Kingsport Crazy 8's Race

We ran the Crazy 8's 8K Race last night - what fun!  This race is touted as the "World's Fastest 8K":

In 1996, Peter Githuka from Kenya set a new 8K World Record at Crazy 8’s with a time of 22:03. Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco broke the women’s world record in 2002 in 24:28. Both records still stand. Regional Eye Center offers a $10,008 bonus for the first man or woman to break their existing world records.

This year's top male came in at 22:21 and top female at 26:20.  Still some fantastic times.  The top 10 finishers all came in under a 5-minute mile.  The top 60 finishers came in under a 6-minute mile. 

Here were some of our highlights of last night's race:

• it was our first night-time race -- starting at 9:58 pm
• the course was flat (for local standards) -- a figure-8 route through downtown Kingsport the elevation was approximately 1250-1350'
• there were 1,950 runners in the race - a fun-sized crowd
• music blasted out of cars and boat stereos along the course - now I know why people like the Rock N Roll Marathons!
• the number of spectators all along the course was inspiring - sitting out on lawn chairs cheering on the runners; some with music blaring from radios to boost our energy; some with garden hoses spraying us down to cool us on a rare night of high humidity.
• to guide us through the dark neighborhood streets, luminaries lined both sides of the roads (if you look at the map above, you can see "candles" showing which parts of the course had the luminaries)
• the finish line was inside the local stadium - to run down the ramp and into the stadium with the big lights on and people in the stands was an exhilarating finale.
• Andy and I registered as a Husband/Wife Team.  We are currently showing as 9th out of 46th, but that is based off of the "clock" time, not our "chip" time which would put us at 7th place.  It took me almost a minute to cross the start.
• Andy ran at a 7:34 pace, while I finished with a 9:01 pace - we were both happy with our times

The Crazy 8's is part of the week-long FunFest event that happens every year here in Kingsport - concerts, games, races, etc.  We've also registered for the Wolf Run this Tuesday night - a seven-mile trail run race in hilly Bay's Mountain Park....starting and ending at the wolf habitat.  Ooohhh, I can't wait for that one (even if I do come in last place!).