OUTDOOR SUNDAY EVENINGS 5K

On Sunday I will be running a 5k but I will truly be taking this one easy. For reals easy. Swearsies. How am I going to restrain myself, you ask yourself? Simple... I'll be running with a 10 year old who has the stamina of a ninety year old emphysema patient. Okay, maybe it's a little bit better, but we aren't finishing this thing in less than 35 minutes. I will guarantee you that.

The race is the "Outdoor Sunday Evenings 5K" put on by a church right by my house. The ten year old is my Little Brother Brandon from Big Brothers, Big Sisters. You can read a little bit about him here, and then also read about the half mile race he did last year on this old post.

I signed up for this race about two months ago. His dad had seemingly taken an interest in my running and was always asking me about my upcoming races and how I was doing. He is a soccer player and very fast so I could tell he was curious to see how he'd stack up too. When I asked him if he wanted to do a race, he sort of lit up and said he would like to try. So the search for a 5K was on... the requirement... cheap. I was going to pay for all three of us, so I was lucky to find this little gem. $10 gets you the race, chip timing, and a free BBQ dinner afterwards. Score!

Proud after the Kid's Fun Run last year.

So I signed all three of us up. I signed Brandon up as well... while he doesn't want to dedicate himself to running, he has mentioned at times that he had fun at the Fun Run last year or that he'd like to try again. I realize he is not going to run the entire 5k, and probably won't even run half of it. I have been busy letting him know it's okay to walk and we are just doing it for fun. There should be plenty of people approaching it this way so he won't feel like a slacker at all. I just want him to have a good time and see how much fun races and running can be. His dad, meanwhile, has plans on winning the thing or at least placing in his age group. I don't know how realistic that is... he just plays soccer and hasn't ran for a sustained length of time. He'll probably shoot out of the gate and have problems pacing himself, but we'll see.

I thought a good goal for Brandon and I was under 40 minutes. That is about 13 min/mile. I figure we'd walk at 15 min/mile and run at 9 min/mile. We'd need to run 36% of the time then to hit that goal. Optimally we'd run the whole thing at like 12 min/mile, but I don't think he has the stamina or patience to shuffle along at that speed, but I'm going to really encourage him to take it easy so he doesn't burn himself out. The course is pretty hilly, so we are definitely going to walk any inclines and run the downhill portions. I'll have Endomondo going and be encouraging him... hopefully finishing in the goal time will be motivating to him.

Anyways, I'll post a report on that early next week. On Saturday I need to run 18 miles. That is going to suck. Good thing I'll be taking that 5k easy the next day! I'm also about in line for a new pair of shoes. My current shoes now have more miles on them than the first two pairs of running shoes I've tracked. They've held up a bit better than the last pair, I think because I'm running slower and longer on average. I have also concentrated on improving my form and not being such a "heel striker" like I have been. Anyways, I think I still got a couple weeks in these shoes. I can then switch to my new pair and then they'll have about 200 miles on them come marathon time.