ready. set. SPLAT!

I've stopped doing a lot of races, it's just not in the budget. But this one I had to do. It was for my tween friends school. And they added color. How else would the PTA get a bunch of tweens there?

We arrived early, and waited around a good half hour. There was a mix-up in the shirt sizes and the tween was given a small youth, rather than a small adult. It kind of started as a dare, but Angel ended up wearing it for the whole race.

Finally it was time to line up. We always leave the runners up front, or they will mow you over.  We go thru the arch to the first color station and a tween cuts me off (not ours!) and trips me. I went falling into the person in front of me. I guess that is why I landed on my knee instead of my face. He turned around to help, but I said no. I just wanted everyone to go away. I was humiliated. This one lady insisted on helping. I kept repeating just give me a minute. I was not entirely sure I could get up. Off all my falls this was the most painful. By the time I was ready to get back up,  our tween came back. I lost you guys ... Yeah, we were busy.

I stood up and didn't fall over. Thank goodness. And then I tried to walk. It worked. And we were on our way. Finally. I didn't go to the first aid tent. They wouldn't have left me walk. Especially since the EMT was Angel's neighbor.

A little in to the walk the tween decided to tell us she was disappointed that we were at the back of the pack. I told her to get used to it. I wasn't going faster. Frankly, I was delighted I was going at all.

For this walk, we never leave the school property. And, much to the child's delight,  we did not finish last. When we arrived at the finish line, the arch had collapsed. Teens were holding it up. After everyone finished we did the big grand finale of color. I stayed at the edge. I had nothing to cover my face and knew I'd start sneezing.

I wanted a selfie in front of the sign. (Top) I got down and got up. It hurt but I was delighted my knee worked. After we got up, the tween was faking being tired, and I took her picture. She claims she really just wanted a picture of the sign. "I'm holding it down so it doesn't blow up." It was blowing up like a flag when we arrived.

Here's all the children. It's a small school, but I think this is a really small turnout. If I was a parent, I'd much rather do this for a fund-raiser than buy/sell stuff I don't need.

Now I think I need to ice my knee. Still really hurts.