Hardcore 5k: Race Your Ice Off

On the last day of 2011 I raced a 5k. This was only my 4th 5k this year. Very unusual for me. As I said in previous posts I'm moved away from the shorter distances and really focus on the long.

I had the privilege of also having my 10 year old son run the race. This is not his first 5k, but I'd still classify him as a newbie. The boy has speed. Natural speed. At his age with little training he can easily pump out about a 8:30 minute pace for a 5k. If he's running just a mile he can breeze through it at a 7 minute pace. It gets me all excited when I think about when he is older and has some good training. That boy will fly! It's this mommas dream come true to see her kids have a passion for running. Not all of mine do. I suspect one might have been switched at birth, since she claims to "hate" running. Ha-ha. I love them all just the same. Runners of not.

Here we are before the race.  We had very unusual weather for this race.  In the past it has been very cold with snow on the ground.  This year we had neither.  The temps kept changing, which made it more interesting.  It was easily bright & sunny & in the mid 50's when we left our town, yet it was cloudy & high 30's by time we got to our race city only 45 minutes away.  And the wind.  Oh! My!    We had fun anyway.  Really just focused on getting the race done.  I knew very well going into this that I was looking for no pr (although the idea never completely leaves my mind).  I just wanted to finish.

I was able to catch my son when he finished.  I could tell he had given it his all.  He finished 4th in his age group of 14 & under.

There was a lot more people there this year.  I'd say twice as many as usual.  I think the nicer weather & the fact that new years eve fell on a Saturday explained the big jump in numbers.  I wasn't extremely impressed with my overall time, but since that wasn't my focus I just didn't care.  I placed 2nd in my age group, but I know that is always as subject to who happens to be there.  The same result in another race would have gotten me 1st or or no place at all.  I did finish right behind a 13 year old girl.  Which, I don't ever compare myself to her (uh, duh that's like comparing an apple to a watermelon) but I will say coming in right behind her just makes me feel A-OK!  Of course I noticed that a 50 year old woman finished ahead of me.  So there you go again, it's all relative.

We ended 2011 with a nice running finish.  I've already been on the go with the start of 2012.  Looking forward to this year and what it will bring.