Stomp the Swamp

My family and I arrived at the hallowed grounds of Nine Mile Forest for one of the best races of the year, the Stomp the Swamp race. Unfortunately, we didn't plan to allow for a lot of extra time. I signed up for the 12K race which is my normal choice. But we had a fun alternative. As I brought Kaia to the car to allow me to change into my race gear (my wife was inside sitting in a medical boot on her left foot that she needed because she had earned a stress fracture on her foot from last week's Book Across the Bay), Angela called me on my cell phone and said they had kid's races. Well, it was time to stall dressing for now and instead move Kaia out to try to be part of the race for the kids. Kaia had a chance to run with the giant dog (also known as David Sykora). Angela got a couple of shots with her. This was her first race ever that she did herself. Well, I should admit that given her age she didn't do the half mile race, but did perhaps a couple of hundred yards. Technically she cut some major distance, but they are fine with that in kid's races (especially if you are not quite two years old). Kaia earned her first official medal, and she wouldn't take it off for the rest of the day. I think that we now have a little racer in our family. Back to my preparations for the race. . .or lack of it. I did my first official race without remembering to put on a race bib. The reason for this was a last minute blister appearing during warm up on my right foot required me to place duct tape on the outer edge of my right foot to prevent abrasion of the shoe on my toes. I forgot my race bib. In a small race like this, I did the only other thing I could think of to mark my position. I took my shoe off and pulled a piece of duct tape off and gave it to the race coordinators and told them this would have to be my race number for now. You can do this kind of thing in small-town races. Could you do this in the Chicago Marathon? Probably not. Because I forgot my race bib, I am sure this must have created less wind resistance as I ran the route. Although I have run the route faster in the past, at least I was faster than the previous year. My time was 1:03:23, which was 5th out of 14 in the field of snowshoers. Not a blazing fast time, but I was happy with the opportunity to run a race the same day as my daughter's first race. Kaia and I both earned a medal for our efforts on the day.