Your Daily Fiber and the Wildlife Sanctuary
Ivy has repeatedly asked me to keep my stories about our/her yarn store, Your Daily Fiber. Today, I am going to honor her wish. I will start with the backstory.
Ivy celebrated her birthday last week. Celebrating Ivy’s birthday can be difficult for the rest of our family. Ivy has two interests, knitting and everything else in the world. It’s that everything else in the world that’s difficult. I’ll take that back, it’s the knitting that is difficult.
Ivy knows more about knitting than most people.. If she doesn’t know something about knitting she will research it until she knows everything. Buying Ivy knitting related presents usually results in comments like, “Hey, I already have this, what else did you get me?” Ivy doesn’t really say that, but she does with her eyes. We can’t buy Ivy knitting related gifts.
That brings me to “everything else in the world.” Elaine has taken to simply asking Ivy what she would like for her birthday.
Elaine: What do you want for your birthday? Ivy: I want the family to swim with the sharks! Elaine: Great, but we can’t go on vacation for your birthday. Ivy: There is a restaurant in Denver. It has a big aquarium with sharks. You can pay to swim with them. Elaine: That sounds nice, you can go swim with sharks. Ivy: I want the family to go. Me: I’m not going, I don’t like to get my beard wet. Elaine: I’ll go to watch from the bar. Girl Twin: I’m just not going. Boy Twin: That’s stupid. Elaine: Maybe you had better come up with another idea.
A couple days later, Ivy had another “great” idea.
Ivy: I know what I want for my birthday; I want the family to run in a 5K at the Wildlife Sanctuary on the day after my birthday. Boy Twin: I have baseball. Girl Twin: I don’t like running, it makes my legs itch. Elaine: That’s Saturday, I need to teach class in the store. (Your Daily Fiber reference.) Ivy: Dad? Me: Oh for (construction language) sakes! Why is it always me? Where is this place? Ivy: I will get more info!
A couple days later, Ivy came to me with all the information.
Ivy: The Sanctuary is east of Fort Lupton. Our entry fee includes a cool shirt, a runner’s cap, food, a tour of the park, medals and trophies. Me: Did you say Fort Lupton? That’s 100 miles from home. Ivy: Yes, I know. The race starts at 7:00 AM. We will need to leave the house at 4:45 AM to get there and get checked in. Me: I didn’t say I was going! Ivy: I already signed us up!
Driving to the race, I told Ivy, “I’m not doing this again.” She replied, “This might have been a mistake.” Neither one of us slept well the night before. All night long, I was checking the clock. “Is it time to get up?”
We arrived at the Sanctuary in plenty of time. I observed the other runners. If you are not counting the guy in the “Cat in the Hat” costume and his wife with a birthday cake on her head, the “competition” looked like real runners. I was thinking, “Let’s get this over with.”
Ivy and I picked up our shirts and hats. Ivy wore hers; I took mine to the car. Ivy and I lined up at the starting line with the “other” runners. The cannon sounds and (I’m guessing) five hundred people took off. I said good-bye to Ivy and lost her in the crowd.
I ran for awhile, but soon I started thinking, "Hip replacement". I noticed a large brown bear was running along the fence next to me. The bear on one side, me on the other. I wondered if I smelled like bacon.
I didn’t see anyone in “white, old fat guy shoes” to help me keep a pace. (These guys were serious runners.) I settled on an elderly person as my pacesetter. It wasn’t long and a young girl with a prosthetic leg went flying by me. (God bless her!)
The course was extremely hilly and I was having a tough time keeping my breath. I saw the finish line one hundred yards ahead. It was time to start trying to pass some of these guys with professional shoes. Fifty yards from the finish line, I ran under an electronic archway. I heard the loudspeaker announce, “Here comes Monner from Livermore, Colorado. I thought, “Oh crap, now everyone knows who I am.”
Ivy had already finished and was waiting for me. Ivy suggested we go check our times. Times were kept electronically. Ivy entered in her name into the time keeping computer and said, “This is my fastest time ever, but I wanted to be better than this.” I told her, “Hey, this run was tough, the hills and the wind. If you set a personal record you should be really happy. Did you check my time?”
Ivy went back to the computer. A few minutes later (The line at the computer was long.) she came to me and said, “Dad………I think you won this thing!”
Me: I’m sure I did. Ivy: I’m serious! You won your age group! Me: Let me see that paper.
By now, Ivy is laughing uncontrollably. I insisted Ivy ask someone how this could be true. The staff seemed to think I won. I, me, Monner was going to get a trophy. I hadn’t won a trophy since I was named “Paperboy of the Year.”
Sadly, the story doesn’t end there. One of the professional runners (in my age group) signed up for the 10K race but only ran 5K, his 5K time was better than mine. He received the 1st place trophy, I received the 2nd place trophy.
I know I told Ivy I would never do this again. I lied, I’m planning for next year.
Elaine doesn't know it, but next year she is coming with me. The Sanctuary is definitely worth seeing.On race day 2019, Your Daily Fiber will be opening at noon.
How does this relate to Your Daily Fiber? I will be displaying my trophy at the store for all to see.
Our crazy lives!
Monner