I'm the one in the purple shirt and Perry the Platypus hat!
The Sleeper Has Awakened!!! Ok, so now that I have my Dune quote out of my system, My apologies for being absent for so long, We have expanded our locations at Work – so things like running, blogging and sleep fell by the way side. But the new location is open, which means my free time is returning! With the coming of the Thanksgiving Holiday – to runners that means TURKEY TROTS!!! So this year I headed out to the Pete Keyes Turkey Trot 8k at Ostiningo Park in Binghamton. With it being an 8k, it was a guaranteed PR, since I had never run one before. In addition to it being a “first time” in that sense, it was also the first time I had volunteered at a race. I showed up early (in my Perry the Platapus hat) and helped pass out the Pre-Registrations (A-H!) It was actually a lot of fun, although the person who put the envelopes in “alphabetical order” had more of a theoretical sense of the alphabet rather than a practical one. Luckily runners are patient people!
The race itself was nice as well, with 467 runners pre-burning those turkey calories. We started up at the “old rest stop” pavilion, and looped around it again, and then headed over to the path along the river. Otsiningo Park is a beautiful park any time of the year, even when the leaves have fallen. The runners were fantastic, with 2 of the instructors from Southern Tier Martial Arts out there. The runners were fairly chatty – which is something I always enjoy in a run. I spoke with a gentleman who had run the Warrior Dash in North Carolina – we compared war stories.
It was an out and back race, which is a blast to me as I get to “people watch” and see all the runners. Coming back to do the loop I sped up a little, and one gentleman sped up with me. He started to let me go as he slowed down, I encouraged him with “Come on! You can’t let a guy in a platypus hat beat you!!!” He continued to slow down but held his fist in the air and yelled “CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS!!!”
I ended up with a new P.R. of 43:13 (unofficial time from my CardioTrainer)! I stayed behind and sold T-shirts and helped clean up after the race. If you have never helped out at a local race – I encourage you to do so. You get to meet some nice people, and it is definitely appreciated!
I run, because I am a runner. Having realized that I have always "been a runner" - even when I went years with out running, I am learning how it has integrated itself in all aspects of my life. When I started running in highschool, my perspective on life changed. Funny that I didn't realize how much it had affected it until just recently.
Once and Future Runner 
Welcome back and great job! I’ve never volunteered at a race before, but it sounds like fun!
[…] of years, as my T-Shirt Collection says that I last did it in 2011, a date easily verified by checking here in my blog. Just by comparing the pictures- it seems there was a BIG difference in the weather! in 2011, […]