Ten

Saturday morning Walker arrived at 7:00 a.m. We made a surveillance pass to determine the parking opportunities close to the site before swinging through the drive-through at Starbucks. Coffee in hand, we circled back to park at the YMCA. We headed for check-in to receive our packets avidly discussing the threatened promised, "aerodynamic shirts" to be received by participants in the day's events. We spent the next hour saying hellos and milling amongst the growing crowd.
Just after 8:00, there was a brief welcome, a moment of prayer, and an introduction by a current resident of Pleasant Suburb's local shelter for the homeless. Her words briefly and simply dispelled stereotypical images of vagrants to paint a more personal portrait of homelessness that could have described any number of her listeners with the exception of the residence. Her humble thanks was for each person who had given the price of the Run For Cover 1K, 5K, or 10K entry fee that would go toward the total of $20,000 in added support for the Samaritan Inn. Her subtle spell was broken by the announcement of the 1K Family Fun Run's beginning, and the call to the starting line for the 10K.
Walker and I walked over to the starting area with all the serious runners. Our goals were simple. We wanted to walk the 6.2 miles in under an hour and a half (especially after having our usual distance and time challenged questioned recently), and as a bonus we hoped to finish in a spot other than last. We set out walking behind the runners on a route that was simply an extended variation on our usual one. Well, an extension with hills. We traipsed along trying to keep the runners in sight, and even passed one pair momentarily. As we fell far enough behind to have difficulty seeing the runners, we opted to try running off and on over the final third of the race.
In the last half mile, we passed the last pair of runners again. As we came around the final curve and topped the hill before the finish line, we could see the digital timer's oversized readout. The numbers reflected our 1:27 time as we crossed the line.