Having friends on the sidelines at CIM made the race a million times better, so when a bunch of my best running pals got into the Way Too Cool 5OK this year, I was excited to make the trek up to Cool, CA (yep, that’s really the name of the town!) to cheer.
We were on the road at 6:10 and got to Cool in under two hours. I JUST missed the start of the first wave, so I didn’t have a chance to see Aron and Jessica off, but I did get this picture. I know they’re in there somewhere!
After that, Mike and I found Alyssa and hung out with her until the second wave started.
The runners did an 8 mile loop then came back through the start, so Jana and I posted up right across from the aid station to wait for our friends to come through.
It was nice and sunny and it was really fun cheering for everyone.
Jess, Aron, Alyssa, Kristen, and Layla all looked awesome!
After they all went through, we knew we had a little while until they all came back to finish, so we set out to do the first 8 miles of the course. Unsurprisingly, we were not the only spectators with this plan. After 1.5 miles on the road, it turned off onto beautiful single track.
As awesome as it was, I really appreciated that I got to stop after 8 miles.
We hung out on some hay bales near the finish and the first man came through in 3:08, a new course record. CRAZY! The our friends started finishing. Jess and Aron stayed together and ran a huge PR, and Alyssa, Layla, and Kristen all became ultramarathoners.
It was an awesome day, but by the end I was so exhausted it almost felt like I’d run 31 miles. Spectating is tiring, but it was great to see my friends run and celebrate with them at the finish.
Having you there was completely awesome–spectators (esp. friends) make all the difference!! Loved seeing you & thanks for all of the great pics too!! <3
THANK YOUUUU so much for coming <3 <3 So glad you got to get a good 8 mile run in too
It was so nice to see you out there! Thank you for trekking all the way up to Cool!!
Aw, what a fun day! Wish I could have been there…but also probably would have been happily on the sidelines. Maybe next year I’ll have the courage for a 50K! Cheers to being an awesome spectator
You ultra-marathoners are ultra amazing.
It was so good to see you! Thanks for coming out and being an awesome cheerleader! It was much appreciated.
What a great idea to run the first 8 miles while you were waiting.
These girls made it look almost fun, I’ve really enjoyed reading all the race reports…from the sofa!