Tuesday night was the Toledo Roadrunners Club Fall Officer’s Bash. Long name, short race! It’s actually just a 5K “fun run” that my family has participated in for several years now. Following the run is dinner, drinks and a super short club meeting. As a member family, we get all of that for just $5! Yes, $5 for the whole family. We just can’t pass that up!
It’s a good thing we were already signed up because Tuesday turned out to be a chilly, drizzly night. The kind of night I’d rather just put on my lounge clothes and relax at home. In actuality though, it was warm enough to wear shorts and shirts and the rain cleared up after we got there.
At the start of the run my kids each said “I’m running with Mommy!”. I reminded them that I was going to be running slow because of my upcoming race and I’m still recovering (“no speedwork, no hills”). That plan was fine with Sydney (she also has a race this weekend and already had cross country practice that day), but Zachary has just finished with his XC, so he’s got some “new legs” to try out and decided to run with Alan. Here we are, just a family of blurs at the start…
The boys took off at the start of the run and we never saw them again. Sydney kept telling me “slow down” when I wasn’t sticking to our 9:30 – 10:00 min pace. She kept me in check. We were closer to a 9:15 pace as we got to the “finish chute” of our race. That’s when I heard it. Someone was clearly trying to pass us – I could hear the footsteps coming up behind us fast and strong. I didn’t even take a split second to look, I instinctively sprinted as fast as I could to the finish line!! Yes, that was the stupid thing I did. Garmin said my fastest pace was 4:53! Remember that “no speedwork” rule. Oh yeah. I just couldn’t help it. No way in h@ll someone was going to pass me at the finish line. The finish line of a 5K which no one will ever see the results for, and will never know about. It’s just a matter of pride, right?? (and guess what?, she didn’t pass us. Yeah!!!!!!)
Trust me, I felt that for the next two days. In fact, the hamstring pain caused me a restless night!! Ugh. Luckily, today (Friday) it has really cleared up and I think I’ll be fine for race day on Sunday.
The other, super exciting thing than happened that night was that Zach had a stellar performance in his race! His previous 5K record was 25:41. That night he got 22:51!! Holy smokes! Alan said Zach was making him work with that fast pace! His training has really paid off.
And, he got the best compliment. A lady said, “I knew you had a speedy runner in the family (Sydney), but I didn’t know you had another one too!” That made me proud to see his smile at that comment. Another thing that kept me up that night – stressing that I never got a picture of Zach proudly displaying his finish stick that had 9th place on it [Mom fail] 🙁 Trust me, he was super excited to show me when I crossed the finish line.
Hope you have a great weekend and I’ll tell you how the Columbus half goes next time I post!
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Q: Got anything fun going on this weekend?
Q: Anyone else running Columbus, or any other races this weekend?
Go Zach! Tell him congrats on the PR. 🙂
He was so excited! And exhausted. I had to hear about the tiredness all night. Runners don’t let you forget it. haha!!
Almost a 3 minute PR?! That is awesome, congrats to your son!
Heather [is probably running] recently posted…Half #10: CC River Run 2017
His PR was crazy! The competition is definitely on between him and his sister now.
WOW congrats to Zach on that PR- that is huge and such an accomplishment and testament to the hard work (and also having parents who are active and setting good example!)
Laura recently posted…Devil Dash 5k 2017
I was so happy to see his hard work pay off. Kids don’t always see the potential when they are training after school in the heat on the track. It’s a hard sell convincing them to go for a run sometimes!