Balloon Festival

This past weekend Galesburg held its annual Balloon Festival. We took the kids to the night glow & walked around. You could be up close & personal with these balloons. A few even let the kids climb into the baskets (although we didn't do it ourselves). It was fascinating.

Then this morning all of the balloons lifted off from Lake Storey. I got up & was out there at 6 a.m. None of the balloons were up & going yet, but many were getting ready. It was neat to sit & watch it all happen. There was at least a dozen balloons that lifted off within 15 minutes or so.

For the first time they incorporated a 5k to go along with the other activities. You bet your life I was there bright & early to participate in this. It had a small turn out (about 40 people), which is normal for its first year. My run was...well, ok. Not awful, but not really fantastic either. I slipped out of gear for about 1/2 mile and really began to drag. I won't bore you with all my theories as to why. I'm not even 100% sure on my time and I think the course was off a bit anyway. They never hollered out my 1 mile time, my 2 mile time was awfully slow and compared to my finish time it just didn't all add up. Another fellow running friend confirmed my suspicions by mentioning the same inconsistencies with his run. So who knows, but I ran, and enjoyed doing so. I got a nice new shirt and new award for my efforts. I like adding different looking awards to my collection that hides in my basement.