Human Race Kickoff!

Last night I got to participate in the kickoff party for the Nike+ Human Race, which will be taking place on October 24th. Mostly I think this was done as a publicity thing, but it was still a lot of fun!

It took place right on the East River at the Water Taxi Beach, and when you checked in (you had to be invited...I got in through TNT because TNT is one of the charities that this run supports) you got a wrist band (for free drinks and food) a red Human Race technical shirt, a glow stick, and a ticket for a raffle. Cool.

The whole point was to get together for a little fun run, flooding the streets of downtown NYC and running over the Brooklyn Bridge en masse.

There were about 500 of us, including Lauren Fleshman the fastest woman in the 5K (15:23....WHOA!) and Alan Webb, who holds the record for the fastest mile (3:46...double WHOA!). They were super nice though, and hung back with all of us normal people for the run.

You could also try out the new Nike+ running shoes, which I did. (I don't think Nikes are for me though...they seem a little too narrow for my feet.)

It was so cool to see all of us in our red shirts and glow sticks running around in a group. It was especially cool to cross the Brooklyn Bridge at dusk all together. I always forget what a magnificent view of the skyline you get going across that bridge.

I think we confused all of the tourists walking across the bridge. I mean seriously, it looked like the line of red shirts did not stop. (All of this was done for publicity photos for the Human Race.) They all cheered us on though and a bunch of them took pictures or video. I felt like an elite runner in a marathon :)

It was a pretty enjoyable run, despite the 86 degree temps (I read on the clock as we were going over the bridge :). And we all got to come back afterwards for Sangria and burgers. Mmmmm.