24th of July Parade Race

My sister Shannon and I have the yearly tradition of running the 24th of July 10k. This year I had to get up at 4:00 AM in order to feed Aria before the race began at 6:00 A.M. Unfortnately, we had an incredibly difficult time finding parking at the race start. Finally we found a spot, and took off running to the race start, hoping that we wouldn't be too late. Ironically, we were running up the hill to the start of the race at the same time as the thousands of racers were racing down the hill because the race had already begun. I think we had to run a mile uphill just to get to the start of the race! By the time we arrived at the starting line, there wasn't another racer in sight! Even the slowest of the slow had already rounded the furthest corner! I suppose we could have just given up there, but no, not after we'd already paid 30 bucks each to run this dang thing! We took off! I made it my goal to pass as many people as possible, which in and of itself is quite an adrenaline rush and confidence booster. I took great pride in each person I passed, even if they were old or severly overweight. 59, 60....100....250...each person passed increased my motivation to run faster. In the end I counted about 350 people that I passed, even though we started the race 15-20 minutes after the gun was shot! It was a fun race, even if it started out in a frenzy! Afterwards my mom and dad brought Aria and met up with us and we watched the parade.