Casey Cares 5K at Camden Yards

My family got the opportunity to participate in the Casey Cares 5K this morning.  8am bright and early. It's always good to have fun with the organizations that supported us during my daughter's treatment for leukemia.

I think all runs in Baltimore City are at 8am instead of 9am now because of heightened security alert because of the Boston Marathon Bombing.  As everyone knows, by moving a competition run back an hour, the terrorists will oversleep and cancel their plans.  Because they're going after little-known races.  This is clearly a case of the Baltimore City Police feeling that they have to do something in response to the terrorist attack, even if the response is totally ridiculous.

So, regardless of the heightened security alert, we go to hang out at Camden Yards for a bit.  Keith Mills was the MC for introductions.  He sounds as Glen Burnie in person as he does on the radio.  But that's what we love about Keith Mills.  After the race, Keith was down on the field with the runners.  I was next in line to get my picture taken holding the Casey Cares home plate when Keith nearly walked behind the guy in front of me getting his picture taken.  I said, "Hey, Keith - photobomb him!"  He turned and looked with a scowl on his face.  I guess he didn't find it as funny as I did.

Here is Keith Mills interviewing WBAL radio personality Robert Lang, not to be confused with the former Washington Capital of the same name.  Nick Markakis and his wife Christina and their two kids were on hand to thank all of the people for participating.  I forgot to take a picture of them.

Robert Lang is here in front of me filming the family whose son was the ambassador of the event.

Apparently not a lot of people understand race protocol.  If you think about it for 0.2 seconds, you'd realize that the faster runners ought to be in the front, and the walkers and fatties should be near the back.  First the 5 minute milers, then the 6 minutes milers, etc...  I'm in the 8 minute milers section.  It took several minutes to wind my way through the herds of people not adhering to this protocol.  

Once I finally broke free near Light Street, it was nice running.  It's mostly flat, though with the occasional trolley rail line or cobblestone street.  I passed the 1/2 mile point at 3:58, which is nice for me.  We then passed Federal Hill, then made a U-turn on Key Highway near some condos.  We then zig-zagged though the neighborhoods around Federal Hill and South Baltimore before finally crossing the West Hamburg Street bridge, then into the parking lot at Orioles Park at Camden Yards, then through the tunnel and out onto the field.

I think my time was around 25 minutes.  I was too focused on getting to the finish line and not running into anyone to see my time.  Then I forgot to turn off my running app to see the time.  I finally remembered a minute or so later, which said 26 minutes and some seconds.

Overall, it was a great event.  The temperate was not that bad and we had a few sprinkles, but to a runner, that's nice!  Thank you, Casey Cares, Keith Mills, and Nick Markakis for supporting this event!