Rose Festival season in Portland historically guarantees one thing: rain. It never seems to fail that the moment Ferris wheels and cotton candy machines are wheeled into downtown the rain begins and continues throughout the Festival’s parades and garden tours. Knowing this soggy fact I thought nothing of participating in the Starlight Run when I signed up a few weeks ago.
Flash-forward to Saturday night and at 8:00pm when the run kicked off it was a scorching 87 degrees. Clad in our purple tee-shirts and armed with “MOVE” signage a small group of us gathered at starting line to run not only for fun, but to raise awareness for the Alzheimer’s cause. It’s a shame the Association’s signature color isn’t red because my face was a lovely shade of neon red by the first mile marker. The combination of sweltering heat, over 4,000 runners, and the baking asphalt streets of the city made it a sweat-filled run.
Sweat or no sweat, red face and all it truly lived up to its title of “Fun Run.” We ran alongside naked ladies in a bathtub, retired Hooters girls in walkers and wheelchairs, an Egyptian goddess in a carriage high over our heads, and Abe Lincoln on mini-stilts. All along the route spectators cheered us on and children lined the streets holding out their hands for high-fives. Our crew might have been small but we made up for it in enthusiasm, especially once we crossed the finish line and doused ourselves in water. Next year we’re recruiting others to join us, pimping out our purple, and personally I’ll be crossing my fingers for some good old fashioned rain.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 7:46 am and is filed under Alzheimer's Info, Community, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
