I have some friends, Marc and Marianna, that are also Rangar Ambassadors. They wanted to put on their own race. It sounded like a neat location, so I decided to support them. I think this was their first event. They want to do others and maybe turn it into a full time job. This event was a 5k run/1 mile walk held at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Phoenix.
I wasn't feeling great, so I decided to run with my friend, Lisa, who was the captain of my McDowell Mountain Ragnar last year. She always takes off real fast and dies out. So I let her get out ahead of me for the first quarter mile. Then I caught up to her, but she started slowing down. Slower than even I wanted to go, so I kept going at my 10 min./mile pace.
The race wound its way around a downtown Phoenix neighborhood. It was an urban trail race. We had some "hills" climbing up and over the freeway and back. Marc said to be on the lookout for a painting of Homer Simpson and a yard with a life-size chess set in it. I didn't see either. The course wasn't marked great. Marc had taped pink pieces of paper with arrows to the sidewalk. Someone or someones removed some of them. He was out on the course to help guide us, but everyone, and I mean everyone got lost! Funny stuff. There was probably less than 30 runners that attended. I had a couple of gals ahead of me in my sights, but after I came over the bridge and back through a park, I lost sight of them. I went straight through the park and didn't see any signs. I figured I'd better stop and try to find where I was. I realized I was on the other side of the park that we already ran through. At this point I decided to just keep going to the other side and run the course backwards to the finish. I figured I'd be pretty close to a 5k anyway. 3.09 miles is what my Runkeeper recorded. Close enough. Not long after that Lisa finished. Hers said 2.6 miles. The race wasn't chip timed or anything, so it wasn't a big deal to me.
After the race we got to enjoy the gardens. I never knew this place existed. I guess Marc and Marianna come here often to meditate and stuff. It's a pretty place. Enjoy the pictures.
Marc, Marianna, me, and Lisa
This is their mascot. In their sister city of Himeji, Japan, the Shachi, not to be confused with Chachi of Happy Days, sits upon a hill protecting the castle. I mean honestly, who is going to mess with a fish dragon?
Each one of these rocks was brought over from Japan and handplaced along the bank of the pond.
You can see the koi fish, which are the same kind of fish RWCD uses to control aquatic vegetation in their canal.
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