1:37:29

To anyone who has never run a half-marathon: do it. The race today was probably one of the most satisfying experiences of my life, and the way a community comes together to do an event like the Oakland Running Festival is just incredibly awesome. I was one of four teachers from Richmond High running the event, and another coworker ran the marathon (now a marathon is just plain ridiculous). For my first half-marathon ever, I am happy to say that I clocked in at 1:37:29, which is a 7:27 mile pace over the 13.1 miles. The way they do runs these days is pretty cool; I had a chip on my shoe that clocked my time exactly, and allowed them to read my name as I crossed the finish line. All the results are posted online too, which is cool to see how you stacked up to other runners. There were 3000 runners that finished the half-marathon, and overall, I got 136th place - 117th place among men. The coolest part for me was to see that in my division, among men 20-24, I placed 7th of 45. The whole experience was just amazing, and I want to do it again in another city!