ANDRUS-R-US: First Dam Pancake Run

Pulling off this event has to be right up there at the top of my favorite accomplishment moments. A LOT of work went in to planning this race. There were definitely a lot of things we learned and things we would've done differently- HOWEVER, it still turned out SPECTACULAR, even if I do say so myself!
It's one of the greatest feelings to see so many people come together for a good cause, enjoying themselves, and participating in a healthy lifestyle activity, knowing that you made it all happen.
Every time I participate in a race event, I think, "I could do this... why couldn't I do this?" Then I started putting my thoughts in to action. I talked to Logan City, figured out how to get an event approved, how to get it insured, how to get sponsors, how to find a good cause and volunteers, how to get the shirts, timing system, signage, etc.
I have to give a lot of credit to my husband for not only supporting me with my wild idea, but actually jumping on board and helping to make it all happen. The sponsorship from IHOP was a huge help in making us not go too far in the hole with our pocketbooks.
We held the event at First Dam early on a Saturday morning. Mike and I stayed up until after midnight working on making race packets. Then we got up at 4 am to start setting up the event. Little did we know, the wind would be our worst enemy (reminded me of our beach wedding).
Apparently the canyon winds in the morning are relentless. We found this out the hard way. Despite our efforts to get up early and have everything all set up prior to the event, we were scrambling at the last minute to finish things up, since every time we tried to set up a sign, or a tent, or ANYTHING, the wind knocked it right down!
We were lucky to have help from lots of family members and volunteers to pull everything together, despite the treacherous winds. Surprisingly, we had quite a great turn out too! Over 100 people registered for the runs (5K and 10K).
There were free IHOP pancakes for participants, free face painting for the kids (courtesy of my mamasita), amazing raffle prizes, and even a blue color throw for those who wanted to participate (blue being the color of autism awareness, and IHOP).
We even found a pro bono photographer who was able to take some pretty incredible photos at the event. Anyway, I will let the pictures speak for themselves instead of rambling on about how awesome our race was...

Scenic view at First Dam in Logan

pre-race happenings...

Me and a volunteer frantically getting people registered for the races...

Lots of ASSERT Autism Program staff posing with the IHOP man :)

Oh yeah, it was FREEZING out! Everyone lined up in the tunnel which made for a dramatic start. Mike makes a good Race Director!

The handsome Race Director

This gal turned out to be one of the winners! Cute shot of her appearing to be freezing!

And they're off!

IHOP man was sure a hit!

Can't have a post without the cute girls in it! These are some pics Arlene took while playing with the cuties. Also a shot of what the race t-shirts looked like from the front :)

The Face Painting for kids was also a hit. Nana (Gayle) had a line the entire morning.

I was lucky enough to pull from some connections with my former employer, Cache Valley Hospital, in order to have a First Aid team there, as well as some nice donated raffle prizes from them. Very grateful for their support...

The fastest runners start to come in!!

Dr. Thomas Higbee is the Director of ASSERT, and was kind enough to let us team up with him and his crew. Here he is coming in with a great 10K time!!

The lady with the pink hat is a good friend and neighbor to my parents, named Robin Hoglund. Both she and her son (shown above) placed in the race! Quite impressive!!

Some more familiar faces... Dr. Higbee's wife finishes... and the bottom left shows the Crockett team!! They drove up to support our run and see us. (Bottom left- Robert Crockett, my cousin, and his family)