Not bad for a rainy day

Nimue had so much fun running the Fun Run at her school a while back that we had to sign up for another event. The Title Nine 9k promised chocolate, plus it looked to be a nice route around the Palo Alto Baylands, so we were in!

Of course, being early November, it decided to rain on us. Nim and I arrived at the start early as recommended, checked out the situation, and retreated back to the shelter of the truck for about half an hour. We had to amuse ourselves by perusing the Title Nine catalog of cute but expensive stuff that was in the registration bag (evil evil temptations), as that was the only reading material in the car. About 15 minutes before the start, we got back out and huddled in the mob loosely arranging themselves at the start line. It's actually quite warm when you are in the middle of a bunched crowd of 1000 runners :)

Finally, it was 9:00, and we were off! After the usual disorganization of a bunch start, we found an open patch and Nim settled into a nice steady pace. Even though we had planned on a strategy of half mile run/1 minute walk repetitions, she decided in the heat of the moment that she wanted to run straight through, only stopping briefly at the aid stations drink and snack. Crazy determined kid did it, too!

Brief learnings:

• Nim has decided that Gatorade is yummy and is convinced that it contains some sort of analgesic in addition to sugar and salt.
• One's hat is less likely to blow off if you look down. (only one hat-sailing incident)
• One can kill a lot of time for thinking of other ways one could say tailwind, especially given the fact that an 8-year-old finds words referring to one's backside to be intensely funny. Booty-wind comes to mind.
• It's hard to eat chocolate while running.
• A slightly chilly windy drizzle is neutralized by having a nice warm Nim hand to hold :)

All told, we went 6 miles in 1 hour, 17 minutes, and 53 seconds, over a combination of pavement, dirt, and slippery mud along the levees. My watch showed a total moving time of 1 hour 13 minutes, so our Gatorade stops were shorter than they seemed at the time.

Nimue also pointed out that the course ran in the shape of a heart:


The excellent tired kid is now splatted in the TV room watching cartoons.