As an unplanned experiment, I had a taste of waiting around for hours for a race to start this past weekend… and it sucked. My race didn’t start until 9:15am, but the race before it started at 6am and I was worried about finding parking later, so I got there a little before 6. I killed time walking around, watching the earlier race’s finish line a bit, eating 2nd breakfast, listening to podcasts, watching the sun rise… by the time my race was staging to start, I was tired and just wanting to be done already. All pre-race energy and excitement was gone. If rD really expects people to show up by 4am for a race starting at 7:30, I’ll never sign up for that.