Hemingway Days 5K Sunset Run

July 29, 2010

Hal, Mags, Jen, Betsy & Kathy





Hemingway Days 5K Sunset Run

One of the longest running of the annual Hemingway Days events is the Sunset Run. The 18th annual run was held last Saturday on a hot and humid evening, starting and finishing at the Southernmost Point and following a path that lead down Whitehead before winding around the Truman waterfront and back. Kathy had decided to run the event along with a group of friends and I went along to root her on and to attend the wonderful post-race party at the Southernmost Hotel.

Kathy

Karen

The race started at 7:30 PM but it was still sunny and warm and the runners had to deal with temperatures in the high 80s and high humidity. Not all that unusual for July in Key West, but still somewhat challenging. Kathy was joined by her friends Betsy, Jen and Mags (who was joined by her son Hal).

Hal

Coffee & Flo

Mags and her husband David and children Hal, Max & Flo are here visiting from the UK, David & Mags lived in Key West once upon a time and are back here together for the first time in years. Max was also planning to run, but after spending a day in the Key West sun, wasn’t feeling exactly like running and through some technical foul-up with registration, Betsy ended up running under his registration allowing her to compete in the 9 and under male- category in the race, for which she placed second.



Nan, Coffee, Flo & Rosie

Hal lead the way of our group, with a time of around 27 minutes, good enough to actually place 2nd in his age group and collect some hardware for his good showing. The rest of our group were close behind all finishing near the 30 minute mark, a successful run all around. The winning time was from a man from Terre Haute, Indiana at 17 minutes 28 seconds with the fastest female finishing at 19:18.

Elizabeth & Mike

There were 375 participants in the race, making for a big crowd at the wonderful post-race party and awards ceremony. The Southernmost Hotel & Barbara Wright Productions know how to throw a party and it was a fun, packed event with food, drinks, prizes and awards for the runners.

Hal

Rosie & Flo

The morning after the race, we all gathered for the annual Tour de France wrap-up waffle breakfast at the home of our friends Nan & Mark. It was here that Betsy was given her award for placing 2nd in the 9 & under male division and Nancy wrapped up her victory in the annual Tour de France betting pool. Nan finished first overall in the pool that involves picking the winner of each days’ stage as well as the overall jersey winners.

Betsy gets award!



Mark finished at the opposite end of the spectrum, failing to capture a single point after placing his faith in Lance Armstrong. After a very slow start, I closed quickly during the last week, correctly picking the final 4 stage winners, and the overall winner, and I finished just out of the money in 4th overall- not too bad for my inaugural entry.

Happy Birthday Hemingway!

July 27, 2010







Happy Birthday Hemingway!

The summer in Key West brings a plethora of festivals and events that are designed to draw tourists to town during what otherwise would be a very slow, hot time. For the most part these are very successful and the upside for those of us who live here year-round is that there is invariably something going on each weekend that we can get out and participate in if we so desire.





The annual Hemingway Days event is one of the longest running and most successful of these festivals. We don’t do all the related events, but each year, we seem to find ourselves at an event or two. This year we choose to head down on a hot and sunny Saturday afternoon to attend the Hemingway Days Street Fair. The Hemingway look-a-likes were handing out cake celebrating Papa’s birthday. The main draw was that Kathy needed to pre-register for the Hemingway Days 5K run that she was planning to run.





Since we were headed downtown, we decided to take advantage of a couple of other opportunities as well, visiting the newly opened bar The Porch and finally visiting Pat Croce’s Pirate Soul Museum which will be closing at the end of this month and relocating to St. Augustine.

The Porch @ The Porter House

The Porch bar is about as hidden away as possible for a bar located on the corner of Duval & Caroline Street. The wonderful new addition to Key West features a wonderful wine selection as well as a bevy of high quality draft micro-brews all tucked away on the porch and front room of the historic Porter House. Only steps off of the craziness of Duval Street, yet you can sit at the Porch and watch without being overwhelmed by the madness. It has been mostly packed each time we have been there, mostly due to the positive word of mouth and popularity of the wonderful owners.

View from the Porch

Pirate Soul

I must admit being somewhat remiss about not having previously visiting Pat Croce’s Pirate Soul Museum until they offered the locals special during their last month in Key West. I have never been much of a Pirate fan, and I always assumed it would be a cheap tourist trap sort of place, boy was I wrong. The place has way more in common with the best museums than with any tourist trap. It is really well-done and literally has some amazing treasures including the only known surviving pirate treasure chest, one of two remaining actual pirate flags and a number of actual weapons from well-known pirates. It is well worth the visit and if you ever find yourself in St. Augustine check it out.

Tropic Cinema



Candidates

Carol, Alex & Sheldon grill the candidates.

Hemingway Days wasn’t the only thing keeping us busy this week; we also attended the Hometown PAC election forum held at the Tropic Cinema where local candidates for School Board and Mosquito Control answered questions posed by my fellow Hometown board members. There are a ton of candidates and these forums help voters distinguish between them. We also spent a nice evening out with our friends Gae & Nadene at The Hog’s Breath Saloon where our friend Jeff was the scheduled happy hour entertainment all week. It was a wonderful relaxing evening with drinks and dinner later at the Café.

Gae, Nadene & Kathy

Jeff Syman