Part 1 of the epic My Last Saturday trilogy
Saturday morning I planned to run in the Reggae Rhythm of Life 5K Run. I paid $20 to run it, after all.
The race started at 8:30am. I probably should have left a little earlier. And no, I probably should not have missed the highway exit. I definitely shouldn't have missed it twice.
Anyways, I did manage to get into Griffith Park where the race was being held. I had about 10 minutes before the race started, enough time I hoped to sign in and stretch before the race.
Unfortunately for me, the way I entered the park was along the race route. There was a police car driving down the route at 2 miles per hour to make sure no speeding cars (me) hit the crowd of runners gathering at the starting line. It was now 8:28 am.
After much swearing, screaming, and steering wheel punching, the slow caravan eventually made it to the starting line. The police car let us past, but we were diverted away from the parking lot by a wall of traffic cones. It was now 8:29 am.
Throwing caution to the wind, I pulled a U-turn in front of a cop, through the traffic cones, zipped past the crowd at the starting line, and sped up a hill to find a parking spot.
Saturday morning I planned to run in the Reggae Rhythm of Life 5K Run. I paid $20 to run it, after all.
The race started at 8:30am. I probably should have left a little earlier. And no, I probably should not have missed the highway exit. I definitely shouldn't have missed it twice.
Anyways, I did manage to get into Griffith Park where the race was being held. I had about 10 minutes before the race started, enough time I hoped to sign in and stretch before the race.
Unfortunately for me, the way I entered the park was along the race route. There was a police car driving down the route at 2 miles per hour to make sure no speeding cars (me) hit the crowd of runners gathering at the starting line. It was now 8:28 am.
After much swearing, screaming, and steering wheel punching, the slow caravan eventually made it to the starting line. The police car let us past, but we were diverted away from the parking lot by a wall of traffic cones. It was now 8:29 am.
Throwing caution to the wind, I pulled a U-turn in front of a cop, through the traffic cones, zipped past the crowd at the starting line, and sped up a hill to find a parking spot.
By my watch it was 8:30 am. I actually hopped the fence of the parking lot and ran straight down a hill towards the starting line. As I reached the bottom an air horn went off and the race began.
Clutching my race registration and car keys, mp3 player wrapped around my neck - I joined the crowd and ran the race.
If you look closely here, you can see my registration papers clutched in my left hand and car keys in my right.
I finished 71st* place out of 150 people, and my pace was an 8 minute 12 second mile. I think I could have done better if I had stretched or warmed up, but I guess I'll never know.
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