The Plate to Plate 5K Run/Walk starts at the ball park and crosses home plate, but it does not round 175 or so bases in the interim. Rather, it immediately heads away from the stands, like a 1919 player who's had enough of the crooks, and hustles as far as the Ferry Building before looping around and coming for home — this is where your blood pressure will rise, as the irregular pentagon beckons, not to mention the crushed volcanic rock base path and the pristine Kentucky bluegrass. You may be old, but you can still manage a two-footed bounce off the dish (home plate). Once you do, keep going: The true end of the 3.1-mile race is on the street out back, where a festival takes place.
Sun., Aug. 30, 9 a.m., 2009
