Oakland is Proud

From an unnamed university in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...

I am moving even slower than usual today. Why? Because yesterday I ran a half marathon. It was the Inaugural Oakland Running Festival. I learned about said festival when I was at the Runner's Expo for another local half marathon, because I'm dumb like that.

But not as dumb as the guy in the story I'm about to tell. When I was at the expo and saw the booth for the Oakland Running Festival, I thought 1) that would be cool! and 2) ooh, free water bottles! In order to get said free water bottle, you had to put your name on the email list to stay updated on the festival. Done.

The guy in front of me looked up when he was signing his name to ask the young girl at the booth "why is it called Inaugural?" The girl responded, "because...it's...the...first...one?" It's hard to convey via text that the timidity in her voice was not because she didn't know the answer, but she was trying hard not to sound condescending and seemed to hope that maybe she misunderstood the guy's question.

So anyway, yesterday's run was not that well-organized, but even though it was a little crazy and chaotic, the 13.1 miles was totally worth it for one reason: MR. COOPER WAS THERE! Yes from "Hanging with Mr. Cooper." Remember at the end of the opening credits, it said "Oakland is Proud"? Well it did. And Mark Cooper showed up to show his continuing pride in Oakland and us runners, both at the start AND the finish line. I even fist bumped him when I finished. And then promptly started cramping.