Dropping the water

I'm so behind in the blog! I'm three races behind in fact.
Time to get cracking.
I ran the Water Drop Dash 5K with my friend Erin on March 15.
Honestly, I signed up for this race, a new one for me, because my friend Kellie did. And I expected to go to the race with Kellie. But Erin signed up, too, and we needed to take two cars.
The race was along the Chattahoochee River and started and finished at Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell. I'd never been there before, but I plan to go back.
Erin and I got to the race early, because the race started early, and just after the switch to Daylight Saving Time, so the sun wasn't up at the time of the race start. In fact, the organizers delayed the start a bit to allow for a little more light.

Me and Erin before the race

See how dark it is behind us? That was before the race.

The course was surprisingly flat, and Erin and I both had a fast race for us. That was a pleasant surprise.

At the end of the race, I finally ran into my friend Kellie, who was with here family. Her daughter Libbie ran the fun run. Daughter Mollie wasn't having so much fun that morning.

Kellie got third in her age group that morning!

Mollie and Kellie

As Erin and I were preparing to leave, I was curious about the aviary that is part of the nature center, so we walked up to see it. I'm so glad we did.

Look at the bald eagles that are in the aviary.

What was even more amazing is as we were walking up to the captive birds, two wild bald eagles circled around, calling out to their injured brethren.

Captive bald eagles at nature center

 Erin and I were in awe. We walked along to see the other displays in the aviary and saw barn owls, ringed owls, turkey vultures and red hawks. It was at the red hawks display we realized why the animals are here, captive. One red hawk was missing a wing. Without the nature center, he would have been prey for some predator a long time ago. Glad to see it gets to live its life out as best it can.

The majestic bald eagle

I'll be glad to go back to the nature center and the Water Drop Dash 5K, and hopefully drop some more minutes from my time.