2014 OUTDOOR SUNDAY EVENINGS 5K RECAP

Hanging out waiting for the race to start.

Yesterday was year two of the Sunday Evenings 5k put on by a local church. I ran this race last year with my Little Brother through BBBS Brandon. It was his first 5k and he did great. He didn't exactly catch the running bug, but he did tag along for a 5k this winter and didn't protest much to doing this race again this year. It's not his favorite, but I do think he likes to challenge himself and he knows it makes me happy so he tags along.

His dad Wiliam ran the race again and had more realistic expectations this time. He finished just below his time from last year (by like twenty seconds) but wasn't as bummed because he realizes now that those serious runners are serious and playing a lot of soccer isn't going to necessarily put you in the same league as them. The race was a little bit bigger this year too but still included the free BBQ after the race.

Brandon wasn't quite as nervous as last year but he still got quiet and I could tell he was a little nervous. When I asked him he admitted he was somewhat anxious but "not as much as bungee jumping earlier today" (yes, I let him bungee jump earlier in the day). So I guess whatever puts it in perspective!  Libbie was there again to take pictures and the race started promptly at 5pm.

Feeling good a tenth of a mile in.

Luckily the weather stayed decent enough, cloudy, muggy and about 70. That was much better than the 96 and full sun predicted just days before. Once we started I tried to pace Brandon and I around 9:30/mile. He naturally wanted to go faster, as kids were blasting past us left and right, but I reminded him we had a long way to go and the race wasn't won in the first mile.

We got about a third of a mile before Brandon needed a walking break. I knew many of these would be coming, so I would just encourage him about the job he was doing so far and try to get him running again within 30 seconds or so. He actually ran farther on his second "running section" going about .40 miles. He wanted to quit sooner, but I encouraged him to run down the hill and to the base of an uphill, knowing that would be a good place to rest.

Never again did we run that far without a break, in fact, I'd be surprised if he ran a quarter mile again. Credit to the kid though, he kept moving forward and uttered hardly any complaints. I was lavishing praise on him and it was genuine, I was very proud and impressed with him. He was super sweaty and breathing heavy but kept pushing on. He really wanted to beat his time from last year, so I think that was a big motivating factor.

The course is pretty hilly and if I could make one change about this event it would be to make the course less hilly for Brandon. Oh well. My 10:00/mile jog was hard for Brandon, he either wanted to walk or go 8:00/mile, so for a large part of the second mile he'd run ahead, walk until I caught up, run ahead again, etc. Eventually this tuckered him out and he resumed shadowing me and taking walking breaks where I'd slow down for him.

The annual "burn Thomas at the finish line" tradition.

His mile times were 10:13, 11:56, and 11:08. The second mile contains a lot of uphill and he definitely pushed himself that first mile, so those times make sense. I was very proud of him in the third mile, where he kept chugging along and actually came away with a pretty good mile time. For never running sustained periods at all, to come away with a 34:09 5k at 10:59/mile is pretty freaking good!

Brandon darted ahead once we reached the church parking lot again and finished a good nine seconds ahead of me. I love how he can summon the energy to sprint to the finish like that. He beat his time last year by two and a half minutes. Awesome! I congratulated him but he was pretty quiet for about fifteen minutes... a Brandon trademark when he is exhausted. Eventually he came back from the dead. He was disappointed he only beat his time by two and a half minutes, he wanted more like ten. I had to explain to him two and a half minutes is a lot, that's almost a minute per mile!

After taking advantage of the free food and relaxing a little bit we headed our separate ways. Brandon did awesome and I was super proud of him. Until next year!

Brandon's official time: 34:09, 10:59/mile.