2009 Bobbie H Boney 10 miler

Start of the Bobbie Boney 10 miler. Photo by Shannon Johnstone.

I had been looking forward to the 2009 Bobbie H Boney 10 miler for a while, because of the great course through the rolling hills of Turkey Creek in Umstead Park. A week before, I saw that only 14 people had signed up, and I thought I might have a chance to win it. That is, until I saw that Paul Potorti was running it. Paul Potorti (pronounced "pah-twat-ee", make sure you say it right if you see him) is really fast for an old guy (I think he's like 60 or something) so I had to set my sights on 2nd place.

Paul Potorti is very modest and queit guy

The day before, I had run the Philosopher's Way 15K, and had acquired 2 things:

1. A lesson on not starting out too fast.
2. A tweaked left hamstring

At the start, I chose to ignore both of those things and took off as fast as I could. Paul took the lead as expected and was out of sight after a couple miles. I was in second place, but at the turn-around I saw that Danielle Rowland and couple of guys were not far behind. So on the way back I tried to pick up the pace as much as I could until:
"Wait! Hold on!", Shannon was running by with her camera and wanted me to pose for a picture.
I tried to explain I was running a race, but I was out of breath, so I just kept going.
It was really hot, and at the next station I dumped water on my head which went directly into my shoes. "Squish. Squish. Squish". My feet felt like they weighed 20 pounds each. I struggled the last mile up hill and as I approached the finish, Paul greeted me with "Congratulations, First Female!". Mr. Funny Guy continued with the trash talk, so I told him I would beat him in the race next year. That seems kind of far fetched, but I need an another impossible goal after getting my plaque in the Umstead Marathon.

At the awards ceremony, everybody got an award as well as cool door prizes. Paul tried to steal Mel Levin's door prize "I thought she said Male 11". Uh huh. Shannon and I made off with many gift cards including $50 to the mellow mushroom for a door prize. This is a good race to do.

Shannon took a bunch of pictures which are here.

As we were leaving, I heard "I even have a nicer car than you!"
Wait till next year...