What a whirlwind! My head is still spinning. So much happened, so much fun at the the Mavs Run This Town 5k.
The Mavs Dancers asked to take a photo with me, I obliged, and taught them to ‘leg pop’.
This race took place at 7:00 pm outside the home of the Dallas Mavericks – American Airlines Center. One advantage: they let us use the restrooms inside (instead of the normal race porta-potties).
The scene of the time.
This course ran around downtown Dallas after dark. I hadn’t run a night race in a long time, but luckily my morning runs are in the dark, so I was used to having to use my night-vision.
Not a bad view.
Unfortunately there were a few sprinklers going off along the course, which left some slippery spots on the roads. There were also a few little hills, and it was surprisingly windy…but not too bad.
The course was mostly spetcator-free, save for some people yelling at us from their apartments and a section with Mavs entertainers. That said, I still had a lot of fun and even ran within one second of my PR that I set last month.
They had laptops where you could look up your time. Very convenient.
I felt pretty good this race. I made SURE to reign it in at the start. I wanted to run a negative split, or at least even splits, and I came close. Roughly – 6:53, 7:01, 6:58. Good enough for a 21:34 finish and 4th in my age group – one freakin person from a medal…Ahh well. It was also good enough to be the 54th finisher out of 1,900 ~ I’ll take that!
We also had a bunch of bananas friends running this race. It was great hanging out with them at the post race party!
Some friends.
And look, more friends, including fellow blogger from Marathon State of Mind…
Some other friends.
The post race party was awesome – all the free beer you could drink, food trucks, and a concert by Old 97’s!!!!
Front row selfie!
Rock on!
Rockin’ Rhett!
I didn’t get a pic with my face, but here’s my back. Some say it’s my best side anyways.
Run Free!
After the show, we even got to hang out with the band for a little while. Such great dudes!
Even the lead singer was cool enough to hang out with fans.
In summary, it was a super fun event, and we all had great runs and a great time! Bonus – each runner gets a ticket to a Mavericks game…score!!!
#MFFL
But now I gotta rest up – I have a half marathon in the morning!!! Woot woot!
How bout you? Any recent night races? Bump into any celebs recently? Who’s also racing this weekend?
-Scott
Piratebobcat 