The Firecracker 5000 is a race that starts just before midnight and makes a couple of loops around Seattle Center. I was a little disappointed with this year's race, though I really shouldn't be. The course was hilly. The night was humid. There was a little bit of wind. And my legs were still a bit tired from running a half marathon only nine days previously. Still, I really wanted to break nineteen minutes. I even had a touch of nerves before the race because of it. Also, while standing next to all the primed college dudes who were ready to hand me my ass, I felt fat. That was a first. I'm about seven pounds over my ideal power-to-weight ratio, but standing in a crowd of guys with 3% body fat, it seemed more like seventy pounds.

I started out well, despite some jostling of elbows. I hit the first mile in 5:58, which was a little slower than I wanted—I was aiming for 5:50. I never saw the two-mile mark, but I must have been running well, because I was passing people left and right. The last mile proved my undoing. I made it to the flat stretch of road in front of the EMP and ran out of gas. I really struggled to keep my speed up, but my legs felt dead. A few people started passing me back. I went through the three-mile mark in 18:31 and knew then that my slow third mile had cost me a sub-nineteen. I sprinted in as best I could and stopped the clock at 19:08. Oh well. If nothing else, I was two-and-a-half minutes faster than last year.  ¶ 10:15 AM