80Y 5K

A few weeks ago several dozen family met up at Logan for an epic surprise party for my Grandma Julie's 80th birthday.  She's an avid runner, has run almost 150 marathons in her adult life, and continues to run 5Ks and 10Ks regularly.  We will often go up to stay with her for the weekend and run a race, or she'll sometimes come down and join us for a local race.  My sisters had a brilliant idea to organize a fun, casual family 5K in her honor and for all of us to just show up and spring it on her.  Elise designed a great t-shirt, and Amber had them printed for everyone who participated.  Mom and Dad went up the night before and actually ran a morning race that had already been planned, and then on their way home they came across all of us in matching shirts and race number bibs, all ready to celebrate.  Grandma was beside herself with delight, and I was really amazed that the surprise was never spoiled.  (Mom had a hard time "lying" to her mother for so long.)

Waiting for the birthday girl.

While we were there we decided we had to have a good jumping photo shoot.  The first one is a classic Britney/Elise shot.  It's some kind of amazing or something.

We're all in this together!

I know this one is almost the same, but just LOOK at Penny!!!

Nice Ben, way to ruin the effect.

As a race, it was pretty casual, everyone went their own pace, some walked and pushed strollers, some of the kids rode scooters or bikes, and the 5K distance was approximate.  The course started at an elementary school near Grandma's house, then went to a local park and back.  It ended a little before 3.1 miles, so I went a little farther to Grandma's house (which ended up being a little longer than 3.1) and then back to the school.  My total approximate distance was 4 miles (~36:12).  Incidentally, I started to notice this sort of swelling in one of my knees after running for a couple days before and then right after this race, which kind of concerned me...  Turns out some thorough stretching and giving it a weekend off seemed to have done the trick.  When everyone made it back to the park, there was an abundance of great post-race treats for all to enjoy and everyone was a winner, though Grandma was the real champion of the day.  What an inspiration!

Here's Elise's great t-shirt design.  The main graphic was on front, and the bottom tagline was printed along the bottom left of the shirt.

This is just the Graham side, there were several more of Grandma's other kids and grandkids represented.  A great turnout!

Thanks for organizing a great race, everyone!  There was an awesome turnout and we all had a great time.  And thanks for having a birthday so we could throw you a surprise party, Grandma!  We love you so!  See you at the next race, if not hopefully sooner.