Freedom Festival 5 & 10K and 4th of July Fireworks!

The 4th of July started out with the Provo Freedom Festival 5 & 10K.  Joel, Josh Paula and Charles did the 10K and the kids and I did the 5K.  There were 7000 people there.  It was crazy!

It went right past the new Provo City Temple that was still under construction.  It is gorgeous!  I ran until I couldn't run any more and then I looked up ahead and saw this sign about 100 feet away.  I was so mad at myself for stopping.  That was the furthest I've ever gone though so I should be proud of myself.

The last mile was straight uphill.  Needless to say I walked a lot of it.

 

I was excited to see this sign and to have this stranger take my timing chip off.  I don't remember my time but I do remember that I was proud of myself for running further than before.  Truth be told, I can speed walk it faster than I can run it.

Here is Joel finishing.  I missed Josh but he was right before Joel.  And Charles was before Josh.

And Paula came in next.  She had a horrible experience.  Around mile marker 2 she saw a runner, basically dead, having CPR done on him on the side of the road.  She tried to keep herself together until she finished the race but as soon as she found me she burst into tears and I could hardly understand what she was saying.  Later she found out that he lived.  But it was an awfully scary experience for everyone.

As she was telling this story a little boy came over with this huge doberman and it nudged Paula right after she got done telling her story.  It made her jump and then she felt so bad for it that she gave it a drink of her water and I am pretty sure it was the Lord's way of taking her mind off of things because she was really troubled and this brought her out of it.

It was a wonderful overcast day but still super hot and a lot of fun.  I'm glad we were able to do it. 

That night we went out to Thanksgiving Point to watch the fireworks.  Charles brought some for he and the kids to do to pass the time until the city fireworks started.  It was awesome.

When the fireworks went off you could see the reflection in the cars.  It  was really neat when the sparkly ones went off.  It was like you were inside a glitter ball.

My camera has a great zoom and I could see right up to where the firefighters were lighting off the canisters.  We were surprised that they didn't use a computer to set them off but then again that would have cost more money and the firefighters had to be there anyway so I guess they thought they'd save a dime and make them do it.  It was awesome!