As soon as I headed out this morning I noticed a lot of traffic flooding into the high school parking lot across from our neighborhood. What is this? I thought to myself. Turns out it was a race. And not just any race, but a race where the route went completely along my normal route. I decided quickly that it wasn't about to start and I could get way out in front of any speedsters and then take an alternate route home.
Well, by the time I was on the "back" part of the "out and back" I still didn't see any runners, which seemed strange. I started running about 7:40 a.m. and thought for sure I would run into a sea of humanity. The longer it went on the more I wondered about the start time. The people at all the water stations seemed relaxed, so I kept going. It was about 1.5 miles from home that I encountered the first wave, which turned out to be a hundred people or so strung out along the trail. I kept out of their way, even receiving a clap/cheer from one guy who apparently thought I was leading the race and already heading back toward the finish line. I guess they started around 8:45. I was surprised since I thought there'd be more runners. Apparently those were the 10k participants, as I was about to find out.
Once I'd reached Lake Forest and crossed the street I heard starting horns from the school parking lot. I stopped to watch. A large crowd poured out onto the sidewalk, complete with kids, walkers, and running strollers. Those were apparently the 5k participants, and there were several hundred of them. It was nice to see such a large group.
As far as my run, I went 8 miles on a really nice morning. The temperature was around 70, sunny, and just plain nice. Humidity was up slightly but not as bad as last month. All in all it was a good morning with the highlights of seeing a lot of other people out running and having a good time.
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