{"id":9898,"date":"2015-06-27T20:07:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-28T01:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yogisden.us\/?p=9898"},"modified":"2015-06-28T08:04:36","modified_gmt":"2015-06-28T13:04:36","slug":"hope-even-for-slow-old-fat-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/?p=9898","title":{"rendered":"Hope even for Slow, Old, Fat Guys"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are in the downtime of Summer right now. We took our family vacation a few weeks ago and many of Logan’s activities like his Improv Comedy workshop is out for the summer and his ankle sprain is precluding his horseback riding. So Friday night I had a thought. Hey, I should run a race!! Pre-Logan I used to run them at least once a month. Most of them local 5K’s. I have since gravitated to a few big races a year plus I really love trail races.<\/p>\n

So I found the only local race was about 30 miles south in the town of Okmulgee<\/a>. A 5K sponsored by the Muskogee Creek Nation<\/a>. So early Saturday morning I dragged myself out of bed and headed down Highway 75 and found the place.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150627_071810\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I got registered and got my bib and t shirt and wandered around a little bit.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150627_071532\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They had some nice sculptures including this one of Ernest Childers<\/a>, a Muscogee Creek Nation Tribe member who won the Congressional Medal of Honor in World War II. Check the link on his name. Quite a story behind this hero.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150627_072410\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As it got close to race time everybody migrated over to the starting line. I thought it strange how much space people put between each other. But we bunched up before the gun started. I started in the very back. Psychologically it is better for me to pass people from the start to the finish.<\/p>\n

\"Muskogee<\/a><\/p>\n

Most of the race was out in the countryside and was very nice. The weather sunny and cool and no wind and I ran a pretty even pace only stopping to take the above photo and walking through the two water stops.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150627_081148\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the finish line. The Nation’s tribal court building is earth banked so I walked up almost to the roof of the structure to get this angle. I stuck around until the awards ceremony and found out that I won first place in the Men’s age 60 to 64 category.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150627_090724\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I got this nice coffee mug as a prize. Of course I have to tell you that there was only one other person in this category in the race. The way I look at it is that there were thousands more who stayed in bed and didn’t go to the race. This is the only award I have ever won in a sporting category \u00a0in 48 years since I won first prize in a free throw shooting contest at a summer camp in Clear Creek, Utah. I have run I guess over two hundred races over the years and have never even come close to placing. So make fun of me if you wish, and I understand if you do, but I’m very happy anyway.<\/p>\n