Monday, June 21, 2010

P-P-P-Poker....Run

This past weekend, I got to take part in a small town fund raiser.  I participated in the Armstrong County Trail Bicycle Poker Run.  Participants got the choice of biking 6 miles or walking/running 3.  I walked the 3.

For those of you not familiar, a poker run works like this.  There are stops along the course, and at these stops you draw random cards.  At the end of the course, these cards make up your poker hand.  The person with the best hand wins the event.  So, it is not a race, which was good for me!

Registration started at 8 am, and my friend J met me there.  There ended up being a lot of people participating, which meant lots of money raised for the Kittanning Library!


As we got closer to 9 am, we all got ready to get started.  At 9 am, the bikers took off first, with the walkers behind them.

We made our way up to the bike trail, and off we went!  We had perfect weather, and it was really fun.  I, sadly, did not draw very good cards, but J and I had a great time, and I am proud to say that even as out of shape as I am, and as hot as it was, we walked the 3 miles in about 1 hour and 7 minutes.  The only real problem I encountered was that my fingers and toes started to swell, most likely from the heat.  As soon as we check back in to indicate we finished the race, I drank a bottle of water and ate a banana, and the swelling started to go down. 

It felt wonderful, walking in the sunshine with a good friend, helping to raise money for a worthy cause.  Congrats to those who won the prizes, and I hope we get to do it again next year!