Marathon

Today was the Kids' Marathon, part of the North Olympic Discovery Marathon schedule of events. The marathon organizers have put together a very cool idea. Over the past 2 months kids from the local areas have run or walked 25 miles. They run at recess, at home, etc. and log their miles. Then for the Kids' Marathon, they run the final 1.2 miles and now can say they've run a marathon. It's a free event. Each participant, grade 6 and younger, gets a t-shirt and a finisher's medal. And they finish at the same finish line as the marathoners. Tomorrow is the "real" marathon, 1/2 marathon, a 5k and a 10k.

Photographing the kids is a bit of a challenge. The run isn't long enough for them to spread out much. So I point the camera, shoot and hope for the best. It's a wee bit scary seeing a thundering herd of children bearing down on you through a telephoto lens. I just hope they see me and don't run over me. To put it in perspective, I shot 478 photos in about 20-25 minutes.

You can't see here but just after I shot this picture I realized somebody had run right out of one of his shoes. And if you look closely at the right side there appears to be quite a wipe-out in progress. I didn't see either event. But I did see a kid walking towards the finish carrying his shoes. :)

(I'm not a professional photographer but I am asked to photograph a couple of race events each year.)