As luck would have it, I came down with a rather nasty cold/sinus infection on Thursday that caused me to miss a day of work on Friday, and I feared I might have to miss this year's Homecoming. Determined to make it anyhow, I got my rest and doped myself up with cold medicines, B vitamins and plenty of fluids and made the trek to Charleston around 5 a.m. on Saturday.
I arrived at my one-time home around 8 a.m. and picked up my registration materials (including the ugliest T-shirt ever) at Old Main for the 10th Annual EIU Homecoming 2.5K race - my first race and a big reason I was so bent on making it. I ran the race with Mal and Stephen and kept pace about 3/4 of the first mile until Stephen started walking and I joined him. Mal shot ahead. She would go on to run the whole 1.5 mile stretch, but that wasn't even a goal of mine - I just wanted to do my best and cross the finish line. Not as many people were out watching as I had thought there would be, so that was nice, but I did pick up some inspiration from two kids on 7th Street giving high fives to passing runners. I ran most of 7th street, walked around the square, then ran/walked the last portion down 6th, finishing at 18:05. I could have done better had I not been sick and forgotten my inhaler, but I thought I did well for me at a 12:03 minute pace. For the rest of the day, the cold that had settled into my chest that morning made it hard for me to catch my breath in the chilly weather.
While visiting Lola and JR in the DEN newsroom, Mal (and baby Ian) and I scored two front row tickets to the afternoon football game v. Tennessee Tech (thanks to Sally), which Stephen was shooting for EIU. We stayed until it started to sleet, then took cover, and when we returned sat a row higher to watch Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo have his number retired and receive a key to the city of Charleston.
I wondered how hard he had to try not to laugh at that, but was impressed that he came back and humored his little alma mater, backwards hat or no backwards hat. College girls screamed and a cheerleader blushed when he said "hi" to her as he passed. I heard rumors that he had rented out Stu's to party that night, and Mal and I wondered what all the displaced underage drinkers would do for kicks instead. Of course, I can't confirm that actually happened, but it's neat to think about - Tony Romo, at Stu's.
I heard Billy Panther tried to put his arm around him too, haha. Anyway, the rest of the game, Mal and I sat in the car and took walks with little Ian, who is incredibly charming, especially in his EIU gear, while we waited for Stephen.
After the game, our little group joined DEN newsies, teachers, advisors, alum and friends at Top of the Roc for Chili Bash. Erin, who came down with the flu, was not present but I did get to see my former roommate David, who unfortunately had to work for Top of the Roc that night and did not get to fraternize with us as much as we'd have liked. I visited with Marco and Colin, Colin's lady Claire, and a few others before driving back to good ole' A-town to continue my health recovery.
