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I found myself in Portland this weekend visiting with family. While reading the Saturday paper I discovered that the Susan G. Komen Portland Race for the Cure was on Sunday. Having never run a 5k before, I decided to sign up.

The race was scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. Last night I got prepared. I pinned my number to my t-shirt, set my alarm for 6:00 a.m., and reviewed the schedules for Max. I planned to walk to the station and ride Max to the starting line, but things never go as planned.

I awoke at 4:30 a.m. full of anticipation for the race. since I was planning on getting up in 90 minutes, I decided to go back to sleep. Unfortunately I awoke to morning light forcing its way into my room. Crap… I checked my clock and found it was 7:00 a.m.

How in the world was I going to make it to a 7:30 a.m. race?

I was dressed and out the door at 7:10 a.m. The left no time for a walk to Max. I could drive and be there in 10 minutes, but what about parking? The crowd was expected to be 40,000. No time to chance it. So I did what came naturally, I ran.

I ran to the starting line and as I approached the starting area I heard the countdown “10, 9, 8,7…”. I could not figure out how to get around the barriers so I jumped a barrier and ended up in the middle of the pack at the starting line. I peeled off my long sleeve shirt revealing my “Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure” t-shirt and number ‘10355′.

I don’t know how far back I was, probably less than a minute back. I made pretty good time, finishing at 27:02. Not bad for my first 5k. At least now I have a benchmark.

I decided to map my crazy journey to the race. Turns out I ran 4.31k before my 5k run. If I ever run another 9.31k, my unofficial time for 9.31k is 47:02.