Hanging Rock

The weekend of St. Patrick's Day, the three of us went up to Hanging Rock State Park for the 12K trail race up and over the mountain.  Oh, no, no, no, no, we did not run in the race.  My sister Ame and her husband Mike have started organizing trail races, so we went to help out and spend time with family.  We stayed in a cabin in the park and got to see all 5 of Ame and Mike's girls.  We were even surprised to find that my brother Johnny came to help as well!  I hadn't seen him in a LONG time.  Needless to say, we had a great time, and Sims loved hanging out with his older cousins.

This was my first race experience, and I really enjoyed working at the water station.  Sims hung out with me, and he was amazed by the runners.  Jason was stationed at the top of Moore's Wall, where the trail started to become a bit trickier for the racers.  Sims later told a family friend that his dad was a climber.  Sims and I got to go to the finish line and watch many of the runners run the home stretch.  It was fun to watch Sims hang out with his cousins and clap for the runners as they ran by.

I believe this race may have inspired Jason to sign up for his first 5K, which is in May and not on any crazy mountain trail like this one.  I will admit that the energy of the race did make me think that I would like to run one in the future.  Maybe a short, all downhill one?  Do you know of any of those?  That would be my kind of race.