Road Runs

I've done a couple road races lately. I happened to be in Lexington for Comicon (Oh yes, I'll be blogging about that soon.) It was called the Shamrock Shuffle because it was two days before St. Patrick's Day. There were over 2,000 in it. I came in about 500. Back in my wonder years I would have been about 3rd place. I'm not quite as fast now. In fact 500th place is not as good as it sounds. There were a lot of walkers. Here is a pet peeve. At the start of the race, there are signs showing your predicted pace. That is so there won't be as much congestion. I line up according to what my pace would be. It's not extremely fast, I know, but I shouldn't be lined up with walkers, people pushing strollers, or children that do not come up to my waist. So the first mile or so is weaving in and out passing people like I'm Adrian Peterson trying to get up to people running my pace. Anyway it was fun. I made sure I ran at a pace that gave me a decent time without killing me.

That was 1.8 miles. I ran a 3.1 at Knoxville this past weekend. I pretty much try for quirky runs now. Last year it was a half marathon that did a lap on the Indy 500 track. This Knoxville race finished on the 50 yard line of the University of Tennessee football stadium. The runners coming in are shown on the giant stadium screen. I forgot to look. Instead of my typical Richard Nixon V for victory I thought I might strike the Heisman trophy pose. I forgot to do either one. Other issues with the run - free parking that day, but there seem to be only about three parking lots in the town, and they don't release information on where they are to out of towners. Staying in a motel about 4 miles from the start, we left a wake up call of 5:45. Maybe they were thinking Pacific Time or something, because I woke up 20 minutes before the start. However I made it with a couple minutes to spare.

In spite of these difficulties, it was fun. We got to run past Peyton Manning Way (he played for UT). We got start the race right at the World's Fair Sun Sphere, forevermore thanks to the Simpson's knows as the Wig Sphere. After the run you got to walk around the stadium and go to the post race party - if you call free bananas and chocolate milk a party (I do.)

After the race it was The Waffle House - best little dive in the South. The last time I was in a Waffle House was at 1:00 a.m. after going to a UK basketball game. Speaking of that, what about those Wildcats? We're in the Final Four baby and the state is totally focused on next weekend. Its the lead story of pretty much every Kentucky newscast and conversation this week.