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blueberry rewind

so while for most of you this past weekend was just a 3 day weekend, for us in p-town it was blueberry time! yes, folks, our small little town becomes home to nearly half a million people that wander around looking at crafts, eating turkey legs and elephant ears, and catching up with long lost friends; that is if you are at a place where you aren't moving in a giant herd of people.

in my youth, i spent every possible moment there, in my teen years i spent time working at each and every fundraising booth you could imagine. in my married life, well, i go as little as possible. usually once with friends or my sister to look at crafts and once with the family to eat some homemade blueberry ice cream from the local dairy farmers. of course, we gather for homemade ice cream and watch the amazing fireworks, but we are lucky enough to do that in the comfort of my parents home!

this year however, i spent a few more hours wandering the crowded streets. a friend was heading up the blue goes green campaign. when she offered me a free shirt, i was hooked. so i had talked my high school gals (i get to mentor 2 amazing girls) into helping me with my saturday evening shift, only to find out there was a conflict with the first half. but never fear, my nieces are in town. one phone call and ten minutes later we met up at the green booth. can i just say they are good sports...

we wore these amazing blue aprons complete with gloves, hand sanitizer, and stickers. basically we dug through the trash and put the recyclables into the recycle bins. then we would sticker anyone who really did recycle. we laughed and they had fun, i think. once grandpa offered to send them out for dinner on him, they left me. but a short time later i hooked up with my girls and we ended our time giggling and digging into more trash. but we did get to sticker the cute tennis player that helped us empty the full recycle bin!

on sunday, i got to meet my 2 new "nephews". they are 17 and 15 and korean. they are living with my sister's fam for the year and we had a blast getting to know them. i think, if they were honest, they might have thought the festival a bit bizzarre! of course we had port a pit chicken, homemade ice cream, and watched the fireworks.

then came the big day...MONDAY!! i had started running just about a year ago at the encouragement of a great friend. we ran our first 5k in november and i set my sights on the blueberry stomp 5k!! a month ago i was a bit nervous i wouldn't be in shape...but have no fear...


at 2.6 miles, i'm still smiling!!! i finished in 31:52.1 and came in 17th for my age group - not last by the way!! i had my best time ever and loved every moment!! this is a big race (seriously guys - this is for the avid and serious runners!) and follows the parade path, so yes, thousands of people get to see you run through town. a very humble, yet exhilarating experience!

but as monday afternoon wore on and i crashed on my in-law's couch, the thousands left our community...and as i drove through our park today you would never know how many recently wandered those streets....all is calm once again!


Comments

Kevin Flick said…
that is awesome chris! so thrilled for you. now that you've got that down, what's next? the iron woman? :) miss you so much!
September 9, 2009 at 11:17 PM
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