On your mark, Get set, GO!

This might be a long post so get ready, you may have to read it in sections.

I'll start with a few pictures of the 5K. I don't have very many because I was busy trying to keep up with Melissa. She moves along faster than me. I'm going to say its because her legs are longer, it wouldn't have anything to do with her being in better shape than me or that she is younger than me, no, won't be that. This is our approximate time at mile 1.

This is part of the reason I couldn't keep up, I had to take pictures of these beautiful houses along the route.

We made it to mile 2. You see Melissa waiting on me? She had to shed that coat around mile 1.

There are some Team Jake cheerleaders. Jake's JinJin is holding a picture of her and Jake. Then there is Donna (I believe that is her name), I think this was her first year to be a cheerleader, I'll bet you she will be back. Staci, Jake's mom is in the brown coat hugging someone and out in front, in the road, and always with camera in hand is Jake's Mo, Staci's sister Melanie.


The Finish Line!! yea!!. Now, just to let you know, our time was 51 minutes and some few seconds, this picture was taken after we crossed the finish line and had the running chip cut off our shoes.

These guys had already finished and was waiting on others to finish.
Melissa needed some nourishment after all that. Yum, good bagel, better water.

All five of us finished. See our metals? Brandon had the fastest time. I think he ran every step of the 5K, 28:55; Jake came in next, 37:11; then Zach, 38:53. Melissa and I locked arms and busted across that finish line together in 51:26. My goal was under 1 hour, yes, I had time to spare.

Brandon

Jake
Zach

Charlene

Melissa

After we finished we headed out to cheer on the other runners in the half-marathon and marathon. It is pretty interesting getting around a huge city you really don't know a lot about when half of the main roads are shut down. But we found us a good spot, parked the car, got our signs and started cheering on the runners. One man ran by, looked at us and said "you guys are everywhere". That is just what we wanted. Stacie, Melanie, and JinJin were in a different location so we had different goups set up at different spots along the route. I think most of the runners saw at least one group of Team Jake cheerleaders, I sure hope they did anyway. Here is our little cheerleading squad. We even found Mrs. Kaufman along the route and she joined us.

GO TEAM JAKE!!! This is around mile 13.

Zach and Brandon moved up and down the street.

After a while we decided to move to a different spot to try to catch some other runners. Do you remember the comment above about the roads being closed? Well, we sat for quite some time waiting for an opening where we could cross the road. Anyway, we moved over to St. Jude where the runners were coming through, around mile 24 of the marathon. We saw a lot of the same people and some of them definitely needed some encouraging. Our Team Jake members were still going strong.

This is Melanie. She would get right out there in the street with them to encourage them.






I think the runners really appreciated us cheering them on. They would thank us for being there when in fact we were out there to thank them for RUNNING FOR A CURE.

Jake was a little tired.

Melanie and Donna

JinJin with Brandon and Zach tagging along behind.

Me and Melissa

Jake was a great cheerleader!!

I think I'll save the pictures of the rest of our trip until next time. Ribs at BB Kings, a trip to the Gibson Factory, Graceland, and of course, St. Jude. You just got to love Memphis.

Charlene