Farewell to summer

Wow!  Summer is over.  Except for our Yellowstone trip (which went by way too fast) I don't feel like I even had a summer.

We're so busy.  It seems like every minute of every day is filled with something to do.  I'm not complaining though because most of it is of my own doing.

I had a heck of a Labor Day weekend.  Mr. and Mrs. W were here for a visit from the Phoenix area.

 

I made my first ever trip to Dave & Buster's in Denver.  I can't believe I've lived here 16 years and have never been there.

They're all a bunch of big kids.

We had dinner at the Rio (this is Mrs. L's margarita face).

On Sunday we participated in the Broncos Back to Football 7K.

My son-in-law, Mr. W, is from Down Under and because of a roll of the dice he is now a Bronco's fan.  Don't you love the hat? 

 

There were seven thousand people in the race.  The organizers were definitely not prepared for this size crowd.

Here we are at the start line.  Runner and walkers were mixed in together along with the strollers.  It was chaos.  Took nearly 15 minutes from the gun for us to reach the start line.

Part of the race was on a foot path alongside a lake.  It was about 4-5 feet wide and clearly not made for  thousands of runners.  To pass you had to get off the path into tall grass.  Frustrating!

Once we made the turn back towards the stadium I got a burst of energy.  My last two miles were way faster than the first two miles (it helped that it was all downhill).

Miles was there to welcome us back to Mile High.

 

They had really cool kilometer markers along the route.

Then things got really ugly.  If you thought things were bad at the start line, the finish line didn't even compare.  The finish was through the tunnel, through the Bronco's head, and down to the 50-yard line.

I was all prepared to run down that down and onto the field.  But no...bottleneck ahead!  It took 10 minutes to get through this mess.  If I were a serious runner who had competitive times I would have been furious.

 

My two favorite son-in-laws were there waiting for us.

But it wasn't over yet.  We had to go around the edge of the field to the tunnel on the north end then up to the first concourse to collect our finisher medals and get some post race water and snacks.  We were also supposed to meet the cheerleaders and some players.

The only problem was that after waiting in line for what seemed like an eternity, I found the water, beer and snacks were all gone.  Keep in mind that I wasn't last or even near last...there were over 2,000 people behind me.  No cheerleaders were in sight.  The only players I saw were older and I didn't know who they were.  There was one younger player, but it was $10 to get your picture with him and I still didn't know who he was.

I wasn't about to leave without my Broncos finisher medal though so I kept asking people where they got theirs and finally a nice man pointed me to a gate where a guy had a handful of medals left.  (See the personalized bib)

 

Afterwards we went for a fantastic lunch and then made the long drive home.  We all took a long nap and had a relaxing afternoon.  Some of us couldn't wait until we got home for that nap.

 

 

I was surprised to find an email in my mailbox this morning with a survey about the race.  Whew!  I can't imagine all the comments they're going to get.  I gave them several suggestions for improvements for next year as I'm sure the other 6,999 participants did also.  They're going to give away an autographed Peyton Manning jersey to someone who completes the survey.  I'm pretty sure it will be me.

We missed having Mary and Mr. Beans with us, but they hate crowds and would have been miserable.  Irv had to work all weekend and missed out on a lot of fun.

Was the Bronco's 7K a mess?  You betcha

Did it need some organization?  You betcha

Will I be back next year?  You betcha!