Montana Women's Run 2010

This is my second year and Cari has participated in four of them, one when in college. She ran one three years ago and we have walked together for two years.  We do the five-mile walk and enjoy the outdoors, people watching, and the thrill of competing, but  most of all, being together.  We hatched the idea that we could make it a girls' day and have all the girls plan ahead and do it with us.  This would include Tristin and Khyrsten.  We saw lots of younger kids too!

This is one of our fashion girls. We had a good breakfast of eggs and toast, me two pieces of bacon and her some sausage (Amy got the left over bacon and sausage and toast).  We went back to the room to get ready and I asked her if she had on earrings!!  Of course, and you can see them!  Me, naturally I had mine on too, but you can't see mine!!  She had on makeup and mascara and I had on mascara and sun screen.  After all, a girl had got to have her priorities.  Oh, did we have a wonderful laugh!!

I wasn't as nervous this year, I knew what to expect.  The good Lord willing, I could walk the five miles.  We are true Montana girls at heart, I had my silk underwear (and you know I mean REAL tops and bottoms!) plus a long-sleeved t-shirt and a exercise jacket, plus the red outdoor jacket.  Cari was layer as well.  We got pretty warm, but it was only 28 degrees when we were wondering whether to wear multiple layers. 

We always seem to pick (I guess that would be me!) a focus person to try to keep up with and it keeps us hopping!  We had a strategy that if we could keep up, we could make the quick burst at the end.  We did manage a pass (you realize 7800 women participated in this) but it took some concentration on my part.  About mile three I was glad to see the sign!  At mile four there is always some funny guy with smart comments, but it keeps us laughing.  It is also fun to look at the homes on the streets past Division.  That would be Clark St. and Yellowstone Ave. 

Back to the walk, about mile four I was starting to lag a little and Cari said, "Come on, Mom, we are just about done."  By then, we were both glad that it wasn't any warmer outside!  So when we got closer to the finish line, I said, "Should we sprint?"  Cari wondered how close to the finish line and I said oh, not too far back.  She took off and my jog felt like I was standing in place moving my legs up and down.  I don't think mine could be called a sprint, I don't think there is a word invented for what I was doing!  We made it across and she looked at the time and said we had bested last year!  Yipee!! 

It doesn't matter where you start in the line up, your time does not begin until you cross the starting line and it reads your shoe tag and it reads it across the finish line.  There is a tremendous amount of volunteer help involved in this race.  I know several people that participated, but we didn't see them. 

We decided that no post race pics, only before ones!  The one thing that I forgot was my pink cap to protect my nose just a little.  When I was packing, all I could think about was what to take to keep warm!  When I got up Friday morning it was snowing and I thought I should really just stay home, get my t-shirt and be happy!!

Here are our numbers and you can see even though we registered a week ago, we were some of the last to do so!  I have three pair of tennis shoes, and these are the oldest and don't rub like the others.  We were glad that we had no blisters.  We saw one poor girl walking with shoes in hand and a bloody blister on her heel.


So, if you want to walk with us next year...sign on!!