Sun, 23 Apr 2006

The 25th running of the 7 Mile Bridge Run was as good as ever.
Of course, this was only the second year I've actually run it. I was legally registered, unlike a lot of my friends (cough) bandit (cough). This was the last year for camping at the Knight's Key campground, because some greedhead developer bought it, and the low-rent camping will be turned into high-end condos ("from the low 800's" or some such).

But we enjoyed the camping anyway, and on Saturday morning we all walked over to the start. I (and a lot of other people) had to use the port-o-lets. I made it to the start with a minute or two to spare. All of the number-less bandits were starting at the back of the pack, but I moved up a little. There was a bang, and we were off!

I ran a slow pace this year, about a 10 minute mile. The run isn't too hard when you go that slow. The pack gradually thinned out, and before I knew it, the finish line was coming up.

I met some friends and we watched more friends come in. There were only two people we know who suffered the indignity of being picked up by the bus. They were still on the course 90 minutes after the start, so they got a free bus ride. There were some non-runners in our group who had brought their cars over the bridge before the start of the race, so we piled into their cars and went back to the start. The beer (various flavors of Michelob Ultra) was flowing at the start, and the racers were partying. I saw lots more people from home that I knew, and we even ran into Karen.


We finally walked back to the campground to get out of the sun. Most people were napping or swimming. We socialized for a while, and finally broke camp and headed down to Key West. Where the story continues...

posted at: 13:18 | permalink |