Q50 Races: CINCO DE MAYO 2014
Top photo of Lisa & I courtesy of Charles Dye
"I've never had a tamale before"
This is where you insert my face, jaw dropped, and nearly slapping Lisa across the face.
"What the hell do you mean you have never had a tamale?"
**shrug** "I just haven't."
I am getting ahead of myself…
Q50 Races CINCO DE MAYO!!!! WHOA man! Seriously, in all honesty, other than having a fireman hand me a Tiffany's necklace at Nike Womens 1/2 Marathon, I have never been to a more exciting put on race.
It's all Cesar Torres and the Q50 crew! Also…. the PEOPLE who race Q50. The NICEST people EVER show up to those races. Seriously, SUPER nice people. It isn't the normal "running" crowd. You get the ultra dudes, the trail dudes, and the "I am here just to party dudes" that take over Q50 events, and it's MAGICAL. We were surprised and excited to run into a few of our favorite peeps too, Aaron, Jonathan, and Ashley!
Before we got to the race location I tried to explain to Lisa how awesome Cesar is. The guy is everywhere, one second he is screaming people's names as they cross the finish line, then you turn around to get a drink and there he is AGAIN handing you the drink and THANKING YOU for being there, then you turn back around to look at the finish and he is BACK there. Its like WHOA. Also, this guy is at random events…. BAM! He's there.
Our morning at Audubon Park started off with a hug from Cesar himself. I know, you're thinking "Hugs? Really Christina, you hate hugs." but there is no NOT hugging this man. Such a happy man that you can't help but hug him, and his 6'4 frame just pulls you in anyways with a spanish accent saying "Christina! Lisa!! OHH!!! Thank you for coming! You guys look great!!", a kiss on the cheek and he rolls on to welcome more runners.
That right away puts us into a grooving mood. The weather is perfect. The trail is gorgeous and music playing in the background. **I just started dancing in front of the computer screen**
I would like to note that both Lisa and I had our faces painted the day before apparently Lisa has NEVER had her face painted, and I just wanted something that matched the Mexican skirts I made :) Dude, you gotta be ballin' baby! With face paint…..
The events kicked off with a kids dash, which was a free event to all the children. It was adorable. Cesar running around with a massive sombrero cheering the kids as they set their marks, and OFF they went. They all ended up with cute sombrero pins as a prize. I noted right away that I HAVE to bring the kids next time. VERY kid friendly.
We would like to thank Cesar for calling us out on the microphone a couple of times while we were there :) It was very sweet and just got us all excited to race!
The race was 2 loops around Audubon Park along the outer dirt trail. Not technical. Flat and fast. Also it's BEAUTIFUL. If you actually turn your head to notice, there was a golf course and amazing homes sitting right on the outer rim of the park. We noticed all these things on our additional 8 miles we tacked on after the race. The first 4 miles we were FLYING and trying not to trip on sneaky tree roots.
Now we ran, and though we had to run some more after (just training), we did stop to conquer the party...
TAMALES! MARGARITAS! COOKIES! AGUA! HERBS!
Dude, you really had me at tamales. The margaritas were even rimmed with salt and served with a slice of lime! There were also cute ice cream cone sombrero men… I had to eat him, he had no chance of living.
Last but not least, let us mark this day as the day Lisa had her first tamale EVER.
I am still shaking my head...