I like to watch runners, and take pictures

Two years ago, my daughter decided to run in the July 4th 5K in Redondo Beach.  She would earn extra credit for the health class she was taking that summer at El Camino Community College.  I noticed that there was a kids' dash, so I registered my son for that race.  Now it's starting to become a tradition because we went again last year and this year.

This year my son decided he was ready for the 5K.  The kids' dash is only a quarter of a mile, whereas 5K is approximately three miles.  Because he did not have proper running shoes, we went shopping the day before and found a nice pair at Footaction at the South Bay Galleria.  They were a little more than I had planned to spend, but he was very happy with them.

The last two years we went to the Village Runner, one of the race sponsors, the main sponsor I presume, to do the late registration.  This year I registered them early, on-line, thinking this would save me money and time.  The $5.00 I thought I was saving on each registration, though, was partially eaten up by convenience fees.  I think I saved $2.50 total by registering early.

The day before the race, I went to pick up their packets at the Village Runner.  My daughter's packet was ready but my son's was missing, so they gave him a new number, no questions asked.  They weren't even interested in seeing the acknowledgement I received after registering him online.  This was an indication that many registrants had the same problem.

Later that night I was looking in my daughter's envelope with her race number and was astonished to see that someone else's name was on the strip below the number.  What to do?  Race as that person or get a new number?  Did that person have her number?

The next morning we took off a little after 7 a.m. (the race started at 8) and were lucky to find parking in the metered lot near Catalina Avenue, where the race starts . The parking meters allow for four hours, so we were in good shape.  After loading the meter with all the coins we had collected, we looked for a booth to report the number problem.  The woman there took the envelope and gave my daughter a new number.  We were ready to go.  I asked my children to pose for a before race photo and here it is:

We left my daughter's T-shirt at home, accidentally, but this shirt was fine.

After some fanfare and the Star Spangled Banner, the race began.  I waited until all the runners and walkers had passed, then began following them to see how things looked on the Esplanade. 

I stood on the sidewalk for awhile waiting for them to run by me on the way back and saw something kind of shocking.  First, a little background.  There were advance notifications on the surrounding streets about no parking on this day, and no driving on certain streets on this day.  So, where did this car come from?

My guess is that she lived in one of the nearby apartments or houses and forgot to move her car earlier, then decided the hell with it and take her chances.  Or maybe she was oblivious to the signs and simply didn't know.  In any case, she was driving behind that runner in the red shirt and almost hit him.  I don't think he knew what was going on, but others did and couldn't believe what they saw.  Fortunately, the police were right there and made her pull over.  Of course, she couldn't leave until all the runners and walkers had passed.  That made her very late to wherever she was going.   I hope her fine was a hefty one, too.  Did you notice that I blurred the license plate in the picture?  I thought it was the right thing to do.

Back to the race, now.  I saw my son pass and he said his sister was behind him somewhere.  I waited and waited for her, but did not see her, so decided I had better head back to the finish line to find my son.  On the way back, I heard someone cry out "Officer, help!  Man down!"  I looked and saw an older man, whom I had noticed earlier as struggling, with blood on his forehead.  A woman had her arm around him and helped him across the street to the curb.  The woman took off her race T-shirt, then the black shirt underneath, and used the black shirt to wipe his bloody forehead.   I admired this woman for her unselfish act, not worrying at all about her running time, or maybe she didn't care about that at all.  In any case, I saw only her and another person helping this poor man.

I went to the spot where we were to meet and waited there for a long time, still scanning the runners coming back, looking for my daughter.  I worried that maybe she had fallen and gotten hurt like that man, not being able to contact me because I had her cell phone.  Oh, why didn't I get her one of those runner fanny packs?

I walked back to the refreshment area and there were my son and daughter, together!  She had run by me and I didn't see her. 

My son wanted to try the pushup challenge, so we stuck around.  This is held by a company called The Boot Camp, ostensibly to get new customers.  The winner receives $1000 and the guy in charge, who looks like one of the boot camp guys I used to see on Sally Jessy Raphael, was waving ten $100 bills around to entice people.

The challenge got progressively harder.  They had to move to the left, right or center on command, and graduated to using knuckles, ten fingers, then two fingers.  The finalists were these two men:

The winner was the man in the middle.  He was so good, I didn't see him sweat!

Later in the day, we checked the results on the race web site.  My daughter's number was listed as unidentified, that is, no sex or name.  Her name was listed, though, so someone ran with her original number.  I guess that person didn't notice the mistake.  It could have even been a man.  The time was pretty good, too.

The kids want me to run next year.  Or at least walk.  I am thinking about it.  In the meantime, there is another 5K coming up, in October in Palos Verdes.  I might try that one.

Oh, yes, I took an after race photo.  They didn't look too bad!