Sunday, May 23rd

The Team is starting Week 12 with a 10K. We are registering for the 10th Annual Evan's Run 5k/10k road race, starting and ending at the Norwell High School. Evan Henry was an 11 year old child from Norwell, MA who was diagnosed with Autism and who accidentally drowned in July 2000. This year there are over 1000 participants.

It's only 8:37am and the race doesn't start until 10:30am. I get racing bib number 549, my chip and a tee shirt and head back to the car to wait and people watch. With an hour and a half left to go, I contemplate a nap since I'm going on only 4 hrs of sleep. With my luck I'd actually fall asleep and miss the race. Oh, wow, never knew my front seat reclines back this far, cool.......resting the eyes, ah! I think there is something about racing that phychs(sp) me out!

30 minutes to go, time to eat yogurt. Seeing some other Team Challenge mates. Now to play with safety pins, bib and sneaker chip and find potty one last time.

So much for cloud cover, the sky is blue, darn. The temp is creeping up a little higher than expected but there is lots of excitement and energy. The line up is crowded and getting smelly I might add....need to get this show on the road. We've got some Team Challenge in the front, some in the middle and some toward the back.

We're off! Some start off with a light jog, some sprint, some dart through and around others and it takes a little while for the crowd to thin out. It's so hard to get your pace with others around you. I have no idea how I'm doing, it's hot, people are passing me and I want to stop thinking about it. From about half way through, I have the same few people around me. Most seem to run a little faster than me but keep taking walk breaks. Lots of people along the course sit out front of their homes with the kids or dog and cheer you on; one guy had a hose for us to run through. Lots of water stops, too......the little kids really got into it.

Even with all those distractions, it still seemed to take forever, lol. I think it was the heat. Eventually the Finish line does come in to sight though and your friends are there telling you its just around the corner. Love the home stretch with the band playing and all the people. The screen reads 1 hour, 6 minutes, 11 seconds.