It was rainy, damp, crowded, gloomy, humid, early, muddy, wet, slippery, and PINK.

It could not have been any better.

Seeing so many people in not-so-great conditions come together for an extremely good cause was a spectacle to see.  I had seen it in pictures before, but to be a part of one of those pictures now, I understand the magnitude.

As for the race itself, I had only been training a week, so I was a little nervous about my time.  The night before the race, Adam and I came up with the idea to see if I could run a 5k faster than his flight from Waco to Dallas.  I received the text at 7:44 in the morning:

"Wheels Up: 6:13 a.m.  Touch Down: 6:40 a.m.  You've got 27 minutes to run down that cure.  Do work son!!"
 

My response:  "Pssh!  No sweat."

But in actuality, I was a little nervous.  I hadn't run a 5k in a while, and my short training left me feeling not on top of my running (hopefully between this race and Cliff Burgess I'll get back into it!).  The race started and as I expected.  It was a little cramped at the start.  Needless to say I was a little grumpy, especially since it was 8:45 a.m.

I started off pretty good, after crossing the bridge I found some open space and could run at my own pace.  Unfortunately, I did not make any kind of play list on my MP3 player, so I found myself often changing songs from the Jonas Brothers (joking).  When I reached the turnaround I was still feeling pretty strong, but I found myself impatiently waiting to come up on the underpass.  It seemed like a good checkpoint that I was almost done.  Eventually I made it to that point, and boy even the last leg seemed longer than I had expected.

As I approach the suspension bridge, two young kids (maybe 12 or 13?) kept sprinting by me and slowing down, and repeating.  Boy did I let that get to me!  But it turned out to be my final push that I needed.  I was not about to let these young teens to beat me!  So I sprinted (what felt like sprinting anyways) the bridge lined with balloons and shirts and crossed the finish line.  Just under 27 minutes.

I'm Tom Interliggi, and I'm faster than an airplane.