Team Cynthia!

It wasn't a typical Sunday for me folks. Instead of rolling out of bed around 9 and contemplating a long run I was up and out of bed at 6am, getting ready for the day ahead. What you must understand is that 6am is early, because hello! its Sunday and who doesn't want to sleep in on a Sunday?

It's also early because I goofed up and misread the Around the Bay website and thought we needed to be in Hamilton for 9 o'clock. Turns out it was closer to 10.

Oooops! Hopefully The Boyfriend will forgive me for that one if he gets in a little nap this afternoon.

You see we were headed out to surprise Cynthia, who as I mentioned yesterday, was running her longest distance to date. She has no idea we were planning to be there so it was extra crucial that we be on time. Oh, I got us there on time alright.

Tim Horton's solves everything, it really does!! (in case you were wondering I was given the honor of playing again on my RUTR)

The Boyfriend, while a great cheerleader on any day, probably wished he got that extra hour of sleep. He still loves though....err, as least I hope!

I doubt I am winning back any points by posting this photo either. But he's getting used to the whole "all photos are blog eligible" thing. And just to test my theory..

I swear we actually made it to the race and didn't just spend the day goofing off!

Once in Hamilton we did a quick tour of the downtown area to make sure we knew exactly where to go when it was time to go there. The last thing we wanted was to miss her after all the extra time we had.

I was ready. I had my sign. We were going to rock this cheerleader thing!

And then she ran right by us, blocked by a crowd and clearly very focused on her run.

Spectator fail!

Suddenly I was a little worried that trying to surprise her wasn't going to prove to be the best idea. But I wasn't giving up. If Cynthia was out running 30k on this cold morning the least I could do was get the cheering part down pat!

Cheering on runners is a lot of fun! Especially when you know they just climbed a gruesome hill at kilometre 27. And especially when you know how much the cheering would mean if you had been crazy brave enough to run that hill yourself!

Trying to find Cynthia again in what seemed like a sea of pink jackets was interesting but then, before we knew it there she was.

At first she had no idea who I was or why some silly girl was screaming her name but she quickly realized and gave us a wave. I was happy to see that she felt good enough to smile and wave so far into the race (I would have flipped my own mother off at the point, guaranteed!) She looks strong huh? Tough cookie that one!!

It was even better when we caught up with her at the finish and saw the huge smile on her face. She'd had a great run and the high had definitely set in!!

Congratulations on a fantastic race Cynthia!!! You rocked it just like I knew you would! We are very happy we could share in this big day with you!

Up next, your wedding in Cuba....can't wait!!!


So tell me, do you like surprises? How about surprising people?