Comet's Carry-On Just a Plane 5K
By Julia "Comet" Weatherby
A 5K race… whether you are running or walking the 3.1 miles, it is the most common racing distance in Austin. What makes the ABIA Runway 5K different than any other 5K? Why did I find myself myself going to the race with the jitters yet again? A year and a half ago was the inaugural race, and I couldn't sleep at all the night before because I was so excited! This year I was quite nervous. For the first race, I didn't know what to expect, and this year the expectations of the race and myself were 33,000 feet high. Previously, I had dressed up as a ramp services airline employee, complete with directional flashlights and did the race with my sister as I "directed" runners to the finish line. It was so cool to run on the runway. My job takes me to a far away city nearly every week by plane, so I had always thought it would be the coolest thing to do a race on the runway, and it was.
This year's race marked the five year anniversary of the opening of ABIA and five years since I started travelling for my job. My first business trip left from the old airport and flew me into the new one. To celebrate, I knew would have to do something different for this race, but creativity never hit. Opportunity, however, did. Day after day, I walked by a window advertising toy Southwest Airlines beanie planes for sale. Normally $5-6, a few models were marked down to just one. I remembered the kids K race that followed the ABIA 5K and thought to myself that for a dollar a piece, buying a beanie plane for each kid finisher wouldn't be all that expensive. It was definitely worth the joy it would bring to each of those young runners! Under each container of planes, I noticed unpacked boxes holding 50 planes each, so I estimated that two boxes would be enough, and gathered the courage up to make a ridiculously large purchase.
The morning of the race, I threw the two boxes, my ramp racing outfit, a camera and my nervous self into the car and took off. I arrived early and walked six and a half minutes over to packet pick-up. Some running buddies saw me and asked where my outfit was. I responded with looks of confusion and disinterest. Then I had to head back to the car to “drop off my t-shirt”. Everyone parked near me had left the area, so I opened the trunk and got to work. I put on my outfit and checked the time. I should have plenty of time. I opened one of the boxes, prepared to dump planes into garbage bags. To my horror, each plane was individually wrapped in plastic. I pictured a hundred plastic bags littered about the tarmac. The race officials would hate me! I was already afraid that they might not let me in with two large, suspicious looking bags. I unwrapped as many planes as I could and then jogged to the race site, leaving them all in the car.
At the race start, I took photos and cheered people on from the other side of the starting line. After the last walker had started, I ran around and began running myself. I switched between easy running, cheering and taking photos. It seemed like forever before we reached the actual runway. At last we were there, running on hard cement with tire tracks all over the place. Some people have asked me if that’s a real active runway, and I can attest that it certainly is. In fact, I had flown in on this exact runway two nights previous and was fairly certain I would be flying out on the same runway that evening, too. Since Sunday morning air traffic is light, one runway was closed and the west runway remained open. The rest of the race was a lot of cheering for runners on the other side of the dotted line on my part, and fighting a whole lot of headwind for everyone else’s second half.
After my finish, I anxiously asked around to find out when the kid’s K would commence and then headed back to the car. I grabbed one garbage bag and walked back towards the race site. Still in the parking lot, I saw some kids leaving with their parents. I called some of them over, “Did you run in the 5K?” They nodded and I handed them airplanes. “Keep up the running!!” It was so impressive how many young children ran the whole 5K and were already tired and leaving before the 1K had finished. As I made my way towards the race site, I handed planes out to each youngster I encountered, now finding 1K finishers, too. I felt like Santa Claus! My bag emptied far too quickly, so I ran back to get my second bag. The strategy of not actually getting to the race site was good because I was afraid of being rushed by children eager to get planes and running out. This way, if I ran out, the plane-less kids wouldn’t know. I had nothing to fear, because I handed out planes to 80 children, even to a family of American Airlines employees. “Sorry!” At least I was wearing my “Proud to Fly American Airlines” button. By the time I arrived to the awards ceremony, I had several planes to hand out to some lucky adults, too.
I invite you to race the next ABIA 5K. It’s certainly flat, quite a unique route, and you never know what surprise the weather (or Comet) may bring.
The inspirational Lillie Doss, standing next to Comet, was especially pleased to have such a cute plane as her “award”.
