Jam at the Damz

Today Ro and I were able to participate in the 'Jam at the Damz'!  We did the 10k course, and it was a lot of fun! :)  We raised $155 and discovered that we needed to raise $250 to earn the really cool biking jersey (bummer!)  The event had raised over $65,000 when we left!  It was for a great cause so I was really glad we went. We did get a nice t-shirt and had a lot of fun!  So when we were getting ready I had put on Ro's shoes because they said that there might be some thorns on the ground because they had mowed the grass at the sides of the sidewalk.

 (Here she is waiting before we head to the starting line)

I asked one of the volunteers how the track looked, and he said that it was clear that over night all the thorns and such had been blown to the side and as long as we stuck to the sidewalk he didn't think her feet would have a problem.  Ro is not overly thrilled with her boots, so I decided I'd just take them and try it without them.  

Here we are at the starting line!

So me and Ro were doing really well, we were heading up the 10k pack (there were other racers doing the 25k, 50k, and 100k that started before the 10kers)  along with one other fellow.  We got to what we thought was our checkpoint, but the volunteer said "Not yet, keep going you are doing great!"  So we kept going.  It was quite a large hill, I was very surprised and said to the gentlemen "I hate to think how the kids are going to manage this hill..." because there were quite a few kids in our 10k race, but they had other bikers with them.  So we kept going.  We got a little behind the other fellow because there was a large downhill, and I like to give Ro a break after a long downhill.  So we went another half mile or so and started up this hill that I thought was GIANT!  (We are used to Wash Park which is mostly flat!) 

 Here is me showing Ro where we were headed!

 A far away shot of the course, we headed up that next hill (this was a little ways after the first large hill).

 It's hard to see, but the trail goes all the way up the far hill.

So...around the time we were 3/4 of the way up the third large hill, another volunteer catches up to us and was like "We are so sorry, but the lady told you wrong, you weren't supposed to come up any of the hills, the 10k course is back the other way."  Leave it to me to get lost!!!  So we turned around and finished the race.  We ended up around the middle/front of the pack due to our extra couple miles going UPHILL!!  We laughed about it, and now Ro's distance is even farther.  There were 4 stations that you punched a checkpoint card, and at the end we had "Jam the Damz'. 

 (Another nice photo from the extra part of the race, it was pretty so it was worth going!)

 This was during one of our water/rest breaks.

After the race, showing off how our punch pass was complete!  As you can see Ro needed a long rest!  I tried to have her give me her water bowl after and she just looked at me like "You have to be kidding mom, I just ran a marathon!"

 

This was Ro after she got a few minutes to catch her breath.  My tired, but happy dog! :)