Course Record Set at Crosswinds 5K

I nabbed the above photo from virtual running buddy Steve Bragg's blog. He tried to take a photo of himself, me, Leelani and Butch before the Crosswinds 5K last week. Alas! he only caught the "roses" between the thorns!
The four of us ran the Crosswinds 5K last weekend. It's a challenging course with a good-sized hill right at the end. Becky and Bob Andrus from the Crosswinds church in Canandaigua organized this race. Since I used to attend that church, I was thrilled to have spectator support along the entire course.
Usually my support comes from other members of my running club who have beaten me to the finish line. That's great. They are always so supportive of me and every personal record I have, as I am of them. But it's even sweeter to have support along the entire route.
When I reached the last leg of about 100 meters, I could hear people cheering me all the way to the end and that was so very encouraging -- and a lot of fun.
Anyway Steve finished in around 25 minutes, which I am sure is a course record for him. He's been training hard and improving so much. And it was his turn to beat me!
Since Butch hadn't even run this course before, he also set a record. He finished about 90 seconds to two minutes behind me, which is close to his usual race pace.
My time of 27:17 (8:45 pace) was a course record for me as well. My previous times for this course were 29:50 in 2005 and 31:38 in 2007 -- evidence that my running ability has indeed improved over the years! And for that I am grateful. It shows that God is indeed healing and has healed my lungs immensely.
Steve Gardner, the church's facility manager, also finished well. . .he's been working hard to overcome injuries and lose some weight. It takes a lot of determination to keep on trying in spite of setbacks. He's truly an example to those at church, many of whom do volunteer work on the buildings and grounds for him.
My goal was to finish and finish well, which I did. But I also won a silver medal for coming in 2d in my age group division. I am always thrilled and proud when my friends win awards; and it was fun to make my friends and adopted mom, Hazel Bragg, proud. I got a hug and a kiss from her!