Life After Windbird, Day 9: Successful Race Day
Date: Sunday, August 21, 2016
Weather: More of the Same Beautiful Summer Weather
Location: At Home in The Studio #8, Falmouth, MA
Heather had a very successful run in her first Falmouth Road Race. When she zipped by us at Mile 6 (plus a little) she was still smiling.
And at the end of the race she still had enough energy to carry Ollie home on her shoulders.
It is great living so close to the race course. Early this morning, Sam and Jonah carried chairs out to the sidewalk to save a place for us so we would have a front row seat. Granddad and Ollie slept a little later than the rest of us, but we were all able to have breakfast and make it out to the street in time to see the first of the handicapped participants zip by in his wheel chair. One very special moment was when a young girl about Sam’s age went by still propelling her wheel chair after more than six miles. Her father was riding behind her on a bicycle, but she did the whole race on her own. The racers in wheel chairs are in the first wave to leave Woods Hole, then the elite women, followed by the elite men, and then wave after wave of the other 13,000 runners. After Heather went by us, we walked over to the soccer field that was transformed into a sea of runners.
We met up with Heather and walked back to The Studio where I took the ‘victory’ pictures with Heather and the Goldpebbles. They did a victory pose that led to a pose in honor of Olympic runner Usain Bolt from Jamaica.
Unlike the Bolt, Heather is not the fastest runner ever known to man, but her time today was quite respectable. And she was immediately talking about running again next year and shaving off a little time. Congratulations, Heather! We are so proud of you.