At Crow Fair Saturday

Monday, August 22, 2016

Saturday morning our friend Pat Zuelke and I drove our cars to Crow Fair, arriving about 6:30 a.m. We were too early to have to pay to drive in, but just in time to meet up with Bob and the Three Irons children to go register for the Teepee Creeper’s Classic 5 K.

Crow Fair is the teepee capital of the world, for you uninitiated folks.  On the Crow Indian Reservation, literally thousands of people raise many hundreds of teepees and camp for about a week, enjoying a huge multi-family reunion.  People come from all over the world. Pat and I enjoyed excellent hospitality.

I dropped off my phone and keys and stuff in the back of the car.  To lighten the load while running.  Then we arrived on time at the starting area.  The place was packed with runners and walkers, including many of Bob’s relatives.  I met up with some old friends from when I worked at Crow Agency.  I don’t have any enemies there, not that I’m aware of.

At the start my feet felt heavy, so I trotted along, just barely faster than some of the people walking.  It’s grueling to run with feet that feel like that weigh about 1000 lbs each.  I stopped at a couple water stations and drank bottles of water.

I walked a couple other times, but ended up meeting up with a friend who greets me near the end of each T.C.C. 5K, a guy named Will.  Will ran the last 400 meters or so with me, then smacked me on the ass and I ran the rest of the way in.  I ended up with a time of 42 minutes, 40 seconds.

Actually, Will didn’t smack me on the ass, but he did urge me to pick up the pace.