Sometimes, fact is stranger than fiction. I’ve been a runner most of my life and still enjoy road races. But during winter in the mountains, I don’t get in the miles I do when it’s warmer, so I was looking for a 5 or 10K to run this spring.
I considered the Cooper River Bridge Run, a 10K in Charleston that I’d never done. But the dates didn’t work out. On a whim, I decided to look up the Edison Festival of Light 5K in Fort Myers to see if it was still around.
Thomas Edison had a winter home there and they celebrate his life with a mid-February night festival including a parade and a 5K road race on the parade route preceding the parade. I was living in Fort Myers in 1990 and it was the very first road race I ever entered. Rummaging through my closet, I found the T-shirt from that race (the teal one on the left). It was on my birthday that year! I’m sure somewhere in my box of old pictures, there’s a 1990 pic of me wearing it. But since that was in my pre-digital days, I did a current day photo.
I Googled the event and this is the 86th year. Not only are they still doing the road race, it was on my birthday this year–34 years later to the day! As you can see from the white T-shirt, I entered and ran. Quite a bit slower than 1990 but I finished 7th out of 14 runners in my age group.
Just glad to be here and thankful I was able to run it. Life is good.
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