Sealy 5k Jingle Bell Fun Run and Competitive Walk

Part 1 of my very busy day December 4, 2010.
I spent most of the day Friday marking the course. We had a meeting Friday night to make sure all the volunteers knew what they were supposed to do when directing the runners, so I felt confident that we would have no problems on the course. The past two years, folks had gotten lost because we did not have enough volunteers. The Sealy High School Choir Booster Club and the Choir students REALLY came through this year.

Up at 5:10 am… out to buy the bananas and off to the Hill Community Center to get the party started! The count shows we had about 60 people show up to sign up on race day for an estimated total of 115 participants. Wow, that’s about 30 more than last year! We may have started a few minutes late, but I tried to remember all the instructions (forgot to make one major statement… if you signed up to walk, make sure you walk every step because you will be disqualified if you run, and I had to disqualify one lady who ran across the finish line). Other than that one thing, everyone was perfect. I rode in the pace car to show the lead runners the course and also make sure my volunteers were in place. The winner, a 17 year young man, won the race in 18 minutes and change. It was a lot of fun watching the race from the front instead of from the back!

We got a lot of praises from race participants and I think the race will grow from this point forward. The 5th annual was a turning point for us. The Booster Club felt that if we could not get this right once and for all, we were going to give it up. I don’t know if we made a lot of money on it, and we could use a little more community support such as a large corporation to actually sponsor the run… $1,500.00 is a nice round number and would truthfully cover ALL the expenses, and then all the runners’ registration fees would stay with the club.

I will get the photos from Mrs. Kenner and post them up on my facebook page where anyone can see them, and copy past to get their finish line photo. When the event wrapped up and we had the party cleaned up, it was time for me to head out to Austin to start the 24 hour race I signed up for. The race director was kind enough to let me start late, just so I could get some experience walking all night… I will post the details about that one in the next blog post.