What a fun race! It's definitely a fast course. There was a great crowd of people (many in costume), free beer after, and a huge pile of toys that were collected by donations.

There was the usual shuffle at the start. I don't fret much about it, just waddle along until it starts breaking up. However, I almost rolled on my heel when I stepped on something loose in the road. I thought it was a water bottle, but evidently it was someone's dropped shoe (reminded me of a recent BT thread). That caused a little mayhem in the crowd near the start, but I was surprised by how quickly things loosened up and I was able to get up to speed even without much "dodging."

Finished the first mile in 7:09, according to the person calling times at the mile marker. I was feeling great, still 3-beat breathing, but the pace was good, so I settled in a little. The next mile is down the long stretch and I just kept at cruising pace, hitting the 2nd mile marker at 14:20 (according to the time keeper), so I was keeping up the pace pretty decently. I felt good in the 3rd mile, perhaps could have kept up a better pace, but I ended up with 22:22 coming over the finish line, which means I did the last 1.1 miles at about 7:15 pace. Every mile was faster than my goal pace (7:20)!

Finished 34/517 for women.


Don't know. I honestly didn't think I'd be able to run this fast so I was holding back a little. The race wasn't painful, so maybe I could have pushed more. But then again, maybe I would have blown up if I had. I'm really still trying to learn my limits.

got a beer :) Chatted with friends.