Race For The Cure

Decided to run the co-ed 5K run in the Race for the Cure today in downtown Portland. The website said they were expecting 50,000 people and the announcer at the race said they had 46,000 registered. Rather than try and fight traffic, I took a shuttle bus they had from a hospital on the east side of town. Got to the race and there was people everywhere, but I was able to check my jacket and camera and get in the start line. They had it by pace with 6 then 7-8 and 8-9 minutes. I got in the 7-8 area, but found out after it started that most people ignored the system and just got as close to the front as possible. The horn blew and I stood for about 20 seconds before the movement got to where I was then walked up and was able to start running right before the start line. I started my watch when I passed under the start line. At first I did a slow jog looking for a way to get around the slow people, then after about a half mile it started to spread out and I could start running full speed. Then we climbed a small hill and at the top turned onto Broadway and I lost my breath for a second- the whole street for as far as the eye could see was full of bobbing people! Hard to describe the sight of hundreds of runners filling a street. I weaved in and out and made my way towards the front and got into a good rhythm but may have been going too fast because I started to tire, but at one corner they had a drum group from one of the high schools doing a march beat and it helped pump me back up. They had cheerleaders every so often and a jazz band and groups of cheering people. Came across the finish line at 25:55 with an 8:23 pace- very happy with that! Around the same pace I was doing at tris in April. Walked back up towards the checked clothes booth and there were even more people now and I got a bag and started filling up with free stuff, booth after booth of free stuff and lines everywhere. The all women's 5K run took off while I was in the checked line so when I got my camera I walked towards the start line as the main event- the 5K walk- was lining up. First I took a picture of the booth area (lower picture) and that only shows half of it. By the time I got near the start line there was a massive line of people ready to go and I saw a news van with a cameraman and a guy with a microphone on top of the van. I asked the reporter if he could take a picture for me and that is the picture on the top of the post. If I watched the news I'm sure I'd know who he was- that was nice of him though. I thought I'd wait and see how long it took for that crowd to start and got boxed in. 30 minutes later I was able to leave and they had only started half of the line.