Mascot Mini Marathon (5k)

Last weekend I participated in Hopewell Borough's Fall Harvest's Find Freddy contest. Boy, that is a mouthful. My friend Heidi was running the event and needed a few more people to walk around wearing a "costume" while enjoying the nice day.

There were no parameters to the definition of "character" or "costume," so I created the character of Disney Runner. The next challenge was to create a clue so people could figure out what I was trying to be. My clue was "willing to pay lots of money to run in circles."

After I handed in my clue, I realized the better clue was "willing to pay lots of money to run around parking lots."

I thought about this five days later when I participated in RunBucks Mascot Mini Marathon. 

The race was originally scheduled for June 17 (to tie into National Mascot Day -- yes, there is a day for everything) and later rescheduled for September 26. The original date had a massive downpour. Not good running weather in the first place, but really bad for the mascots adorning the route. Personally it fell a few days before I was leaving for Israel and didn't have the time to spare to drive to Philadelphia.

No flag in sight, so some mascots saluted
this man wearing a flag shirt instead.

I didn't have the time on a Thursday night in September, either. Traffic was a mess. I skipped Back to School Night at my new school. I stayed late to work on a grant application. But the weather was wonderful -- 70 and no hint of rain.

Lots and lots of prizes!

And we are off!

 The course was extremely boring -- literally we ran around a parking lot where Veterans Stadium used to stand. There were cones set up, but not many volunteers. As the race took place in the dark (start time 7 pm, but that time of year it is dark by 7:10 pm). You couldn't tell where the cones were (or at least I couldn't tell with my 50-year old eyes). We kept turning to each other and asking "where should we turn?" On the plus, the course was pancake flat and well lit.

There was very low turn out. I feel bad for anyone who left without a prize (the only categories that had competition were women's 35-39 and men's 19 and under). I guessed 30 participants, but looking at the results there were 51, but only 46 finished. Because there were so few people, and it was dark, I had troubles pacing myself. I'll admit I looked at any woman near me and near my age and made it a point to be ahead of her. Turns out I didn't need to even put that much effort into it.
Age has its benefits. 

38

433

Jacquelyn Pillsbury

F

Lawrence Township

NJ

US

36:07.5

36:03.0

11:38

50

21 1

Overall Female F5054

17:42.2

Forgot my hat and my lit up shoes

I was also the only woman in my age category to finish. Yay me for making a new age category! May this be the first of many prizes.

I can run faster than that, and should have run faster. I found not seeing other runners made it tough mentally -- more like a training run than a real race.

There were about a half dozen mascots at the start. They hung out for us at the .75 mile mark, which then became the 1 mile mark after the turn around. Some were there at the end (though it was dark and hard to tell).

Don ran the race, too. We both won top bragging rights in our age category. 

Betty the inspirational runner

I saw Betty for the first time in years. Betty is a running inspiration. She is in her 70s (older than the official top age category) and keeps coming out and doing it.

The official photographer grabbed lots of good pictures of us. He offered to hold my camera (in addition to the two he was using) because he couldn't believe I was running with my "big" camera (which was much smaller than both of his cameras). I declined so I could take pictures. I really miss my "little" camera, which was destroyed in the Dead Sea.

Hopewell (Ohio) Mounds

Over the past few years often on our last day someone (Uncle Tom or Heidi, usually) would remind us we wanted to visit the Mounds. The what?  The Native American burial sites located around Ohio.

There was our first problem. There are so many mounds, and they are not that close to each other, that much time is spent figuring out which mound. There the National Park Service ones in Hopewell, or the large cone-shaped one in Miamisburg, or Serpent Mound in Peebles (an internationally known National Historic Landmark), or Story Mound in Chillicothe. Now I have the official Passport to Your Ohio History book, so maybe we can use this to check off historic sites? 

We went with the Hopewell Mound (I think you already figured that out by the title of this post). 

There are actually a few mounds in the area we could have visited on the same trip, but between the late start and the plans to go to a concert that night, we ran out of time. 

The loop around the Hopewell Mound is about a mile. We walked half-way on the outer loop, before cutting into the center and walking around the inner part, careful to not walk on the mounds themselves.

Pole posts left to indicate where the ceremonial hut was built.

The Mounds were created by Native Americans about 2,000 years ago when they gathered for religious rituals and ceremonies. Here they buried or cremated their deceased; they did not live here. Which means, they traveled with their loved one(s) and the materials needed to give the loved one(s) a proper burial. How often did they gather? Research shows they lived in small groups with immediate families. When they gathered for these ceremonies multiple groups gathered together. As Heidi pointed out, this was the time to find a mate. 

The Hopewell Mounds was about 130 acres, and had a earthen wall that was about two miles long. 

Two thousand years ago. That would be when Jesus and Julius Caesar lived. Sometimes it helps to put life in a greater context.

The Native Americans hauled the materials needed for these mounds -- dirt, clay, sand, copper, etc. -- over many miles without modern equipment. While many Mounds were used for a couple of hundred years, there is evidence this one was used for at least 400 years. Archaeologists have been studying since 1820 -- two hundred years -- when the field of archaeology was new.

We chose this Mound over the others because it is a National Park Service Mound, and because it has a Visitor's Center with a movie (which sadly I slept through) and a small museum with reproductions of what was found. Seems I have to travel to England in order to see the originals. They were sold in the 19th century to help fund the expedition. Archaeology has come a long way. This summer we were told our finds had to stay in stay in Israel where they will be studied.

Over the years the Mounds were flattened by farmers plowing the fields. During World War I this site was used to house soldiers training to become soldiers. A lot can change in 2,000 years, especially in a country as young as ours.

After I came home I was talking to Debbi about these. She has seen others along the Mississippi River. They still look like piles of grass to me.
 

Ohio Village

Growing up we would make regular trips to Columbus, Ohio to see my aunt Debra. I remember we stayed with her on Indianola Avenue in 1977 when Melissa was an infant. We learned on our most recent trip that a few years ago her now-grown daughter nearly rented that same apartment with a girlfriend. 

That gives you a sense of what a small-town feel Columbus has for a city with a population of 880,000. 

We would tend to visit Ohio during the Ohio State Fair, and often visit the Ohio Village. Aunt Debra used to work in the doctor's house. I loved running around pretending it was the year 1860. 
 
The Ohio Village, as with many historic sites, ran into some financial troubles. I think our last visit was on July 4. 2009. 

How does 10 years fly by that quickly?

Part of the issue was we were under the impression it was all-but-closed. July 4th was one of those rare days it was open. For a few years we looked at their website, only to see they were not open. We simply fell out of habit.

Labor Day weekend we found ourselves in Columbus with some free time. We met my cousin Allie and Doug's 2-month old daughter. 

Our friend Heidi mentioned the Ohio Village was having a old-time base ball (two words in those days) game. We saw they were open on Friday, too (actually, this year they were open all summer). Don and I went. Though the place was extremely quiet, we had a great time talking to the volunteers.

In the decade since our last visit 38 years had passed. 

Huh?

As it had since it opened in the 1970s, in 2009 the Village was representing the year 1860 -- Civil War era. A few years ago they decided to bump it up to 1898 -- Thomas Edison's era, bicycles, inventions, more colorful clothing. To hear one volunteer talk about it, a whole new world.

Gingerbreading was added to some of the buildings, as was running water in some businesses, and electricity. 

Turns out (according to one volunteer) the plan in the 1970s was to always be about 100 years in the past. With that logic, they should be up to 1919 and The Great War (World War I), but that means cars and everyone having electricity, and other advances they were not ready to make. Still 1898 is an exciting time. They are not talking about war (as they had been in 1860, and would be again in the 1910s) and the future looks exciting. There is always the possibility of seeing a moving picture, or maybe even going to the Chicago World's Fair. Plus you can dream about the bright, beautiful future.

As you can see in the pictures, there were not many people there that day. We spoke to a volunteer in the toy shop, who then went with us to the funeral parlor -- yes, and odd juxtaposition of businesses and expertise. We tried to talk to the volunteer in the Women's Study Club, but she wasn't interested in having a conversation. On the other hand, the teacher nearly kept us after school. We barely had time to visit the Ohio History Center next door.

Here I enjoyed their version of a Levitt home from the 1950s: Lustron. The museum manager wanted to make sure we saw LeBron James' shirt, which was currently on loan from the Smithsonian. I still remember when he was in high school and buzz when he played at a tournament in Trenton. I'd be embarrassed to see how long ago that was.

Yup, time flies by in a blink of an eye. Now I really sound old.