Well, I was right about believing I had a chance of going faster than Taylor's last week time of 20:13, but I was wrong about Taylor not having a 19:30 (his goal for today) in him. I finished 2nd in 19:54, a course PR for me, but Taylor finished in 19:33. I couldn't have wished for the race to turn out any better. I wanted to give Taylor a run for his money, and would have beaten him if I could, but I wanted him to have a good race, too. A boost in self-confidence and self-esteem can help many a young man like Taylor.
At the start there was the normal assortment of participants: kids of all ages, teenagers, young parents with strollers, middle agers, empty nesters, and grandparents...bikers, scooter-ers, walkers, joggers, novice runners and the more serious runners. They started the bikers and scooter-ers first then started the walkers/runners. There is a long downhill at the start. Taylor and I dodged the little kids sprinting ahead of us, then slowly moved to the front of the other teenage runners whose initial sprints lasted a little longer than the smaller kids. By a mile in it was pretty clear it was going to be between Taylor and me. At the end of the first long hill I glanced at my watch and our pace was 5:33. When I looked again at my watch as we approached the mile 1 marked it was blank. I have no idea what happened, but it was off. I turned it back on and ignored it for the rest of the race.
Taylor and I ran more or less together until about 2.3 miles in. For some reason he likes to run on the sidewalks, while I stayed on the street (which is the official course). The sidewalks gave him a shorter distance on the turns, but he ran the tangents so poorly as he switched from sidewalk to sidewalk that it all balanced out. I explained running tangents to him...after the race of course. :) We caught the young bikers by mile 1, and a young girl in a pink jacket on a pink bike (Jaycee) decided to ride near us because we knew where to go. This was working out fine until about 2.3 miles into the race. There is a left turn onto 1600 North. She was a little ahead of us as we made the turn and started up the hill. Taylor passed her on the left and I passed her on the right. As we started to pass her Taylor put in a burst of speed. I don't know if he was trying to leave me behind or just trying to get around Jaycee. Anyway, as he passed her he apparently bumped her handle bars because she crashed to the road. We both stopped to back to her aid. As we did we noticed that Taylor's dad, who had been stopping at various points in his car to watch the race, was also on his way to help her. Since it looked like she was okay, I told Taylor we should continue the race, which we did. I don't think we lost more than 5 seconds or so. I was impressed with how naturally and quickly Taylor was willing to give up his quest for glory to stop and help Jaycee. This happened at the beginning of the two long uphill sections that don't end until the last loop around the park to the finish line. Taylor slowly pulled ahead of me on the uphills and held on to beat me by 21 seconds, a well earned victory. I was pleased to overhear Taylor tell people after the race that I pushed him the whole way, and that he was hurting. Mission accomplished. I just wanted to make him work for it and earn it. I didn't mind him winning. I got my sub-20:00 course PR, and Taylor had to (I mean got to) take the traveling trophy home...an old running shoe mounted on a stand and painted gold. Since Larry doesn't blog, I'll mention that he met his goal to break 24:00, and finished around 23:30, 10 seconds faster than last year. He was really nervous this year. Before the race he showed me that his resting heart rate, normally around 49 I think, was in the 90's. He was worried, but I wasn't. I knew he could do it.
Karen, and my two daughters Emily and Amy, walked the course together with some others. As I was watching runners come in imagine my delight when I saw my 12 year old daughter Emily running strongly for the finish. She actually had pretty good form, considering she never runs. She had left Karen and Amy a while back and decided to run the rest of the way. I've had no success trying to get any of my family members to run in the past, so this was a very pleasant surprise.
What an awesome event! The combination of exercise, beautiful weather,
camaraderie, and food is hard to beat. I thoroughly enjoyed cheering in
the other finishers, the very young to the not quite so young, the very
small to the very large, the faster to the slower. I especially enjoyed
seeing the very small kids sprinting for the finish. Everyone was a winner.
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