Friday night was our third sort-of-annual Gleaux Run. I say sort-of because we didn't hold a race last year but we did hold races in 2013 & 2014.
I did a whole series on planning a race during our 2014 event - click here if you'd like to check it out!
For starters, we got to the site at 2 p.m. to begin setup and around 3 p.m., the bottom fell OUT of the sky! As a crazy bonus, the weather app only called for a 15% chance of rain. Whaaaat?!
After about an hour of pouring rain, it decided to let up and once the rain stopped it never returned. YAY!
I might have almost had a mini-panic attack during all of this but all worked out in the end! I did have wet and squeaky shoes for the remainder of the night, though. YUCK.
We had quite a crew with plenty of help for registration.
I was actually grateful for the rain in the end, because it helped cool temps down and the humidity level stayed pretty low.
About an hour and a half before the race began, Heather and I drove around and stuck mile marker signs in their proper locations.
We returned and found a rainbow!
It really turned into beautiful evening!
I loved our start/finish line sign this year. Our Gleaux Run is a branch off our local Relay for Life, so all our Relay for Life stuff worked!
That's what it's all about...
I told my brother in law that his bib had to be visible in order to receive a medal once he crossed the finish line! Haha!
Gorgeous sunset!
We attempted a pre-race selfie although not everyone wanted to participate! Haha!
A local radio personality was our race announcer.
I was so grateful for one of our local fitness center directors for leading us in a pre-race warmup! She did an awesome job!
Kenzie really got her gleaux on! Hehe!
On your mark, get set, go!
We even had special "Gleaux-in-the-Dark" medals for our runners after they crossed the finish line. :)
These ladies nailed the "run, walk, or crawl" across the finish line!
My husband completed the race, too!
Whew! After a whirlwind of an evening, the race was over before we knew it! We had so much help, cleanup was a breeze!
A couple of years ago, I helped organize a night time 5K here in my area. It was called the Gleaux Run and was a part of Relay for Life through the American Cancer Society. The race had such a good outcome and was such a hit, it's returning to our area and I'm on the planning committee!
On Saturday, I had the task of attempting to locate and plan out a route...and I wanted to run the route, of course, just to make sure it was right on point!
This route goes by the lake and down one of my favorite streets in my hometown. Although the humidity was ridiculous (hello 100%), I still managed to have a good run!
I looped the route twice, attempting to find an exact 3.1, but I kept coming up short. Actually, my first loop was longer than my second, even after a few tweaks - how that happened, I'll never know. To make six miles, I ran around the parking lot for a bit (it's a big parking lot). With some specifications from the powers that be, I had to tweak the route a tad bit from the previous year and it just wasn't working for me.
After six miles, I was beyond DONE! I decided to return home and play around with www.mapmyrun.com to see if I could make any additional changes to the course.
One of the awesome members of my running group had a container of gatorade out there on Saturday morning and he offered a bottle to me after my run. YESSSS thank you!!
That was seriously the best Gatorade ever!
My run was not near what I wanted it to be and I had to walk a lot on the 2nd three mile loop but I didn't mind - at least I got it done and in one piece!
Tomorrow, I'm going to run the route again with my running buddy and see if we can make the 3.1 work for good. We have a more solid route in mind this time so hopefully it will work!
I'm definitely looking forward to another exciting Gleaux Run! A fun twist to our event this year is the addition of finisher medals! Each registered participant who crosses the finish line (running, walking, crawling...whatever!) will receive their very own "gleaux" in the dark medal! Yay!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!
What are your weekend plans? Anything fun or exciting happening in your corner of the world? Please share, I want to hear all about it! :)
This past Saturday, my church hosted their 3rd Annual 5K, benefiting local veterans. To date, we've built ramps at several Veterans homes and we've helped with funeral costs for a local Veteran in our community. So, when our pastor approached me about putting on another 5K (with me playing a bigger role on the committee), I agreed!
We made a few changes this year and I love how they turned out! For starters, the location of the race changed to the lake (which happens to be my favorite running spot in town). Only downfall, most all races that occur downtown have the same exact route. Second, all of our Veterans received a shirt in a completely different color from everyone else's - regular registration included a white shirt while Veterans included a red shirt. This really helped the Veterans stand out from the crowd. Another change was the inclusion of an official start and finish line. This one was probably my favorite - I love Americana and patriotism, so we used several American flags to serve as the "chute" for the finish line. We also included flags from each branch of the military in between.
I cannot say enough amazing things about these guys, our race committee! I loved working together to put on this awesome event! We had a great time (despite a few bumps in the road), but everything came together in the end and went off without a hitch!
I love having races at this location downtown because it includes a stage, complete with electricity!!
The theme for this race was "T.G.I.F" (Thank God I'm Free). We usually hold this race around the 4th of July and our Patriotic Sunday service, but I think everyone's convinced now that moving it to Veterans Day weekend would make more sense. It's way too hot in the summer and people are on vacations, etc. So, Veterans Day Weekend it is (of 2016)!
Prior to the race, we put out all of the signs - mile markers, turn here, and these motivational ones (which were my favorite)....
We received great feedback on these signs! They ranged from "Almost There" to "Our Veterans Thank You" to "You Can Do It"! Who doesn't love a little motivation during a race?
Once we got started with opening ceremonies, we heard a message of thanks (to the Veterans) from our Mayor...
Our Pastor led in opening prayer...
And one of our musician friends played the Star Spangled Banner on his trumpet.
After all of that, we were ready to begin the race. The Marshall who was working the site asked if we had an opening ceremony to complete - when I told him we already did it, he was shocked and said he usually has to push 5K's along! He was surprised that we were ready to go, and on time at that! :D Organization for the win!
The wind was SO crazy we literally had people holding down our tents (most were staked into the ground but our start and finsh line signs weren't).
If you look close at the above pictures of the start/finish line sign, we had two bags of sand and stones that were duct taped to the tripod bottom in order to keep it from blowing away. That still didn't work - thank goodness for volunteers who didn't mind holding them down until the end of the race!
We re-enacted our advertisement video from a few weeks ago! Haha! HE WON! Kidding...
As runners came rolling in, we were excited to see our friend and youth pastor in first! He said he was in it to win it, and that's just what he did!
My husband and our friend Everett completed the race together!
My favorite part, though was having the opportunity to cheer on our Veterans as they crossed through the finish line!
A video was also created for Sunday morning, but mostly included footage from the 5K, so here it is!
If you're interested in the entire race planning process, I put together a series last summer that includes three parts:
I definitely looked back over those posts many times just to make sure I remembered it all!
Well, that's a wrap! I've enjoyed planning this race over the past
several months and had fun putting it all together with our fabulous
committee! Looking forward to next year's race and supporting an awesome
cause. It's because of our Veterans that we can enjoy SO many rights
and privileges today. I can't thank them enough for their sacrifice!
How was your weekend? Have you ever helped plan a race/been on a race committee/been a race director?
Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a good week. It's crazy to me that it's almost July! It will be Christmas before we know it! :)
Currently training for: Louisiana Half Marathon Rock ‘n’ Roll NOLA Half Marathon Glass Slipper Challenge Castaway Challenge Diva’s Half Marathon Contraband Days 5 Miler 4 on the 4th
Saturday – 6 mile run with a friend/running group Sunday – Rest Day Monday – 3 mile run/walk with Jason; PT exercises - lunges/squats with weights Tuesday – 3 mile run/walk with Jason; PT exercises - lunges/squats with weights Wednesday – 2 mile run with Madalynn Thursday – 3.1 mile run - planning out a 5K route Friday – Rest Day
Jason and I somehow managed to miss a crazy storm that rolled through - literally minutes after we finished our run/walk. The blue skies in the distance were still visible even though a crazy dark cloud hung over our area - it was super eerie.
To cool off, Pixie and I sat on the porch and watched the storm roll in.
On Wednesday, I got up early before work and went for a 2 mile run. I decided to take Madalynn because the temps were a little cooler after the previous evening's rain. We had a lot of fun (as always). That girl loves to run!
Thursday afternoon was spent with a run along a 5K route, measuring the 1 mile, 2 mile, water stops, etc. I'm helping to plan a local 5K that will be held on Saturday morning. The remainder of my evening was spent with other race volunteers, creating packets and loading a trailer. Although Saturday is going to be hot, we're going to have a lot of fun!!
A few other exciting (non-fitness related) things happened this week!
Our official Baseball Hall of Fame membership package arrived! Since we're spending the induction weekend there, we decided to purchase a membership instead of individual tickets for each day...it's actually cheaper that way!
I was having a rough start to my day on Tuesday and was a little sad (unfortunately, that comes with the job). A friend of mine (who didn't know the situation), surprised me with my a Coke! I was so excited!! I've been looking for a bottle with my name on it since last summer and had yet to find one! This is now a souvenir and is being displayed proudly on a shelf! :)
We were also treated to a special summer treat at work this week! I got banana with cream...that's my norm and it was really good! :)
What's planned for your weekend? Anything fun? Any races/running plans?
