Race Report: Hope 5k

A couple of weekends ago, my father-in-law (Tony) and I did a 5k together. He's really getting into doing 5ks and this is our second one to do together. Tony and I always have a blast together so I'm very happy to have him as a race partner. We are members of Hope Presbyterian and so it made sense that we do the Hope 5k. Despite the stifling humidity, the morning started off great. I got up early, made some coffee and headed over to Tony's house to pick him up for the race. We registered and had plenty of time to spare before the start.

Tony and I are crusin along just fine until he decides that, around mile 2, he needs to find a bathroom. So I look around and see that, fortunately, we are right next to the local community center. I point it out to Tony and say, "ok, no big deal...you can just go over there and I'll wait right here for you." And really, it was no big deal. I figured it would be a good time to stretch my shins to try and work some soreness out of them. So I do just that. Five minutes or so go by and I decide to do some crunches in the grass. I do my usual sets and look at my watch again. 15 minutes have gone by and I'm starting to get a little worried. My mind starts thinking the worst, but I make myself calm down and give him some more time because I know that bathroom emergencies happen to all of us at some point or another and I don't want to have to call into the bathroom and embarrass him. I do some push ups and a little more stretching before I finally decide to go and hunt him down. It has now been 25 minutes and I'm freaking out thinking that he has passed out in the bathroom.

So I run down to the community center only to find that the doors are all locked because they are closed. I circle the building in hopes of finding any open door, but have no luck. Now I realize that he must have gone somewhere else to find a bathroom so I run back up to my original spot to look for other places that he might have headed for. As I'm looking around, a police car pulls up into the playground parking lot about 400 yards away and calls out to me on his loud speaker, "HE'S WAITING FOR YOU ON THE HILL!" I wave my hand in thanks and sprint up the hill to try and find him. Finally I see him in the distance and run to catch up with him. Turns out the police stopped to help Tony and took him all the way to the McDonald's, several miles away. Tony felt bad and kept apologizing over and over, but I thought the whole thing was hilarious! Our last mile went smoothly and even though we finished dead last, we still finished!! 5ks can often be less than memorable, but this one will definitely stand out in my mind!

(This pic is actually from our first 5k, not the Hope 5k, but I like it:)