Not running, but playing a role in road race

The crowd in downtown Holyoke waiting for the race to begin

I could probably have built off my reasonable showing at the Hot Chocolate Run to train for this weekend's Saint Patrick's Road Race, but after last year's dramatic finish (euphemism alert), I decided to give it a break.

Someone said maybe it's time to call it quits, but I don't necessarily think so.

In any case I enjoyed taking Ben and a friend to the race, cheering them on, and, after much searching in the crowd, finding Ben and giving him a lift to where a bunch of them were going for beers, finding a nearby coffee place, then going back to get him and bringing him home.

If I closed my eyes, I could have been in the way old days of driving him around when he was a kid.

Since it's the 15th anniversary of the day when my poor time in the same race led to my leukemia diagnosis, I wanted to be involved even if not running. Being the support staff brings its own type of reward. And as I wrote in my last post, Ben cheered me on when I ran, and it felt good to do it the other way around.

It was interesting, for a change, to see the runners from start to finish, even though it was cold and windy. I got a good look at each of the starting groups and then walked over to the finish line after the last runner took off. It didn't take long before the winner came through. Those top runners all had such beautiful strides. The colorful garb that had helped see me through when I was struggling was still in evidence, such as a girl dressed as a unicorn, complete with a horn, and green as far as the eye could see.

My plan was to run when I got back home, but all in all I had walked about three miles – in addition to jumping up and down to stay warm – and that was enough for the day.