Today the First Annual Sparta Half Marathon was held. Unfortunately, the race was delayed 12 hours due to weather which caused a decline in participants. Reports are that the overwhelming pre-registered crowd of 8 decreased in HALF to 4.
Race weather was not ideal, a bit windy and scattered snow showers. However, it was obvious that the route creator is an expert at their job because the course was relatively flat and easy to follow.
It was quite an exciting start. The four runners lined up at the crack in the road. Several got down into their race start position - example provided for your clarity. I know you can't see the face, so just let me be clear that it is not a picture of Jill. I know you were all wondering. On a side note: I got this picture from a poster site. Why someone would want a large poster of some one's rear end? I wonder how big of a seller it is.
Getting back to the start of the race..... like I said it was QUITE exciting. After I said GO! It looked something like this, but with only 4 people. Mike was particularly cut throat.
Once we all got our rhythm and agreed there was no point in killing ourselves, we settled into a friendly and enjoyable run. Oh, of course Jill had to start complaining at the .5 mile mark, but Mike quickly put her in her place with a well place snot rocket (just kidding).
We picked a bandit at about mile 2 (Judy) and calmly continued on. I won't go into all the thrilling details of the next 11 miles. Disappointing, I know, but this is a volunteer job and I have stuff to do!
The finish was just as exciting as the start. Here is a photo of Mike finishing the race. I know it doesn't look like him, but it was such a traumatic finish that it actually changed his appearance!
Okay - enough joking around.... here is the picture of the 13.1 finishers. Judy (who didn't do the full 13.1 miles) took the picture for us.
See how HAPPY we look! Come join the fun next year! We are setting a goal of 20,000 runners, just like Fargo.
