Running

Hello!

It's A. Today, my father's organization Northwestern Mutual held its 37th annual Roots and Wings Run/Walk. Northwestern Mutual is an insurance company, and it has field workers and office workers. The main office for NM is here in Milwaukee, where my dad works, while the field workers are all over the country. Once a year, the Roots and Wings Run/Walk is held to bring all of NM's workers together, pitting the "Roots" or the office workers against the "Wings" or field workers in a race. For 22 years the Wings have won, while only 13 have the Roots won, and one year it ended in a tie.

The place was packed. Thousands upon thousands of people were there. The actual race was packed itself, with about 150 people within my sight range at all times.

This was just the preparing area. The Wings always have their cool little shirts, typically matching and everything.

My dad and I were the lucky ones representing the Koenig family in this race. I wore my sunglasses for the race, and was number 3126.

The run route was all along Lake Michigan, and near that was the Milwaukee Art Museum, and its architecture is absolutely stunning. If you are ever visting downtown Milwaukee, that is totally a tourist staple.

Some of the outdoor scupltures downtown, most associated with the art museum, were simply spectacular beautiful pieces of art.

This was the beginning of the race, a lot of sitting around before the wave began to move.

The actual running was quite eventful. It was roughly 70 degrees outside, and it got hotter as it went. Along the route, there were many water stops, different audience locations, and a fireboat on the lake spraying water up at us near the end. The second mile marker was missing, which was deeply concerning for me because I was very tired to just have been on the second mile. I came in from the run with a time of 30:14. My dad came in with a time of 27:43. Hopefully we represented the Roots side well!

I knit a little bit on the way there, and I will be sitting in bed listening to Harry Potter knitting, so hopefully I'll finish another square today.

I used to beat my dad in these races. Needless to say he's been working out, and I haven't. It was very tiring for me, and in just a few weeks I'm going to be hardcore training for soccer season.

Oh brother.

-A