The first big race in Denver every year is The Runnin’ of The Green in downtown. It is a 7K and they tout it as being the largest 7K in the country. It might be the only one for all I know. The biggest problem with this race is that it’s on Sunday, which is the day after almost everyone parties for St. Patrick’s Day. So for me anyways, I wasn’t expecting a great time or anything, just a chance to run a race and see where I stand with my training. There were over 4,000 people in this race, and I think all the slow ones were ahead of me at the start line. I hate that. There were even walkers ahead of me. I think next year I’m going to put on my singlet, strut to the front, and pretend I’m an elite runner. By the way, why is it that no matter what the weather, the elite runners wear a singlet (tank top)? There were also strollers and a few dogs. This is way too big of a race I think to have strollers and dogs. It’s bad enough that I’m trying to run around the slow pokes, but I have to be careful that I don’t run into little Dakota in her stroller wearing stupid green St Paddy’s Day sunglasses, and a tee shirt that says, Burp Me, I’m Irish.
Otherwise, the race went well, and I did about what I thought I would. I ran it in 33:47, which is a 7:47 pace. Out of 4,266 total runners, I came in 557th. Not too bad. At least by the time I finished, there weren’t too many people yet in the beer line.
I was diagnosed with MS about 6 years ago and I am one of the lucky ones. I don't have too many problems associated with it, and the disease has actually slowed down. I took up running 4 years ago just to see if I could do it. So far I've run 4 marathons in 2 years and 12 half marathons.