Location: Toyota Center and back
Distance: 3.1
Time: 32:33
Mile 1: 10:55 (had to guess the mile marker)
Mile 2: 10:25
Mile 3 + .1: 11:12 (didn’t see mile 3)
Average Pace: 10:28 min/mile

• I wasn’t all that excited about this race. The week had been stressful and I hadn’t been sleeping well. I got myself together later than I wanted, but thankfully I’m just a 5-10 min drive from Downtown. Left the house at 7:30am and was walking towards the starting line at 7:40am.
• Got to Toyota Center and wandered around a bit looking for the chip pickup until I discovered it wasn’t an officially timed event. This made me even more sleepy for some reason.
• Wandered around some more. I was imagining my warm bed when I saw Jon and Waverly. We joined Sarah, Cassie and Manny and headed over to the starting line. Some race official mumbled some things into the microphone, and then we were off. Now that I think about it, I don’t remember a gun going off….I think the crowd just started moving and off we went.
• The first mile was uneventful, though the potholes and random bumps in the road made it something of an obstacle course. I’m glad that street isn’t on the Marathon course. I didn’t see the first mile marker, so I just used the pace caller to mark my first split. After the race, everyone was saying the first mile marker was off (too long).
• The 2nd mile was on a smoother street. Pretty uneventful. When I saw the 2nd pace caller, I asked, “Are you the mile marker?” (”Are you the keymaster?”) He shook his head and pointed across the street to the big “Mile 2″ sign. Oops. I guess I should have been looking to the left side of the street.
• Somewhere between Mile 2 and 3, I started racing this guy. I had picked him out as someone to pass. He must have realized it because as I passed him, he sped up. Then I sped up. Then he did. Etc. It was fun, and made the mile go by pretty quickly. He got ahead of me for a while, then I passed him as we turned the corner at Toyota Center.
• At mile 3 (which I missed the mile marker for), we ran into the parking garage filled with diesel fumes. yum. At least the whole last part of the run was downhill.
• The finish line was in the middle of the basketball court. I was a little dizzy from the fumes, and almost tripped walking towards the stairs. oops.
• The post race party had hot dogs, pizza, donuts and soda. Not exactly typical post-race foods. The absolute best thing, though, was the fact that TROPIOCA was there. Bubble tea!!! As I got my green mango tea with jelly, I told the Tropioca guy that the fact they were there officially made the race one of my favorites. Ok, maybe that was an exaggeration, but seeing them there really did make me happy. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the diesel fumes.
• Met up with the other bloggers, stood around a little, took pictures, then headed home. I stopped to buy some bagels and fat-free cream cheese, which tasted like white creamy plastic.
• Ran in my new pair of Brooks. Felt great. Found out that Sarah wears the same model. Yay Brooks!