Air It Up Fun Run

The last weekend before our move, we signed up for the 1st Air It Up Fun Run. It sounded like our best window into obstacle runs without too much mud, fire, etc. The fact that it was so family friendly - a kid's fun run complete with a medal, wave start times all morning, and additional inflatables for the kids to play on made it sound like a fun family morning.

The weather was great when we got there, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that while there were a decent number of people there, it wasn't crazy crowded. Actually, it didn't feel much like a race at all - more like a fun gathering of people at a festival. Joseph immediately wanted to run around the kids' course, and we were excited to discover that the organizers didn't care, and perhaps encouraged, the little kids to go through the course as many times as they wanted. They even had a race photographer on the kids' side, so we got some free fun pictures of Joseph coming out of the last inflatable.

Unfortunately, we realized that since our plans to run the race together with Scott and Tricia wasn't going to work and the kids were starting to melt down, Joe went ahead and ran the race by himself first. 

The adult course was 2.5 miles with 8 inflatables along the way. It was definitely a more fun experience with others, and I know Joe didn't have nearly as much fun as Scott, Tricia and I had.

The look on his face says it all.

This was definitely a race that focused more on fun, and not style (or speed). Which is a good thing. As the morning went on, it actually started to drizzle, the nice breeze died, and it got humid very quickly. Sweaty bodies + plastic inflatables = lots of sticking in akward ways and places.

By the last inflatable, we'd learned it was important to go down the slides with as little touching the slide as possible, otherwise you'd stick and bump your way down. It also made for some fun pictures.

Trying to determine the best way to scale the inflatable obstacles was also really funny. Scotty, being the tall kid that he is, generally opted to go right over the top, instead of the intended under or through. These pictures are the same as the ones Joe's in above; you'll note quite a difference in execution!

Yes, the photographer got me in quite a crazy pose. Notice Tricia going down the slide behind me!

A few pictures from Scott's camera and stolen from his blog.

 This "Ironman" inflatable end was just a bit weird. But somehow appropriate, I guess.

 Scott and Tricia flying over the pit of nothing at the end of the last obstacle. Would I do this event again? Absolutely. Hopefully the next time we can get someone to watch Maddie and Joseph will be big enough to run the adult course, too. And when I say run, I really mean walk, as that's what we mainly did. Definitely a fun run!