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Monday, May 27, 2013

remembrance, racing, and representing

Memorial Day is a day to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.  It also unofficially kicks off summer fun activities, and I think the combination is appropriate as we give thanks for all of the freedoms we have.

For us, the weather was beautiful.  Magnum, Chaco, Meego, and I went for a lovely hike in our local boonies.  Wolfgang opted not to join us.  He and three friends spent the last two days in Boulder for the annual Bolder Boulder 10K race.

The Bolder Boulder has been run for several years, always on Memorial Day.  It's quite a zoo actually, but well organized.  There were around 45,000 runners this year.  Wolfgang and the running buddies had a lot of fun and all finished close together at right about the 36:00 mark.





And let me just say, as a mom, if his idea of a good time, overnight, out of town with the fellas, is getting up early and running a road race, I'm all for it.  Nice kids all of them.  He brought home all kinds of goodies, including this "runch" bag filled with healthy food.


(just love that... "runch"...)







In the meantime, over in Merry ol' England, another tradition was taking place.  Cheese rolling at Cooper's hill in Gloucester!

Honestly, I'd never heard of this crazy event, but it made our local news because a local boy won!  He's an army veteran to boot!

Way to represent, Kenny "American Cheese Racer" Rackers!  And, as goofy as it seems, his story is actually pretty inspiring.  (still, these people are NUTS!)






God, those Brits are fun!!
.

13 comments:

Anita said...

OMG! How did this event escape my sophistication? Wonder if cheese rolling is in my area...not that I have any plans for it.

Wolfgang and pals finished a 10k in about 36 minutes? Did I read that right? Oh, to be young!

Sounds like you and the remaining family had a good day. Hope the rest of the week is the same.

Anonymous said...

How cool that he won the cheese rolling race - on Memorial Day to boot. It DOES look like fun, but it probably won't be on my bucket list of things to do.
What a proud mom you must be when your oldest son chooses to spend a holiday weekend running with a group of friends. And to finish with a great time! Good for him!
Sounds like your summer is off to a great start! Makes me quite jealous as I had to work all weekend and the weather has been ugly!

Rock Chef said...

The cheese race was kind of spoilt this year by the person who usually supplies the cheeses being told that they could be sued by anyone who was injured by one of the cheeses! I think people had to supply their own cheeses this year...

Yes, I can see that Wolfgang's idea of fun is better than it could be...

Abby said...

We looked up other videos of the cheese roll, I don't know if the one I embedded really gives the steepness of that hill justice. Crazy!
Yes, 36-minute 10k is the going pace for those guys. Oh, to be young is right.

Abby said...

Yeah, it does look like fun. And terrifying, and painful...
Wolfgang added two racing shirts to his collection - the BB participant shirt and another for the "sub 40 club". I can't remember the last time I had to buy him a t-shirt from an actual store.

Abby said...

If I got it right, the cheese that was rolled was actually a foam stunt double. But the winners got actual cheese, which could do some damage at high speeds!

terri said...

A guy at work was asking us at lunch time if we'd ever heard of this cheese race. I think I had a vague awareness of it, but I was picturing a GIANT wheel of cheese. And I had no idea that the hill was so steep and dangerous. You've gotta be a little bit crazy to participate in that event!

Glad you were able to get out and enjoy the weather this weekend.

Good for Wolfgang and friends for finding something productive to do over the holiday weekend. They definitely sound like good kids. You can be proud!

Guano said...

10K in 36 min is FAST -- 'specially at that altitude! I'm not sure I could sustain that pace for even 1K, even when I WAS young! Kudos to Wolfgang for the pace and for the activity itself.

Abby said...

I agree. Those guys put good thought to their strategies then get after it when they race, all the while keeping it fun. Nice to see!

Abby said...

I'd never heard of the crazy cheese race. Broken legs and twisted ankles and such are apparently pretty common, and I'm surprised there aren't more injuries!
And yeah, I'm proud of Wolfgang and his friends. I even got a t-shirt out of it!

agg79 said...

Great way to enjoy the weekend. Your Bolder Boulder sounds like a real production. With 45k runners, that's rivaling some big time marathons (like ours). Impressive, but quite a crowd to handle. And 36:00 for 10k? Pretty decent time to pull down.

And a cheese roll race? Wonder why it hasn't caught on over here?

Abby said...

I think it's one of the biggest 10k's in America... and the world. The Kenyans and Ethiopians swept the elite races. I thought about doing it, but didn't want to deal with parking. Then I found out from the guys (too late) that there are shuttles. Maybe next year.
You won't catch me in the cheese roll, however.

CiCi said...

Your family is inspiring to other families to get out there and be active. Good for you.

That video is great, it looks like great fun. Congrats to your local boy.