Cooper Young Fest

For the first time ever, I ran the Cooper-Young 4 Miler, which is the precursor to the Cooper Young Festival. I really hate running at night and was a bit apprehensive about the race, but considering I had 140 teammates out there I figured I should suck it up!



I thought the race would be more goofing off and drinking beer on the sidelines, but it was actually pretty serious. There were about 2500 runners. Ashley and I were ready to rock it.



Evening race = Ashley in make up!

It was about 84 degrees, which is pretty darn hot, but I managed to keep up with Ashley the whole time. She gets very competitive in races, as one should, and always picks up the pace. I generally worry that I'll run out of steam so I pace myself, often to a fault. There were a number of times that I wanted to stop and take a break, but I didn't. I thought about my friend's recent race report from the Leadville 100 and kept myself motivated. My mantras were "Kevin Freaking Leathers" and "Don't think; Just run." Thinking about someone running 100 miles over 30 hours really puts things in perspective! But even though it was just a 4 mile race, I had to dig pretty deep to finish strong.

We didn't cross the finish line together, but Ashley & I ended up with the same time of 39:10. That's definitely a PR for me. I didn't break 40:00 in any of our practice runs and I had a 42:41 at last fall's Turkey Trot.

So, woot! My goal of pushing myself is happening.

On to Saturday's festival. After soccer, I went to man the CPOP booth.



Satchel hung out with me long enough to procure a Pronto Pup and then he went off with his friend, Theo. I gave Satchel $10 to spend and he saved it all day. Near the end of the day, he opted to spend his $10 at the Midtown Mini Mart on chips and soda. Nice!



Theo is holding a bottomless mug of soda from Wild Bill's Soda Co. For $10 you could have all the soda you wanted. They were slammed all day. Satchel wanted the bottomless mug, but held out.

Jiro, on the other hand, had to have one. I gave him $10 and then some extra cups so he could share with his buddies, but his buddies needed their own.



Once they were sufficiently caffeinated, I led them to the silent disco in front of State Farm. Basically everyone wears headphones and dances to their own beat.



Warren and I got some headphones, but the music was just awful! It was really cute watching the kids dance. They have moves. Carlos said they were dancing Gangham style, which unbelievably I never heard of.



It was fun seeing lots of friends and I even got to meet Satchel's soccer coach for the first time ever!

But, the best part of Cooper Young Fest was the fact that Satchel and Jiro both got invited to sleepovers! Once we packed up the CPOP tent, Warren and I were free to go out and get crazy. Craig Blondis' 50th birthday at Elmwood Cemetery was just the ticket.