KIDS FUN RUN AND SLACKING OFF

Some pre-race coaching.

On Saturday I took Brandon to the Kids Fun Run in Wilsonville. It was a really cool event and put on by the local Kiwani's club. They had age specific races for all ages. Brandon ran with other soon to be fourth graders and their race was 2 laps around the Wilsonville High School track, which is half a mile.

You could tell Brandon was nervous for the race... he wasn't quite as chatty and energetic as normal. Reminded me of how I get before a race, let alone my first race! We got to the high school and picked up his shirt and bib, making the kids feel super official about their race. This was all free, although I donated some money to the Kiwani's (one of those "donations appreciated" things).

We didn't get there super early, so only a couple of heats of kids went before it was Brandon's turn. They led the kids to a corral where they did warm up exercises and then it was off to the races!

Toward the end of the first lap, about to take lead.

Brandon started off near the back of the pack but slowly worked his way forward. By the time they were half a lap in he was toward the front. I ran across the field to that side of the track to cheer him on and take pictures as he went past. He was pacing himself decently, I knew he couldn't keep it up for two whole laps, but I was surprised he was doing as well as he was.

After the first lap Brandon was in FIRST place. I thought maybe, just maybe, the thrill of first and not wanting to give that up would keep him going, but alas, that was not the case. As I expected, he started to tire and on that second lap took a couple of walk breaks. They were probably only five seconds and piece and then he'd start running again. With half a lap to go he was still in like third or fourth place, but eventually lost some more ground.

He ran it in and ended up somewhere from 8th-10th out of 50 or so kids, so he did great! Later on in the car I agreed to let him "embellish" the story to finishing 5th out of like 100 to his parents. He also was excited to learn that word and used it a bunch later that day, haha.

Anyways, I was SUPER proud of him. He did A LOT better than I thought he would. I was very proud he never gave up, even if he had to take a short break, he started running again. It took him a long time to recover after the race, he was really drained, but eventually he came back. You could tell he left it all out there and what more could you ask?

Tired but happy after the race.

He was pretty adamant that was going to be his only race though. Maybe I can convince him to do the mile, but he really dislikes running. I am hoping when he looks back at the race he can see how much fun he had, but we'll see. I won't pressure him into anything.

As for my own running, I kind of slacked off last week. I ended up running FOUR miles all week. Eek! I was just super busy and didn't commit myself enough to work around those entanglements. I played golf on Sunday and that was a hell of a workout, so I don't feel too bad. I'll get back into it this week. Six tonight at run group!

I am now training for the Corvallis Fall Festival 5k, which is my next race. Hope to set a 5k PR in that one!