Haley and Michael had a big idea. They wanted to give Logan a birthday gift he would long remember, so they paid his registration fee for the Wembley 5K Colour Run. I was fascinated by the colorful (or I should say “colourful”) website and got on board, too. Then reality set in: I would need to train for a 5K! Since I always try to follow through on a commitment, I began training on Logan’s 14th birthday by running 1/4 mile down our street. By the time my birthday came around the third week in April, I was up to 2 miles. Then, in mid-May, about the same time Michael and Meredith were waking up for their 34th birthday, I finished my first ever 5K. I’ve run 3.1 miles a couple of times per week since then with only one accident. My knee is healing nicely, so I am ready for today.

And how fitting that the Wembley Colour Run is being held on the day that all of the UK is celebrating the 90th birthday of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second. Reportedly, there will be at least 1000 street parties around the Commonwealth today. The biggest bash of all will be the Patron’s Lunch in the Mall, a seated affair with lunch from hampers (we call those picnic baskets). The crowd will swell to 10,000 guests who shelled out 150 pounds to attend. I believe the BBC reported that approximately 1,700 tables have been set up. There will only  be 6 bars for all these people. That’s a buzz kill if there ever was one. This luncheon is the culmination of a weekend of celebrations, a fly-past (we call those flyovers), a floatilla down the Thames, a 62 gun salute (one for each year of her reign), Trouping the Colour (whatever that is), and more events than I can possibly remember or name.

Anyway, we are off to the British Museum in hopes that there will be no one else there with all this celebrating. There is a really fabulous exhibit of artifacts from cities that have been submerged at the mouth of the Nile River for more than 1,000 years. Then we will take the tube out to Wembley Stadium for the 5K at 3pm. I am writing this now in anticipation of extreme exhaustion later today. When we get home tonight, I hope that one of our more youthful team members will post about the run and maybe include a picture. So stay tuned!