sure no one took a short cut through the parking lot. Here are Hayley and Matt, manning our post. See our lime green volunteer T-shirts?

We had a treat before the race started--we saw a fox! He trotted (fox trot!) down the sidewalk and across the street.
He checks to make sure no cars are coming--we must always be safe!
The half marathon started first and I saw a friend of mine in that race. I cheered her on. Matt and Hayley were sort of embarrassed to cheer at first but soon got into it when they realized that the runners really liked the encouragement. I got a high-five from one runner, and lots of thank-you-for-volunteering!s (NO APOSTROPHE NEEDED) from the runners.

Then we saw the runners start for the 5K and Matt kept pestering me, saying "What if Paul wins?" and I pooh-poohed the idea. Of course Paul wasn't going to win. He's a kid.

I wanted lots of pictures so I took this picture of the lead car. Uh, those feet behind the car look familiar.
Whoa. It's Paul. In the lead! Go Paul!
I was so shocked.

Here he is on his second time around. The 5 K runners ran by us twice. There is nobody around him. Yes, he was still in first on his second lap.

As the rest of the runners ran by on their second lap, I saw two other friends of mine who ran the 5K, Stephanie and Marla, and they stopped briefly to tell me that they saw Paul finish the race. He had lapped them at the very end and they were able to report to me that Paul won the race and that his time was 19 minutes and something! !!! !!!! I wish I could have been at the end of the race, but I did my job at the post I was given. At least someone I know saw him finish.

Finally, the race coordinator biked by releasing us from our duties and I drove off to find Paul. Here he is, Mr. Winner of the Heart of the City 5K Fun Run!
He won a $25 gift certificate to a store that sells running gear. He has plans for his money already!Congratulations to Paul and to all the other runners! Hip hip hooray for Pam for running the half marathon, and to Stacy, Hope, Marla, and Stephanie for the 5K!

Comments

Jen said…
That sounds like a fun day with a fox-sighting and all. We had a beautiful day, too, here for our busy garage sale.

Congrats to Paul for winning an entire race outside of school! Wow!
Jake and Steph said…
Congratulations Paul! And good job to race volunteers. Sara, I wanted to let you know that the Cecropia (SP?) Moth got evicted from its cocoon the day after you were over. We took some photos and it climbed around on my hand. The it took flight across the street to a tree where it hunkered for the next several days, possibly laying eggs. It was doing something quite hurky-jerky and seemed to be excreting ovules of iny sizes. But since I only fancy being a lepidopterist, I am only postulating. But it was an amazing experience. Especially since we've had the cocoon sitting on our front porch since mid-October. She's gone now, we think the neighbor girl took her in to her classroom for show and tell. What are you gonna do?
TaterBean said…
w00t w00t!! go pablo!