Go, Go A.Leo!

A.Leo was my first non-spousal running partner. Even though she whines A LOT I still love her and want her to do her best. She did the Army Ten Miler with me last year, we did a 5k together in October (my last race of the pregnancy!), and we've done a bunch of leisurely training runs together over the past few years.

Early on in my pregnancy, I felt fairly certain I'd still be running by this point, so I told her I'd do the Stockadeathon with her. 6 months later, maybe I changed my mind a little. Instead of running with her, I volunteered to spectate. This was what greeted me at the start line:

She's in the middle of the pack somewhere. I didn't get there in time to find her before she queued up. I looked for her to run by, but the dog (who'd never in his life been around that many people and strollers and other dogs) got a little manic, so we had to find a calmer spot.

This spot looked pretty calm to me. So did that puppy. I wish my dog was that calm.

There's our girl, running out of the frame. I am, quite possibly, the world's worst sports photographer. Several times I tried to snap a picture and couldn't understand why the stupid lens kept closing. Evidently, I was simply turning the camera on and off.

Side bar: that woman's celtic knot shrug is about the coolest running garment I've ever seen.

Gus calmed down and we waited for our friend to run by us on a little bit of an incline.I used my standard cheer of "nice smile!" to encourage people. They usually weren't smiling before, but after that, nearly everyone ran by me with a grin. I felt accomplished. So did Gus, because he got a few "nice dog!" greetings in return. You can't tell, but his tail wagged the entire time we sat there. He was astoundingly well behaved and stayed in a down for at least 20 minutes.

 

 There's the girl with only two short corners to go! 

This morning was pretty exciting to me, because I finally realized a goal I'd set years ago: to spectate a race while pregnant, if I couldn't run it. I had a blast. Gus did, too. Hopefully A.Leo will do it again next year so we can take some better pictures.