Race #25--Dawn Brancheau Foundation Dream Big 5k-- April 13, 2013

The Dawn Brancheau Foundation Dream Big 5k is held every year in memory of the trainer who was killed by the whale at Sea World.  We have run in it every year so far (3 years).  It's bittersweet.  We love running at the theme parks.  But this one is always a little heavy--the friends and family of Dawn always speak and it's emotionally charged.  I'm not sure if they did it this year but I know the first year, they played all of the songs on Dawn's iPod as we ran through the park.  And there are always tons of Sea World employees who run in her memory. But we do enjoy it.

The race was set to start at 7:30.  We know from previous experience that it's a smaller race and parking is easy so we got there at 7:00.  We lined up pretty close to the start.

They had some girls on stilts for entertainment before and after the race.




















We always run at the beginning until Cori needs to stop, usually around the 1 mile mark, which was the case this time.  The one mile was just around the parking lot, right before you head into the park.

We kept up our pattern of each running our own pace for 2 minutes, then for the 1 minute walk, I stop and wait a couple seconds for her to catch up and then we walk the rest of that minute together.  Around the 1.5 mile mark, Cori told me I could go ahead.  I hate leaving her.  I'm always afraid she's going to get upset.  But she assured me she wouldn't, so I headed out on my own.

I finished in 30:06.  One of the benefits of going ahead of Cori is that I got to snap a picture of her crossing the finish line.

After the race, we said hi to the aunt of one of the kiddos that I had last year.  Then we headed to the post-race gathering.  They had mini muffins, fruit, and water.  My only complaint is that they only had water.  I need Gatorade or something with sugar after races otherwise I get a terrible headache.  I really need to learn to just keep one in my car but it would be nice if all races had options other than water.  Anyways, they had a slideshow of pictures of Dawn (she was a runner).  They also always have animals out that you can pet, which we love!!

This year they had an anteater (which surprised us with the coarse hair.  We thought it would be softer.)

 

An armadillo (last year they had him running around--too cute!)

 

 

 

And they had a possum named Bella who surprised us with really soft hair!

 

(Thanks for the clear picture, Cori!)                                                          

 

 

They also had the sea lion out.  One year, they let us get really close to him, but this year he seemed to be a little grumpy.  They had to keep turning him around and calming him down with treats.

 

 

 



I almost PR'd!!