It was a crazy week! There was something going on every night. Monday was the holiday, Tuesday night was RF501 practice, Wednesday the Fair opened with a parade and rides; Thursday, organizing stuff to take to the Expo. Friday morning I arrived at work to find not 1 but 2 giant Rice Crispie treats, one with 100 in M&Ms and the other with 100 in Hershey Kisses that my friend Mary had made for Asia. Later Friday we had Asia's Person Centered Planning meeting, then the Stampede (the celebration dinner before the Dexter-Ann Arbor (DxA2 from here on) race, then back to Milan for the Fair week fireworks. Whew!!
Saturday was the DxA2 Expo, and Coach Gina was kind enough to arrange a table for us to celebrate Asia's 100th race. We really wanted to use the opportunity of the race to show the abilities of persons with autism. There was a wonderful article in AnnArbor.com on Tuesday that brought a lot of attention to our table. http://www.annarbor.com/news/milan-woman-overcomes/ We used the time at the Expo to talk about Asia's running career as well as raise some $$$ for Operation Jack/Train4Autism. Linda Doll helped me set up the booth and man it until early afternoon. We had a blast!
Last night was exciting! After hearing all day that storms were in the forecast, when none had materialized by bedtime we went to bed without a care in the world! At 2:30 a dear friend called from many miles away to tell us there was a tornado virtually in our backyard! And then the power went out!! Fortunately, we have a whole-house generator, so we were back in the juice and could monitor the storm movement on TV...........well, I did..........Jerry went back to sleep! I guess he figured if we were carried off to OZ he would know it soon enough.
At dawn the power was still off, and one of the things we didn't connect to the generator was the stove.....figuring that we could microwave or use the grill. Well, Asia's preferred and proven *race day breakfast* of Jimmy Dean Hot sausage and scrambled eggs required the grill, so at first light I was in the back yard frying up sausage!
The power was back on by the time we left, but the whole night/morning had thrown my timing and organization off, so we left without Asia's fuel belt and *chocolate water*. Operator error!!
We met up with and took pictures with as many of the team as we could before time to line up at the start. Katie, Gwen, Jen, John, Joy, and the rest of *Team Ted* took Asia with them to get a good place at the start. Asia doesn't pass people well, so the closer we can get her to the front, the better overall race she will have. It was scheduled for an 8:30 Start time, right? NOT! The storm last night had taken a tree down across the course and would cause a 30 minute delay while crews with chainsaws cut it apart and hauled it off the road!
OK, cue the mad dash to the port-a-johns!
At 8:50 we found Asia's starting group again and sent her off with them. Jerry and I made our way to the front timing mat to try to get an accurate start time for her.
National anthem, wheelers off and gone, and ...........*Runners take your mark!.........GO!!!!*
We watched as Asia and her group crossed the start and dashed off to the car to beat them to the 2 mile point.
John, Katie's husband, was the first of our team at the 2 mile. We ticked them off........John, Claudio, Farsad, and more, and then .......whoa!! There was Asia at a better-than-8:30 pace!! Fast forward to mile 5, she had slipped back a bit but was still doing amazing. On to mile 8.5, snapping pictures of the team as they passed, little did I know that somewhere along the line my camera got switched to video mode. So what I thought were snaps of the runners turned out to be a flash of them going by, followed by pavement, shoes, grass, and the inside of my race bag :>( ........sigh.......Hopefully Jerry's turned out better!
From Mile 8.5 we headed for the finish. Parking in A2 is always a challenge, but we found a space in the structure at 4th and Liberty, only a few blocks from the finish line. We arrived too late to see John cross, but Claudio and Eduardo had just finished. I slipped inside the gate and made my way to the finish line on the runners side while Jerry headed up the block to alert me to all of our finishers and to get that last minute sprint out of Asia. One by one they crossed the line, some looking better than others. Jerry met up with our friend Maryann, who had driven down from Pinckney to witness the historic 100th race.....Asia had guilted her for weeks into coming so even the storms of last night couldn't keep her away! We knew from previous runners the time lapse from when Jerry saw them to when I saw them cross the finish line. When Jerry spotted Asia and I added the seconds to when she could cross, I realized that she could have a PR and started cheering for her even tho I couldn't see her yet. Her actual time was 8 seconds over her PR time, but still an incredible race! She finished in 1:47:56...totally on her own. 8:15 pace. It was her best race of the year so far, and a fantastic time. We finished the morning off at the Taste of Ann Arbor, where Asia ate her fill of Buffalo Wild Wings and pulled pork. What a great day! Thanks to everyone who sent good wishes in advance and those who were there today to cheer in person!
The giant collage poster of 100 race pictures.
Asia and Linda Doll at our table.
Asia and Coach Gina at the Stampede.
It's self-explanatory!
