One of my colleagues, Adam, has a wife, Allie, who has been struggling with leukemia for over a year and a half. Those sorts of medical battles come with expenses, even with insurance helping, which is why I was very pleased to hear about the “Rallie for Allie” 5k race and 2-mile walk on Saturday. In addition to helping raise some funds for the family, these events are a great way to show love and support for people who have been going through a difficult time.
The race was at 9:00 am, and was in Keyser Park, which is only a few miles from our house. Mer went with me to cheer me on, and she ended up helping out with keeping track of people at the finish line, which was very good of her. At a guess, I’d say there were about four hundred people there, runners and walkers combined. I read on Allie’s blog that it was an enormous encouragement to her and her family, and that was the point.
The atmosphere was great – I knew about twenty different people from CVCA, which included both staff and students. That made it feel like a community event for me. Zach and Londa were there to walk, and my boss Jim was there to run, and there were a bunch more people to whom I got to say hi. The race was pretty well run, especially considering it was the first time it had been put together. A police officer kindly donated his time to help with traffic. The race course went more or less around a giant “block” – four roads, with a slight detour into a housing development. It was moderately hilly on the front half, but then was flat. It was a pretty hot day, so it made for slow conditions.
I felt pretty good. I started out hard in an effort to get clear of the pack of people, and I surprised myself by finding myself in the lead pack. I was able to run at a pace I felt was fast and sustainable, and I actually finished fourth, in 21:48. I received a great compliment from the runner behind me, later in the day – he said I was a good runner, and he had expected to catch me, but could not. That meant a lot to me.
The “Rallie for Allie” was a perfect run for me – a good cause, good people, and a good time. I hope it is a blessing for Adam and Allie to look back on as they continue to fight the cancer. God bless them both and their family!
Mer and I decided later in the day to go for a short hike. We had more graduation parties to attend, so it could not be a long trail. I looked in my hiking books, and stumbled across the Deer Run Trail, down on the far side of the Valley, out toward where my friend Jason lives. It was supposed to be an hour hike with hills and a stream, so we went there.
It was really quite hot, even in the shade, and on the hilly sections on the back half of the hike, we were both sweating. The hike was pretty, especially down by Deer Run, a pretty stream that ran by a section of the trail. We had to take a small side path to get down right next to the stream, but you could still see if from the main trail.
The hilly sections were pretty with limited overlooks of the valley – it must be very pretty in the fall when the leaves change colors, and the views must be far-reaching when the leaves are down. I hope to get back there in the fall to see if I am right.
We went home and got cleaned up before heading to the two grad parties of the day. The first one was in a park in Silver Lakes, and it was a fairly new pavilion we had not even known existed. This party was for Derek, whom Mer and I both knew – Derek had been in Ceili Club as a junior high younger brother to his sister Ingrid, who loved to dance, and Derek had been in Mer’s Honors/AP program for two years. We got to visit with Derek and his older brother some, but we spent a long time visiting with Ingrid, who just graduated from college and is going to teach French at a high school in Williamsburg. It was wonderful to catch up with her again.
The second party was for Andrew, who again was known by both me and Mer. Andrew was in my Connections group and was in Honors/AP English. Andrew’s mom works part-time in the accounting department at CVCA, and Mer had taught all four of the boys over the last ten years. We had a good time visiting with Andrew, but we also got to catch up with his older brother Jonny, who recently decided to become an English teacher, largely based on being in Mer’s English classes. That was great.
As we left the party, we spied a ping pong table, and Mer handily beat me after I had a 6-0 lead. She is quite good at the game, and proved it was not a fluke by besting Andrew in the next game. I have been told by the mother that Andrew was deeply impressed.