An Accidental Parade

I was in a parade this weekend.  It wasn't intentional.  But, you'll have to read on to get the details…


On Saturday, Katie and I ventured out to Hudson, Wisconsin.  Katie is doing the St. Croix Valley triathlon in 2 weeks, so she wanted to swim in the river a bit, then ride the bike course.  I offered to swim with her, and while she rode the bike course, I would get my 12 mile run in.

As we arrived at the park, we realized that we were at exchange #22 of the RAGNAR Relay*.  It seemed like the thing to do was to do the relay exchange, then walk down to the beach and look at the river.  We were actually going to swim in the river though.

The river was cold—surprisingly so since Katie said it was warm when she did Croixathlon in June just a mile downriver.  It was a good thing we had wetsuits, but we did warm up once we swam a bit.  The best way to describe the quality of the river is that it's like Root Beer, but without the fizz.

Katie swimming in the river.


Me swimming in the river.

I only did a little bit of swimming, and Katie did a bit more.  We decided to take a photo when we were done swimming:

Katie has a knack for getting unflattering photos of me.  Here are some examples from earlier events:

Swimming at Cleary Lake: "I can't hear you!"


Angry face while moving downward at the Red, White, and Boom!


Putting my wetsuit on at my first open water swim.

None of these compare to the one she got of me this weekend:

Yup, I look awful here.  Closed eyes and squinty face.

And, because that picture wasn't bad enough, she took one of me getting my wetsuit off:

Thanks Katie.

We changed out of our swimming gear, then got ready for the next activities:

I look like a dork cool person with my water belt.

Katie took off on the bike course.  I decided I would just run north on the main road through town for 6 miles, turn around, then come back.  (I don't use a GPS or anything, so I mapped it out beforehand and knew I had to turn around at a cemetery along the highway).  As I started running, I realized that I would be running along the RAGNAR course.  In some ways, this was cool—if I died along the course, I'm sure the RAGNAR people would have called the morgue or something.  But, it was also not cool because I was a little embarrassed when the water stop volunteers started cheering for me.  I told them I was just out for my morning run, and since they were just nice people, they still offered me water.

Heading up the road, I went through the town of North Hudson.  It looked like they were setting up for some street festival or something, and it was a little challenging to dodge the people.  I hoped this wouldn't be a problem on the way back...

When I got to the next RAGNAR exchange point, one girl (probably 14-15 years old), was excited to ask me how the run was.  I told her I wasn't in the relay, and she responded with a "Really??  Aw man…"  (Later, on my way back, this same girl would tell me with a smile to "have a great run!", so she was actually a really nice person.)

I reached the turnaround (it was a little early because I mistook a family graveyard for the cemetery I was supposed to turn around at, but alas…).  When I got back to North Hudson, a parade was in full swing.  Not just any parade, though.  It was the

North Hudson Pepper Festival Parade!!


Oh boy.  I successfully weaved through the millions thousands hundreds lining the sidewalks.  All was going well, and I though I was near the end of the parade, and all of a sudden…

I was IN the parade.


The parade route turned, and I ended up right in the middle of the parade.  I just wanted to cross the street, but the curb was lined with people, and there just wasn't a gap.  So, I ran in the parade for about 50 meters until I could find some lawn chairs to squeeze in-between.  At this point, I ended up in someone's backyard, and quickly got out of there to find my way back to the road.  Let's just say that I'm going to avoid the Pepper Festival in the future…

*The RAGNAR Relay is a 193 mile relay race from Winona, MN to Minneapolis.  Teams of 12 complete the legs over a period of about 2 days.  It looks like a blast, and I may consider doing it next year.