I ran the Big House Big Heart 5K this morning in Ann Arbor. Jennifer and the girls were gracious enough to join me by waking up before dawn and driving over an hour so I could run in an event that lasted less than 23 minutes (22:56 to be exact… a 7:21 minute/mile pace). The event itself was pretty fun. I met up with a friend and a few of her relatives before the race. As it turns out, the brother who was running with her was in a work group with me in one of my advanced math classes back in college. Small world! While I we caught up and waited for the event to begin, a small men’s college a cappella group entertained the crowd by singing various U of M anthems (Hail to the Victors, anyone?). I ended up running solo as the rest of them were going to be running at different paces.The route started at the NE corner of the Michigan Stadium, headed up State Street, around the diag, back down State Street, then along a path through the training fields on the athletic campus and to the stadium. It finished by going through the tunnel into the stadium, followed by an immediate turn down the sideline to the south end of the field and back up the center, passing through the finish on the 50 yard line. It was fun to participate for that part alone.I don’t know if it was just the fact that it was a beautiful Sunday morning and people were basking in its glory, or that I was in a fast enough pace group that everyone was pushing themselves too hard to talk (me thinks the latter), but as we passed the Union and Angell Hall I realized that no one in the immediate area was talking at all. The only sounds were those of the shoes hitting the pavement.Jennifer and the girls just missed me crossing the finish line by a few minutes as they stopped by our friends’ place after dropping me off but then had trouble finding parking at the adjacent Pioneer HS. Fortunately we were able to meet back up shortly after they arrived. Randomly, a few friends-of-friends noticed me in the crowd milling around after the finish so we chatted a bit.To complete our time in Ann Arbor, we made the obligatory side trip to Zingerman’s to pick up a loaf of chocolate cherry bread (among other things) and a trip to the Wasem Fruit Farm for apples, cider and donuts. Mmm… trans fats… 😛