50% walkers at the spartan spirit 5k

Today was the Spartan Spirit 5K at the college I work at. There was probably only about 100 people, and almost half of them were walkers. So cool.

Sam Spartan came (the mascot), and there were students helping. But what was nice was this is the first race that I can remember that was really diverse. Makes sense at a community college. It always puzzles me why the turn out at these things is overwhelmingly white. If you watch any track meet, that is not the case.

If I had to guess a lot of the walkers were faculty. Not many students. I had asked my students Thursday night if any of them were doing the race, and they said no, that 9 am is way too early in the morning. One pm would be nice—First thing in the morning. Clearly there is a generational gap.

I think the college didn't hire a race company. It was all volunteer. Another reason why it was so cheap. I think they used the timing equipment from the track team.

Runners were timed. Walkers were not. The trophies were made at the fab lab —my happy place on campus. The t-shirts featured my design. I offered them 4, they picked the one I liked least, but oh well.

We all gathered inside and out, and then walked over to what appeared to me as the finish line. One chute said runners, the other walkers. They did speeches and the girl was singing the Star Spangled Banner and mid-way through a air horn went off. We were at the wrong line! Everyone moves.

Finally it begins. We looped the parking lots and then headed out to Green Pond Road. The girl behind me says to her friends. "I have air." They ask her what she meant and she said it was the first race since giving up smoking and she could breather. Kind-of cool.

Near the end of Green Pond we turned into Moravian Academy and looped around their campus. At times the"air" girl passed me, and then I passed her again. At this point she was behind me. I hear, "I'm out of air." Her friend said something like you can't turn around years of smoking in a couple weeks. She never passed me again, but she did finish shortly after I did.

I have no idea what my time was. There wasn't a clock and I don't wear a fancy watch or use a smart phone.

Other Odds and Ends:
I didn't buy the bridge photos. They cost the kings ransom. 

My fitbit is still acting wonky. At 8 am, it said 5:09 pm. And was still counting my numbers from yesterday. I'm going to try and reboot it tonight. I think it started celebrating Lehigh-Lafayette a little early ....