The business case for running a race: Seattle Half Marathon 2010

This morning I ran the Seattle Half Marathon and it was a ton of fun.  The race started at 7:30am right next to the Space Needle.  The race was super hilly which was surprising to me as I still live under the delusion that Seattle is flat (which it's not).  Much of the race was along the water which was beautiful.  I wound up running 1:36 - not my PR, but not horrible either.

The starting line had a lineup of characters depicting those you might find in business; such as:
Do and ask for forgiveness: up close to the starting line it was packed.  One guy kept bumping into people, then apologizing, then bumping into the person in front of him as he tried to get ahead.
The victim: after getting bumped by a handful of "Do and ask for forgiveness-ers" a woman next to me looked like the world hated her.  No one should look like that at the starting line of a race (or in business for that matter) ... so sad.
The get ahead when not ready peeps: Behind me I heard a group of guys talking.  "What time are you going for?"  "Probably something like under 2 hours ... I dunno." (we were in the section for 1:30 - 1:40 runners).  "Yeah, me too.  I don't really care."  "I'm probably going to go out slow and then we'll see."  Argh - I can't stand these runners because it means others who are going for time are stuck tripping over feet just trying to get out of the gate.
The stud:  There was a woman standing next to me (it was 40-degrees this morning) wearing racing underpants (I don't know the right word for these, but they look like big panties) and a t-shirt.  Stud.  She passed me at mile 6 and I never saw her again.  She was good, and she knew it.