The Great Pumpkin Chase

[Grute Man]

Those of you who know me may remember I made a New Years Resolution to run 12 5Ks (3.1 miles) before the year is over (I won't make it  )  But today I had the most interesting of all 7 or 8  that I have run.  It's called The Greap Pumpkin Chase and it's held in the Lake Elmo Park Reseve.  The race is held on their vast assortment of trails through the reserve.  Beautiful scenery, challenging hills, creative Halloween costumes...all made it a fun race.

Well at one point I see the 3 Mile marker and I thought "Oh good we're almost done."  I haven't run for the last 1.5 months so I'm pretty tired at this point.  Well we kept going and going then all of a sudden, there's a pack of runners comming back AT me!!  HUH????     What da HEYYY?  So some of them are saying we all went down the wrong path.  OK back on track.  NOT.  This happend several times and by now, I can barely lift my legs; the hills were brutal.  But I truged on.  Finally we foud the road and just ran back to the starting line the way we drove in.  As I approached the finish line, the time clock said 1:82:23.  Ummm where am I?  Is this a Haloween trick?  Or trickS -- plural?   82?!?!!  There's not that many minutes in anything and I KNOW I didn't run no hour and 82 minutes; my legs would have fallen right off.

So I chalk it up as a really good run and am glad to be running again.  Many people (my oldest son for one) were crabbing about the lack of trail markers...   Hey ya know what?  It's a beautiful day, we're runing which we do because we like it, we got a brand new T shirt, and some free chow at the end.  So I was laughing and enjoying it.  My youngest son (Oober Ponage) somehow stayed on the right path and ended up beating both me and Hockey #12.  Hockey #12 being 15+ didn't like getting beat by a 12 year old sibling     Learn to live with it.

Then if that's not enough, on the way home, Oober is goign through his ditty bag of treats they give us at each race and is reading a coupon for free appetizers.  I said oh yeah, where? He said "Right here in this bag they gave me."     NO what restaurant!!     I had tears pouring down my face at that point.  Im chuckling now just thinking about it.  In the bag   

Well Im sitting here in my towel and bathing suit because I got in the hot tub as soon as I got home so I need to go shower off now.  Hope you all enjoyed this and I hope even more that these cramps don't kill me.   

Heres me running --->        Grute

[Spinach]

Hilarious..... You shoulda kept up with Oober aka my hunting team mate. 

[CampYJewel]

Way to go         You are right its all for fun!!!!!  And what a beautiful day for running.  Just make sure you drink lots of water and take a few ibuprofins to keep the cramping at bay!!!!

I wish they had some fun runs up north.  Most people up here think you are crazy for even walking someplace.  That is why they make 4-wheelers 

[Grute Man]

Beleive me.  I was WAY ahead of Oober but after following the crowd down the wrong path about 5 times, we didn't even know where each other was.  Im sure we ran over 10 miles and it was supposed to be 3.1 miles.

And Jewel, Im with ya on the Ibuprophen.  I popped a few in the truck before I left the parking lot.  Then I popped into the hot tub as soon as I got home.

It was all fun and Im proud to have done it in a time of 1:82:something something.   

I need to go rest again. I've burned up all available energy.