Boldly running where I've never gone before

Spring running season is just about over and here I am showing up late with a couple of race reports.  Nothing unusual there!

APRIL 2, 2016 – PURPLE STRIDE 5k,  Las Vegas NV

Photo credit to the event’s website.

I went to Las Vegas for a conference and, having not yet raced in Nevada, found this one with an incredibly worthy cause to run while I was there.  Since northern Illinois weather is hit-and-miss but mostly chilly in early April, I was looking forward to several consecutive days of running while out west.  Unfortunately trying to run out on the Las Vegas strip is also hit-and-miss because of crowds and non-continuous sidewalks, so it was nice to have an actual race to give me 3.1 hassle free miles.

The race was held near a mall and was a fundraiser for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.  Just like the Avon walks wish to cover the streets with a sea of pink, this event definitely arrayed a sea of purple across the roadways.  Purple shirted people, purple balloons and even purple clad dogs were everywhere.

The survivors had their own section for the pre- and post-race festivities.  We’ve really got to put more asses in these seats!

There was a lot of pre- and post-race food (which I’m not used to seeing before an actual race) as well as entertainment.  Survivors gave talks, singers sang, and various character impersonators cavorted with participants.  The race actually started about 10 minutes late because survivors were still speaking. I didn’t mind.  Thank goodness they are alive to have a voice.  It was a nice race and one I would highly recommend for someone looking to do a short distance in a festive venue.  I had a good time but for some reason I was slow as hell!  LOL

MAY 1, 2016 – RACE FOR HOPE 5k, Washington DC

On the first weekend of May during a pleasure trip to visit a friend and fellow runner, I ran this 5k benefitting brain cancer research on a rainy Sunday morning in the nation’s capital.  I don’t usually run in the rain.  I have signed up for more than one 5k and when the skies opened up before leaving the house, have changed my mind and skipped out on it.  I don’t particularly like being soaked to the skin and splashing through puddles but when you fly halfway across the country to hang out with other runners, this is what you do. And I actually enjoyed it!

The weekend started on Saturday with some wonderful Trekkie space geek fun — a trip to the Air & Space Museum and a photo at Warp Drive:

Finishing with a cool and rainy (but much faster than Vegas) 5k jaunt was just icing on the cake.  I can’t speak about pre or post race festivities because it was pouring most of the time so I was either hiding under a canopy somewhere or running.  I’m glad to have done it and given money/time/attention to a great cause.  And I did take a couple of pictures:

My friend and I ran as members of Team BT which was founded by Beth Tolleson, a brain cancer survivor.  I did a lot better than the Vegas outing too.  Maybe I should run in the rain more often!

With these two races under my fuel belt, I now have 30 states and DC off the bucket list.  I have only 20 more to go to reach the goal I set in 2009 as a newbie runner: racing in all 50 states (and 7 continents which is still a work-in-slow-progress).  I have probably written about most of them here over the past 7 years of this blog and will continue to do so, sooner or later (quite notoriously later most of the time).

Next up:  half-marathon training for the AF Canyon Half-Marathon in Salt Lake City, UT on June 25.