see jane run

The intense pre-race focus of the elite athlete.

  

Jane ran her first 5k yesterday.

We did the Dog Day 5k in Minneapolis.  Nice cool day, partly cloudy, temps in the 50s.....perfect weather for her first race.

She didn't seem nervous at all.

Lookin' so chill, waiting for the starting gun.

It was absolute chaos and so much fun!


Nearly 500 dogs all in close proximity..... it was a big dog party.

The proud parents

The husband and I were (are) pretty pathetic.

We were like über proud parents.  "I think Jane is the cutest dog here."  "She is doing so well!" "Blah, blah blah, Jane is the best dog ever, such a great dog, so (surprisingly) well behaved....blah, blah, blah"  God help us.

In our defense, it won't be that long before we're empty nesters, so we have to figure out how and to whom we will channel all our love and attention once the grunions have flown.  Right???

Crossing the Stone Arch Bridge

The course was fabulous.  

We started at Father Hennepin Park, went across the historic Stone Arch Bridge, up along West River Road, back across the river then to trestle bridge onto a pretty path on Boom island, crossed yet another cool bridge and wound our way back to St. Anthony Main.

It was a four bridge run.  That's a lot of bridges for such a short distance.

The mighty Mrs. Sipp.

Fail factor: Mid-run the camera informed us that the memory card was full (Seriously?? WTF??) so we had to delete old photos before we could take new ones.  Hard to do while running so we missed some great shots (like canine athletes pooping mid-run).  You know I'm all about class and quality when posting pictures on my blog.

5k finisher!

Here are some more random shots from the day.

Jane's Bling

A REALLY faithful companion. 

I carefully color-coordinated the poop bags with my shirt.

Jane and her swag

Don't mess with mama. 

Completely un-race related, but whatever:
When we got home, there was a giant prehistoric snapping turtle laying eggs next to the driveway.  It takes about 90 days for the eggs to hatch (I Googled it so I know it's true), then they have to make the long trek across the lawn, over the path and into the lake.  Why don't the turtles lay eggs closer to the water?????

Back to the race....

The best thing about yesterday's race is that, for a little while anyway, it took my mind off the fact that in seven (7) short days, at that same time I would be in the middle of running a marathon.  

Me.

The woman who, when she started running 4 years ago, had trouble running 60 seconds in a row.

That same woman will be running a marathon.

I feel a little queasy just thinking about it.  Terrified and excited all at once.  

But mostly terrified.