Dash Down Greenville 5K

Today Matthew and I headed towards Greenville and participated in the St. Paddy's Dash Down Greenville 5K.  Matthew came home sick yesterday and had a bit of a coughing fit at 4 in the morning.  He knew that I've been excited about going so he decided to tough it out and we went!  He's much better now, just exhausted and still a little congested.  We knew that parking would be a problem so we tried out the Dallas Rail system.  I'm not a fan.  Germany spoiled me.  In Germany, (from my experience) the trains are rarely no more than a few minutes late, if that.  (Side note: one time in Germany we had to wait a really long time for our train to come because someone had decided to commit suicide by jumping in front of one.  Apparently, that isn't a rare occasion. Sad :(  )  Anyway, we should not have waited more than 15 minutes for our train but we ended up waiting for nearly 40 minutes!  They only had one train and it was PACKED with people ready to party.  Once we got off the train station we had to run to even start the race.
I knew that last year about 5,000 people participated and I was prepared to be around a lot of people.  This year, at least 7,000 people participated in the 5k.  It was ridiculously crowded.  I wanted this to be my first "official" race but we got there kind of late and we weren't able to start at the front.  It was so crowded that we walked for the first couple of minutes.  Once the crowd spread out we were able to run.  We ran the first mile and the Matthew was having coughing/breathing problems again.  I decided to walk with him for a little bit and then I left him in the dust for the last 1.5 miles.  Again, it was really crowded so at times I had to walk just so that I wouldn't run over people.  The race wasn't that organized.  You would think that with that many people running you would close the roads but they didn't close all of them.  It took me about 40 minutes to finish the race which I'm not proud of but I learned several lessons.  One is that if you want to take timing seriously, arrive early with the other serious runners so you aren't stuck behind walkers.  At the finish line the provided free beer.  Gross.  Why would anyone want to drink beer at 9-10 in the morning and right after you run 3 miles.  I was surprised at how many people skipped the water and went straight to the beer.  I don't get it.  It would be a different  story if they if they had margaritas..
I'm thankful that we were able to go.  I didn't think Matthew would feel up to it and I really didn't want to go down there by myself.  This is the first time that I've run more than 10 minutes outside in about a year.  My asthma/allergies held up a lot better than I thought they would!   I've been in fear that I would have an asthma attack if I ran outside by myself.  Running outside is soooo refreshing so I think I'll get into doing that more.
Matthew hates crowds and he isn't a fan of running but toughed it out with me.  I love him.

Here he is in his kilt while waiting for the train.

And here I am after completing the race :)  The weather was PERFECT!!