Double Bridge Run

The Double Bridge Run was held on February 4, 2012. It is a 15K that is attended by thousands of people and has many elite runners attend. Starting in downtown Pensacola, it crosses the 3-mile bridge over to Gulf Breeze, goes through the heart of Gulf Breeze proper, and then the culmination is conquering the Bob Sikes bridge that takes you onto Pensacola Beach.
Jennifer and I drove down with the kids to pick up our race packets on Friday afternoon. We went for a walk along the boardwalk at Pensacola Beach. Since we always go to Orange Beach, this area was all new to me. There were lots of new shops under construction getting ready for the upcoming vacation season.

My friend Jennifer had been training for this run for months. When we finished the Pensacola Beach Run, she felt like she had an injury. Unfortunately, we think it is a similar injury to what I had gone through in the fall, a stress fracture in the tibia.
After my 18 mile training run on January 27, I was afraid I had hurt my knee or IT band. Although I REALLY wanted to run this race, I knew it was not in my best interest. Jennifer and I decided to just walk the 5K version of the race and support the local running community by being cheerleaders.

Here's my friend Ali, flying through Gulf Breeze.

You can still see the thousands of people battling the bridge.

Here we are at the top of the bridge. Can you say WINDY? We did

get lots of compliments on our matching outfits.

 Jennifer had even made us headbands to match our outfits. I am not crafty at all

and it just amazes me how she can make things from just looking at it.

We found our friend, Fatma, after the race. She had a terrific run and was ready for her

marathon the next weekend in Jacksonville. The after party seemed to be pretty fun, but by the time we meandered across the bridge, it was super crowded. We sat for a while to people watch, but then it was time to call it a day. The day wasn't what we had hoped for, but it was inspiring to watch the runners.