Fun in Wilmington & the Bay Six 5K

I turned my 5K into a mini-vacation this weekend and spent Saturday enjoying the riverfront area in Wilmington and Sunday morning "running."

Yeah, this person is a lucky dog. Also thought it was cool that it was registered to Cary, which is not very far from where I live in Durham.

Outside the Dixie Grill - thought the chalk work was cool.

Front Street Brewery: where I ate lunch, a yummy Carolina pulled pork plate. Front Street brews its own beer inside this building and gives free tours.

Clever art work on a public pay phone on Front Street.

The view of the USS North Carolina Battleship from my hotel room.

My cool shirt for participating in the 5K!

The sunset at the Riverfront and the USS North Carolina. All of the years I have visited Wilmington, I have never watched the sunset at the Riverfront until yesterday. It was beautiful. And then extremely cold after the sunset!

The sun setting over the Cape Fear River

Can't get much better than this at Blue Post Billiards. That and I had just seen Alabama lose to LSU!

This morning before the race, I saw the biggest ship I've ever seen in my life. I couldn't even capture it all in one camera shot. Plus there were two barges with it!

The back end of the tanker and the second barge. I liked the large "No Smoking" sign.

In this picture, I am on the river taxi going over to the Battleship, looking at the tanker approaching the drawbridge. Too cool for 6:45am!

Looking back at my hotel from the river taxi.

The sunrise over the Cape Fear River and Downtown Wilmington.

The river taxi that I rode over the Cape Fear River. I love boats.

About half a mile in, running up the large and long bridge...

...just before seeing the best motivational sign of the whole run.

Views from the bridge while I was going up...okay, so I didn't take the "race" part as seriously as I probably should have. :)

This is part of the bridge that we crossed during the race. I took this picture from my hotel room.

Overall, I enjoyed seeing a part of Wilmington that I hadn't previously explored. I don't really like running, although I enjoyed the culture and camaraderie among the runners and spectators. Other things I noted:
1. Pizza and beer were offered after the race. Why do I want to waste all of the calories that I just burned?
2. It is extremely cold standing on the riverfront before 7:00am.
3. I need actual running gear. I stood out like a sore thumb in my yoga exercise pants, scarf, and pullover. I couldn't believe there were people running in tank tops and shorts!
4. I hadn't gotten too far past the 1/2 mile mark before the guy leading the race was returning down the road. I have some serious work to do...