Run for the Border

For Cinco de Mayo, J and I decided to tackle the "Run for the Border" race held in downtown Cleveland. Here's a description of the race from the website:

"This is a 3 to 3.5 mile run with no set course! Beginning at 5:00pm, you will be given a map of the area and the locations of the checkpoints. You will then determine the quickest route to each checkpoint. At 6:30pm, the race will begin with teams starting every 10 seconds. Each team will receive a green card that must be stamped as you reach each checkpoint. Partners must run together and pass each checkpoint as a team. Teams not reaching all checkpoints will be disqualified.

Pretty sweet, right?

J was ready:



Just let me tell you how excited I was that he wanted to run this. He's not much of a runner, so anytime he says he'll run with me I make sure to lock him in so he can't back out!! Ha!

The race started at the Blind Pig on West 6th Street:

  

Wait, no headband? Who am I??? :)

Anyways, the 3 checkpoints were Carney's, McCarthy's, and Zocalo. J mapped out our course ahead of time, and we were off!

Our first stop was Carney's, where we were given a sombrero to wear and maraca to carry for the rest of the race. Everyone else must have had the same idea because we ran into this line when we got there:

  

Some random guy at the bar offered to take our picture, but this is what we ended up with instead:



Hahahaha!!! So funny!

This is much better:



We then headed to McCarthy's, which was luckily only a few blocks away. Here one team member had to throw 3 limes into a bucket that the other team member held on his or her head.



(sorry for the blurry picture, but we were in a hurry!!)

We were then off to Zocalo. Well, J thought he found a "shortcut" (I cringe anytime I hear that word, how bout you???) and took me a different route than anyone else. Well, he had me climbing fences!!!!



It got us there, but I'm not quite sure it was any faster? Anyways, at Zocalo we had to sit down and take a shot of tequila!



Blech.

Then we headed to the finish line. J did a great job of running the whole race, and Steve gave me a final distance of 3.19 miles.



Of course it was raining. I seem to have this bad luck with rain and races. Let's hope my bad luck wears out before next weekend!!

Hope you all had a fun Cinco de Mayo!!!!



Any other city have a fun race like this?