The time was Dallas. The place was early Spring. The 5k race was at night. The runners wore lights and were kind of lit up. I was definitely a little lit up. Lemme ‘splain.
I hadn’t signed up for the race because I thought 45 quid was a too much to pay for a 5k, but then my buddy Zack, who did register, couldn’t run it – so I wore his chip. The problem was the race was at night and jam packed with people. I also had a ton of friends running it. Why are these problems? Because silly, it led to us tailgating before the race.
Here’s why: 1) The race organizers did a great job of marketing. They attracted a huuuge crowd of runners, many of whom don’t really know race etiquette. 2) I know the course very well as I run there often, and I knew the roads weren’t wide enough to make for smooth running with all those folks clogging up the street. 3) 1) + 2) = no chance of having a good race time unless you can make your way to the front of the crowd before the start. We couldn’t.
I don’t know why my friends decided not to wear costumes.
So, I decided instead to tailgate with my friends and just have fun with it. I wasn’t expecting much of this race, but it ended up being a lot of fun. I wore a cape and my friend Mary in the Waldo outift asked to run with me. We didn’t want to go too fast, but figured 8-830 mile pace would be good. We ended up running 8:28, so we were right on. Actually, the first mile was very slow due to all the people and walkers and mass of humanity. Lots of dodging and near crashes. After that, it cleared up a tiny bit, so we picked up the pace. I was glad I had Waldo to run with!
In retrospect, I’m kind of glad we pre-partied because they delayed the start by like 20 mins so they could get a lot of pictures from the helicopter they rented to fly over the crowd. But, in retrospect, I’m kind of not glad ’cause it wasn’t too easy to run after a couple beerskis. But they had a huge party after the race – bands, dancing, etc. It was well put on.
We tend to tailgreat.
After the race, we continued the celebration. We do how we do!
Peace!
Piratebobcat 