Pottsville, Pennsylvania United States 46F / 8C

Total Time = 00m Overall Rank = 1859/2156 Age Group = Age Group Rank = 198/274

Event was held at and by Yuengling, America's oldest brewery!

**Disclaimer: I did this race with my friend, 'Cuda', a first time 5K-er, and chose to stay with her throughout the whole race rather than go at my usual tempo.**

My friend and I got into Pottsville Friday afternoon, headed to the brewery for a tour and to check out the gift show and to explore town a little, as well as do packet pickup for 4 other friends. Drove the course because we knew it would be hilly (the whole TOWN is hilly) and my friend was a bit apprehensive about it. After driving the course she was still apprehensive about it! No amount of positive comments from me could console her. Brewery tour and tasting were fun, now it's off to Maroon's for packet pickup. Holy cow, I think everyone was there! The line was out the door, up some steps and in a very disorganized, chaotic room. They were that swamped that they didn't bother checking my friends' permission slips for me to get their packets, and in the frenzy the volunteer failed to give me my own packet! Thankfully I realized the error before I walked away.

By now it was much later than preferable and we still hadn't eaten supper and Maroon's was ridiculously busy with a line to be seated, so we headed out to a different establishment. My friend's friend is a bartender at the Greystone, so we headed there with the intention of just saying hi but ended up having a beer and dinner there at the bar.

Stopped at a very skeevy gas station for water and soda on the way back to the hotel. Thankfully we got out of there quickly without incident! Back at the hotel I headed over to the room of 2 of the friends I picked packets up for. While I'm there, my sister texts me FROM CANCUN, MEXICO, "what is the treatment for sun poisoning?" Oh my. I didn't reply right away because I didn't know the answer and wanted to research it first. So a few minutes later, she calls to ask the same thing. I take the call and head back to the room to look up the answer on my friend's iPad, then text her back. Only my sister could get some weird skin condition (I've dubbed it Tropical Jungle Rot). Finally got to bed waaay later than I would've under normal circumstances and didn't really sleep all that well.

Race morning I was up before the alarm, ate the breakfast of champions, Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets and diet Dr. Pepper. Oh my. So not the norm and so not a wise choice, generally, but I wasn't too worried since I knew I wasn't 'racing', so just go with it! Met up with our other friends and headed to the race site nice and early. We got a good spot in the parking garage near the brewery and headed toward the race area to get our friends their wristbands identifying them as over 21 and to scope things out.

As we were out, my phone rang and another friend who is doing the race says, "L___'s bike just got hit in the garage!" a few other things were said, but I was under the impression that my friend was riding her bike and got hit in the garage, so I hung up and started running down the hill toward the parking garage, in a controlled panic, worried about my friend. I get to the garage and start heading up the levels looking for them. Finally I see a car and a bike wheel and people standing around but I'm a little confused. The friend who I thought was riding was in street clothes and looked perfectly fine. Then it all started to come together - she had her bike on the roof rack and made it as far as the 2nd level before it hit. So on one hand, relief, but on the other hand, still upset at the prospect of my friend ruining her bike, rack, and damaging the car.

Eventually we put the rack and bike in Cuda's SUV and got everyone settled and I gave them their packets I picked up the night before. We went down, again, to the starting area for them to get wristbands and met up with the friends I abandoned when I took off running to help L.

Since there were 2500 registered runners/walkers, there were timing corrals. We put ourselves in the appropriate starting area and hung out, shivering, waiting for the start. I did a little stretching but not my usual routine.

See the part where I took off running toward the parking garage, LOL!