LHF road race

We're hanging out in IA with Brett's folks for a few days before Thanksgiving. Brett ran the Living History Farms road race yesterday with Chris, his childhood buddy. Tradition has that this race is cold, wet, and absurdly muddy. I'd only seen pictures of the happy finishers until this year, and having seen it in person I can vouch that it is completely disgusting. The only reason Brett wasn't totally covered in mud was during one of the 8 creek crossings, a log someone ahead of him jostled tripped him up and he went face down in the frigid water. He was soaked.

Brett's folks and I had staked out a place along the run to watch them. (We also had to ford a creek to get to the prime locale, but no one fell in.) As soon as the first racer came past us I turned on the camera and waited. Every time it shut itself off, I turned it back on. I had it held up in front of me so that when we saw them coming down the trail, all I had to do was click the shutter and we'd have beautifully framed photos of our runners emerging from the mist.

Well, as you can imagine with a pack of 7500, it was a while before Brett and Chris appeared. Like, an hour. Eventually, the little low battery warning light came on, and I thought it was probably better to shut off the camera and save some for their grand entrance.

It's hard to pay close attention to thousands of runners for a whole hour. My only possible defense is that I was too diligent too early, expecting that they would be closer to the front of the herd.

Anyway, when they did run past us, we didn't even notice them until they were nearly past. I tried to turn on the camera quickly, but it was too late.

Well, I was determined not to miss a picture of them crossing the finish line, so I told the folks I'd meet up with them at the finish line and sprinted back across the creek and up the hill to beat the boys to the finish. I found a good spot, settled in, went to turn the camera on, and was horribly disappointed to find that there wasn't even enough battery to turn the stupid thing ON!

So there are no pictures of the guys running the race. I am shamed. Next time I go to a Brett race, I will be bringing my non-battery-powered, easy to use, SLR camera that Grandpa got me. I don't use it more often, because developing the film takes a while and is more costly than digital. But I do think it's worth it to get the shots I want.