Ted's Bison Stampede 5K

Come with me, Hail Mary/
Run, quick see/
Now - do you wanna ride or die?
-Tupac Shakur

Wow. What a great race.

Went downtown this morning for the first Ted's Montana Grill Bison Stampede 5k.

It was really nice with some rolling hills (as usual for this town) - started off near the Ted's downtown restaurant location, went up Centennial Olympic Park drive past the CNN Center, up through Castleberry Hill (now I know there really is a hill here), past the courthouse and the state Capitol and on back to Luckie Street where the restaurant is.

I felt pretty strong the whole way and even though my mileage isn't where it should be, I was able to really accelerate and power through the rolling hills, when a bunch of the people running around me were not.

All during the race I was singing a version of Tupac's "Hail Mary."

Come with me, little kitty cat/
Run with me/
Now, do you wanna ride or die?

It was silly, but it helped.

At the end of the race, the muscle over my left shin was hurting but it's fine now.

At the end of the race, cute little Wharvey girls were giving out "Buffalo sliders," small but thick bison cheeseburgers. They were pretty good but tasted extremely salty.

Sweetwater was giving away free plastic cups of beer. I didn't imbibe because I drove downtown (didn't want to hit any runners).

When I registered, I returned back to my car to put my sunglasses away (could have used them halfway through the race) and left an e-mail confirmation of my registration. When I got to the race start, I reached into my pocket and found ... the registration! I left my bib number in my trunk, so with 10 minutes left I really had to hoof it back to my work parking deck (only a few blocks away).

I was pretty pleased -- if I increased my mileage, I prolly could be running what I was five years ago when I first came to town.

All in all a great event.