It’s been a great day so far! This morning was the Spectrum 10K race. Ben and four of my children registered for it, but I never did, because of the half-marathon last weekend…I wasn’t sure how my legs were going to do, racing after 3 months without running. Anyway, I needed to do a 15 mile run today, in order to continue to prepare for the Ogden marathon in May. So I decided to run 9 miles down hwy 18 (St. George Marathon Route) and then jump into the race in Snow canyon, and “bandit” the run along with my kids. Well, Ben decided that since I would be running so slow, he would join me, and we drove out to Veyo and started the run right on everyone’s favorite hill – one mile up a pretty steep grade, and then two more miles of hill climbing before you FINALLY get to run down!
I really tried to run slowly, taking my walk breaks after every 5 minutes of jogging. When we finally arrived at the race start line, we realized that we had miscalculated the distance, and had already gone 9.86 miles in 1:36:47. I was kind of glad, because I wanted to do 15-16 miles, and now, just to get to the finish line, I would HAVE to do 16! My friend Katie wanted someone to run with for the race, so I agreed to stay with her and chat. We started, and Katie and I went along for about a mile-and-a-half, when I came across my son, Hyrum. He’s 14, slightly asthmatic, and was running his first 6 miles ever. He was walking along the side of the road, acting like he was going to throw up or something. So I sent Katie on, and told her I’d better stick with Hyrum. Well, that was probably a bad idea, because he really turned on the “I can’t do this” act, and after walking a half mile with him, I decided that even though it might hurt his feelings at first, he would do MUCH better using all that energy to run without me, than to continue with the drama. So I told him to walk until he felt better, and that I would go on ahead. I saw a tear forming as I took off, but sometimes you gotta do the hard thing, because it’s right for your child.
I sprinted for awhile, to see if I could catch back up with Katie. Since I was in the back of the pack, I felt like I was flying! I’m sure I scared more than one runner when I came screaming though – but it felt really good to do a little sprinting, so I didn’t care! I caught back up with Katie around mile 2.5, and I ALMOST finished the race with her. It wasn’t her day, and she was struggling. So the last half mile, I took off, and sprinted to the finish, completing the 6.2 miles in 57:04 minutes. My total miles for today – 16.06 in 2:33:51. I guess all that water-running was effective, because I didn’t feel like I had just tacked three more miles onto my long run – I still felt fresh and could have easily continued.
So as for my family – Ben finished the 10K in just over 43 minutes. He said it was easy, and he probably needs to start racing harder, since he PR’ed the race after already running 10 miles and without even trying. My son Joshua (18) surprisingly kept up with his Dad for the whole 6.2 miles, and placed 6th in his division. I was shocked that he can run that fast! My daughter Britnee (17) ran alone and finished in 51 minutes, taking third place in her division, and came home with a lovely new medal for her collection. Hyrum ended up finishing in something just over an hour (not sure yet) but the important thing is that he found his strength and willpower, and finished the race strong and felt really proud of himself afterwards! I KNOW that wouldn’t have happened if I had stayed with him. My son Elijah (12) came in at 46 minutes and took 1st place in his division, which won him a medal, a gift certificate for $20.00 off running shoes, and a free smoothie at Orange Peel. Guess which gift he’s most excited about? Yep. The free smoothie. | 