Do the Math.... 10K = 5 Miles

On Wednesday, I signed myself up for a 10K for this morning in Enid. I signed my parents up for the 5K... they aren't runners, but thats only 3.1 miles and I figured they could walk it. It was an excuse to have someone to see when I crossed the finish line.

Last night I didn't even think about picking up the registration packets.... I checked the website before and quickly realized I could have picked the packets up yesterday from 12:00pm - 7:30pm at the Continental Resources lobby. There was an option to pick it up the day of the race from 6:00am - 7:00am. Shit.

When I told my mom we had to be there at a quarter til 7, she wasn't pleased. My dad wakes up at 5:30am every morning but he insisted that if he went to pick up the packets, I had to come with him. I didn't think that was all that fair, but whatever, I went with him. I woke up at 6:15 so we could be our way around 6:30.

First we went to the North lobby of Continental Resources and there was no one there. So I check my phone... on race day we are supposed to pick it up at the Cherokee Strip Convention Center. So we go there to pick up our t-shirts, numbers and I get a time chip. At about 6:58am we leave the Convention Center because we have to go get mom... she was still in bed. I call her and tell her she needs to be ready by 7:30am so we can be there by the race at 8:00am.

We get home, she gets ready, dad eats, we are on our way out the door. We get downtown around 7:40. We walk towards the start line and I am confused the amount of people that are there... there isn't many. Then it dawns on me... the race started at 7:30am. Let me just tell you, I felt really cool walking up with my number on my chest when there were people finishing the race. But to make matters worse, I had to go have the people on the other side of the finish line clip my time chip off because they are the kind you have to return....

-"Excuse me, excuse me... can I get you to clip mine off?"
-"Oh goodness, how'd you get by us?"

She has no idea.

I still needed to run 5 miles... I'm training for my half and that was on the schedule. So I let my parents take my car and I ran home from downtown.... On my way home I almost got hit by a car that didn't see me when he was at the stop sign. Luckily he didn't.

I feel good about my 5 miles. But I can't help but feel like a dumb shit for missing the race.