Racing Sausages

Bernie Brewer & fan.  (rwm)

Sausages and running.

Two very good things individually, together not so much.

Milwaukee's Famous Racing Sausages... now you're cooking!

The 19th running and walking of the annual 5 kilometer race last Saturday raised money to benefit the Wisconsin Fisher House.

The Brewer Community Foundation puts on the race to support the home which supports families of military veterans receiving care at the Milwaukee Veterans Administration Hospital.

We attended the game the night before staying over so I could join the 5K.

The day got off to a good start as Bernie came around to wish runners good luck.

Bernie was an honorary starter.  The Brat, Hot Dog, Italian, Polish, and Chorizo sausages actually joined us at the starting line.

The Italian Sausage is one spicy runner!  (rwm)

It was my second time racing sausages, as I waited for the signal, runners talked and one mentioned the new course was fun and more challenging.  Great.

We ran around the Yount and Uecker parking lots, then up a short street to run across the top of another lot.  This road had a sneaky tough climb which collected air from a lot of lungs.

That was probably a mile into the run. Probably because organizers didn't have markers on the route.

Me (on the left) pushing to the finish.

A downhill helped me regain my pace as we passed the second water station near Helfaer Field. Helfaer is all that is left of Milwaukee County Stadium, home plate is in the same spot.

A bit past the small field we headed to another home plate, inside Miller Park.  It's also where I caught my only sausage, the Polish.

Runners passed in front of the beautiful stadium down and around to the right field entrance and into a tunnel.

All done.  (rkm)

It's the moment I was waiting for, we turned left to run through the open double doors, to make another hard left on to the warning track by the right field foul pole and toward home plate.

While trying not to slow down much, I looked into the stands for our seats for the last game, checked out the dugout and thought briefly about taking a break on the top step, and as the track curved behind home plate gazed across the lawn toward the scoreboard towering about center field.

Post-race breakfast: Water, Chick-Fil-A Chicken Biscuit from
sponsor, Klement's Hot Dog, and a Miller Lite at 8:30am. (dwm)

Then out by the left field pole, up the tunnel, and to the finish line.

My get up and go and left by this point, so I tried for a solid finish.  It wasn't the time I was looking for, but respectable enough - 28:55.56.

434th overall with 2,383 runners.  55th in my age bracket out of 208 aging runners, which made me feel better about the time, finishing ahead of 74% of my fellow runners ages 50 - 65.

It was a fun - complete with cool T-shirt of the Bratwurst, Bernie's picture, and a Milwaukee champion's breakfast - this run with sausages was just fine!