PR on a Thursday night

I tried out an evening 5K this week for the first time, the Jim Gibbons Leukemia Research 5K. I don't always do well in the evening when it comes to running. This is prime nap time in my life, so, I wondered if I would be sluggish. I had new awesome shoes though: Brooks PureConnect. They make me feel pretty badass. I've been running in Vibrams lately and love them, but I don't think I want to run 26.2 in them this fall, and my other shoes are just too cushioned. I feel like I'm running on a cloud and I don't like it. I love how connected to the ground I feel in Vibrams and the Brooks give me a similar feeling. And they look freakin' cool.

Anyway, I don't like 5K much. They hurt. I tend to run like a bat out of hell (for me that's anything in the 8:15-9:15 pace range). I feel the need to run almost as fast as I can since it's such a short distance. The problem is I'm not good at keep that pace for longer than 1.5 more or so. I get that far and start thinking, "I hate this. This is hard. This sucks." I also have an issue with my right hip right now and I'm sore all the time. That didn't help. I forgot my headphones too and I hate hearing people huff and puff while running. It just annoys me and makes me anxious for some reason.

I walked a water stop, which annoyed me, but I needed to. I walked again at another point. I thought, "It's only 3.1 miles, why am I walking??"I was annoyed with myself. It was just hot and muggy and I was going fast and didn't feel that well. So, 30 seconds of walking helped a little.

I picked it up even faster the last 200 meters or so. I had a chance at being under 28:30. I wasn't sure what my PR was, but I was fairly sure it was near that time.

So, the race ended. I had a beer, listened to some cover band play Matchbox 20 songs, and made my way home.

This morning I saw the results: PR by 3 seconds. Awesome! 28:30! 9:11 pace. Cool. I was 22 out of 66 in my age group. Anytime I'm not in the bottom half of my age group I'm pretty thrilled.

Cool. First PR in anything in over a year. Rock on!

Unbelievably cool running experience

My 5th grade student, Timmy, asked me run a race with him. He asked in some frigid month and the race was in May. I recall thinking: "This is months away. Sounds good. Let's do it." So, I signed up. Timmy is 10. Timmy wanted to run the Solider Field 10 miler. Little did I know this would end up being one of the absolute coolest running experiences I've ever had. I thought maybe he'd be super slow or super fast and then super slow. I thought he may walk. He's 10 after all. WHAT 10 YEAR OLD RUNS 10 MILES??

The answer: THIS KID. 

We met at the start line, in corral 13. Timmy was also running with his Dad, Mike. We waited, an electric storm passed just to the north, the anxiety crept into my hands, where I always feel it the most. I wasn't exactly ready for 10 miles. I was supposed to run 6 that morning and 10 seemed far. 

Timmy, Mike, and I stayed together for the first mile, then, Mike veered off to wait in line for the restroom. Timmy and I continued for the next 5 or so on our own.

This kid is amazing. Our pace was around 10:30 most of those early miles and at mile 6 I asked how he was feeling. He said he "great" and it didn't appear he had even broken a sweat. People saw us and commented, "Wow, way to go kid!", "You're going to by an Olympian, kid." It was like running with a celebrity. Timmy commented on how comfortable and similar our paces were. He said we should run more races together and I said absolutely. I did tell him he would need to stop growing up though. He was going to get better and better, and probably dramatically faster. I, on the other hand, would most likely not be a drastically different runner in a year. 

He would check in with me. "How are you feeling, Ms. Perry?" What a cool kid.

We listened to our music and at times I thought he was talking to me and then I realized he was singing along to his favorite songs.

We saw a guy head for the trees and Timmy asked where he was going. I had to explain nature called. 

Mike caught up with us and we finished strong, Timmy sprinting the final 50 yards on Solider Field. This was the first time he had ever run 10 miles in his life. 

I have been told this was nice of me, to run with one of my students. I think it's the other way around though. I think it was nice of Timmy to invite me to run with him. Most kids shutter at the thought of seeing teachers outside of the building. Timmy knew I was a runner and wanted to run with me. How cool is that?! It was a true honor to see a kid so brilliantly complete a distance I didn't run until I was 28 years old. 

He is one of those people I look up to because of his joy for running. I have those moments sometimes, but often they are few and far between. Timmy and I just ran, for the fun of it, and it wasn't easy for him or me. We both had moments of pain and discomfort, but that's often the most joyous part ....  fighting until you cross the finish line. 

One more thing. Timmy was the youngest person to run this race. He was the ONLY 10 year old. So, I did run with a celebrity. Wow. 

The running ROCK STAR, Timmy, with me and his Dad.