Halloween Weekend Recap Part 1

It was just me and the alpacas up Sunday morning. I've run by this alpaca farm countless times, but have never seen all the alpacas hanging out so near the fence. Pretty cool. I needed some pretty cool and amusing things to keep me happy on this Sunday morning long run. It's been a crazy, busy weekend that started Friday after work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Run Like Hell and culminated Saturday night with a Halloween bash at my best friends' house that we'll be talking about until the next Halloween bash. Since it was such a packed weekend I'm going to blog this out in installments. First stop is the Friday's Run Like Hell.

I've been working on the marketing committee for the Run Like Hell for quite a few months now. We worked on a very tight budget in order to be sure that 90% of the proceeds would go toward funding research for a cure for CF and support for families of patients with CF. That meant a lot of calls to get items and services donated. Our goal was to raise $100,000 Friday night was the fruit of all our labors.

Previous years have come to be known under the aliases of Rain Like Hell, Snow Like Hell, The day the Hell Froze Over, Hotter Than Hell....and on and on. What would the weather bring this year? Fortunately, as the evening grew closer the weather was looking very good. It was hovering in the low 60's with a few clouds scattered around. If the weather took a turn worst, which is always a possibility during any given October day in Ohio we were prepared with tents for the band and the crowd.

Before the race I worked race day packet pick up and late registration. It started off a bit slow, which was good because I got to roam a bit and take some pre-race photos. However by 7pm, 30 minutes to the race, we were slammed! We were checking registrations, taking money, and giving out race numbers as quickly as we could to get everyone registered before the gun went off at 7:30 pm. Things started to slow down around 7:25, so I jumped ship and headed for the start line.

The starting area was packed with people. I know they make announcements and what not before the race because of previous years' experiences, but this year you couldn't hear a thing. People were chatting and checking their watches knowing that it must be getting close but not getting any sort of information. I chatted with a few people, snapped a couple of photos and enjoyed the crowd. This would be the first race where I wasn't going to worry about my time at all. I was just going to run, take photos and enjoy all the crazy costumes!

The gun went off and the mad dash began! I set out at a steady pace. I wanted to stay up with the front runners just for a minute or two, so that I could fade back and take photos along the way. It was a little bit like running intervals. I'd pick up the pace for a few minutes to a point where there was a street light or what looked like a good spot to shoot from, stop take a photo, then run on up for a few minutes to the next spot.

The photos really speak for themselves....Go Here. I took about half the photos. The other half were taken by my father in law Tom Chaney.

After the race I went to the after party where I worked the souvenir booth and walked the crowd taking photos. It was lots of fun, and a very rewarding experience.

As a postscript to this blog I received an email from Annemarie, the Events Coordinator for CF. The preliminary total for the event was $102,000! WooHoo!