America, Part 2

For those of you following my running progress, July 4th was the end of my training period and the day of the big race, the Longport American Mile. I started the day with a healthy breakfast of 3 donuts (to complement the boston creme, turkey junior, and 10 beers I'd had 4 hours before) and then prepared for the race with some stretching and a pregame snack of 2 plates of potato chips. Jared and I headed down to the Point just before race time and joined basically the rest of the town to prepare for the event. 5 minutes to start, they annouced, and we got in line, then a few moments later everyone just started running. I was expecting some sort of horn or "ready, set, go," but apparently that's not how they do things in Longport. The obstacle course of small children, elderly, and mothers pushing strollers was daunting, but the actual running part wasn't so bad. I finished in 8:04, quite a proud moment for me considering earlier in the day my brother bet me I couldn't finish under 10. I might even keep training and move up to a 5k next.