6:20 AM, dark, and 30-something degrees. Why on earth was my alarm chiming to force me out from under my warm quilt and head out the door?

Because I love my friends and my Church. I mean seriously? You just aren’t going to get me to do this sort of thing without money or serious groveling. Especially on a Saturday. That’s just cruel and unusual punishment for a vampire like me. Sunrise should only be greeted from beneath a quilt.

My stake (think diocese – it’s a geographical area with multiple congregations) sponsored a family 5K today and a scout organized it for his Eagle Project.  The entry cost – a non-perishable item for the local Food Bank.  Not bad. Especially for all those Couch-to-5K-ers out there.  (In fact I messaged a local friend doing C25K-er and she came out.)

They held registration downtown between 6:30 and 7:00 AM. Unfortunately for me, the location was a wee bit unclear so I went to the wrong place. I finally found the right area not long before the start of the race.  Just in time to take some photographs before the airhorn signaled for the racers to take off.

It looked like a great turn out with a little over 100 participants.  Lots of bags of food went to the food bank, lots of people challenged themselves, and hopefully we all shared in a little early morning fun.

Two missionaries came out in full white shirts and ties. And they ran! What troopers!  A local neurosurgeon, a man in my own congregation, totally rocked. A retiree in our Stake leadership actually took part, ran, and completely pwned me.

I stationed myself near the back of the starting crowd to get a photograph of people taking off.  With my bad knees (yay dance!) and the cold, wet air? Hurting just a wee bit. Ok, hurting kinda bad. That’s OK. I was completely ready to persevere for the cause and for the photos.

I want to express how proud I am of everyone that woke up before dawn and came out. It really was cold with frost on the ground! And dark! Kids, retirees, young moms, even that lady with two kids in a jogger (and yes she WAS jogging!)!

I know what you are saying… that’s fine and dandy, but where are the pictures? Here they come. I made two collages.

I submitted a photo for the newspaper’s About Faith Blog. It is up and you can view it here.   If you see them in print, definitely let me know!  I’ll admit, I’m a bad journalist and I don’t take in the paper. I just read it on the web. Bad me. I’m totally aiding in the downfall of my chosen field.

On that note, I think the entire Stake Presidency now knows that I once worked as a journalist.  To quote one member, “You are in trouble now. You’ve outed yourself!” What does THAT mean? Am I sure I want to know? HA! (In case you want to know, my response was, “I was never ‘in’. You just never asked the right questions.”  Well, it’s true!) If it didn’t amuse you, sorry, but it completely amused me.  To further my amusement, it was his photo I submitted to the paper.

I hope the next 5k isn’t so early or so cold. However, I’d take cold and hurting over hot and fainting. I can get by limping around like Super Gimpy Oz.  I can’t take much more of that heat stroke action. Have I mentioned how happy I am that we are FINALLY out of summer?

If you would like to see more detailed 5K photos, visit the entry at my photo website, The Emerald Lens.

–Lady O