March of Dimes 5k

Though this race was not a good one for me time-wise, it was a fast, flat one and should have been. My first 2 miles were pretty good and "on time" but don't know what happened the 3rd mile. My Garmin got messed up and I had to go by the volunteer's mile call-out. I'm thinking it became harder as it began to heat up. This time of year in the lower south should begin no later than 7:30 to beat the heat and we started a few minutes after 8:00. I'm not a sweat-er but I was already wet before it started! The humidity along with the heat was a little daunting and challenging for me. The race was held at The Wharf and over $3,000 was raised for the March of Dimes. What a great reason to run.

Several of the Orange Beach Firemen ran and they brought an old fire engine. It's pretty cool.


Though my time was poor, I did receive First Place in my age group. The awards for age groups were feathery boas with a medallion hanging from it: pink for the women and black for the men. Real different and cool looking; although I can't see a man liking it, ha!



With Ali Vincent (5th's Season's Biggest Loser Winner) speaking at the banquet that night, I wondered if she might run in the race. So I found someone that was working to see if she might be running in the race and they said she was suppose to. So I began earnestly looking for her with camera in hand. Finally, I had to put it up and head to the starting line. I figured she wasn't going to make it. As we lined up, I recognized a man I'd seen on TV. It was Roger Shultz from The Biggest Loser (TBL) of the 5th Season, too! I knew he was from Alabama but I never thought about him coming as I thought he lived around Birmingham. He was one of Alabama's leading football stars in his day. That Season, it came down to the winner being between Ali and Roger and they both were there!! We are huge fans of TBL and that year we rooted for Roger because we liked him and he did a great job losing his weight AND he's a "good ole Southern boy". But on the flip side of that coin...we rooted for Ali because we just thought she was the cutest little thing and we loved her personality and inner strength to overcome the weight obstacle. We had no idea that the winner would come down to be between these two. But we were happy just knowing it would be either of them. When I saw that she was going to speak at the Healthy Woman's Conference while we were down here, I immediately signed up to attend, not knowing all that was going to be laid out before me.

So without further ado, here are some pics I took of the race.

Roger and Ali as they were coming in to the Finish Line.

After finishing.


Roger's family ran, too. His little boy received an award in his age group. A pic of the Shultz's and Ali.


As you can tell, I am so stoked to have my picture taken in the middle of both of these great people.


Outside of being the Director of our church's Summer Day Camp, this was one of the best days in my life. It was a healthy, energetic, celebrity meeting, fun day!! I was on Cloud Nine the entire time. I only wished Kent could have shared this with me. I know he would have loved to been there, too, but other things had been planned and he wasn't able to come.

(NOTE: Our family blog has been updated with pictures from the banquet.)