Stramilano 2014

Sunday was this year's annual Stramilano, a 5K, 10K, and half marathon event. Last year I signed up for the race, but on the morning of the race I opened the window and felt the cold, rainy, windy weather and decided to stay in my pajamas.

Jenna and me- don't ya just love the bibs? 

There was similar poor forecast for the event again this year and I waited until the morning of to decide if I would participate. Thankfully, it wasn't raining Sunday morning and I was able to meet up with Jenna for a pre-race breakfast.

breakfast of champions...since we were only walking...no problem!

On our way to the Duomo there was a heavy, and thankfully, quick, rain shower that required us to hide under a doorway for a minute and then we were able to keep moving.

Look at these little cuties! Everyone participating from school met up before the different races.
These little munchkins belong to a couple of the ladies I work with.

The start of the race was really anticlimactic, since there was no official 5K start.
They just sent everyone off when you walked that way. 

After that, the rain held off and even cleared up a little.

An idea NOT to try- rollerblading the Stra when you can't rollerblade.
This lady was a DISASTER. And that's putting it nicely.

The end of the race is at the arena in Parco Sempione which is a bit of a bad situation as the entrances and exits are narrow and required everyone to funnel in and merge together. It took forever to get out of the arena, but I wanted to get my medal for finishing!

walking into the arena

the bag, shirt, and tiny medal!

I was off to head home at this point, but the half marathon had just started so crossing the road was impossible. I did get the chance to see our friend Ali as she passed by and then crossed over to the 5K mark of the half. I figured it would be a bit before anyone arrived, but was clearly wrong when the lead men, from Kenya and Ethiopia, whizzed by in under 15 minutes (at the 5K mark!!). Unbelievable!

Holy cow, they're fast!