2015 OUTDOOR SUNDAY EVENINGS 5K RECAP

Brandon, me, his sister, and his dad before the start of the 5k for our third annual running of this race.

Sunday, July 12th marked the 4th annual Outdoor Sunday Evenings 5k put on by the church by my house. It was the third year Brandon, his father, and I would be running it together. It has become somewhat of a tradition and something I look forward to every year. Brandon has been getting faster each year and I expected that would continue this year as well. If you'd like to read about the previous times here is the report from 2013 and here is the one from 2014. Onto this year!

This year was particularly fun because Alejandro and Katie B. showed up to run the race and Libbie was there again to take pictures. So it was a fun crew. Brandon's little sister even came and ran the one mile fun run (more on that later). After a little panic about getting to the race on time we ended up arriving with about 15 minutes to spare. Enough to grab our bibs, hand the camera to Libbie, and chat a little with Ale and Katie. Brandon was a "little nervous" but not too bad. He made it his not so secret goal to beat Katie. I knew she would probably crush him, likely running under thirty minutes, but whatever was going to motivate him.

Feeling good very early in the race.

Right on time the race started and Brandon and I shadowed behind Katie. It was fun watching them interact, Brandon was trying to pass Katie, but she would block him like a racecar driver blocks an opponent trying to pass. We were running much too fast, and I tried to warn Brandon, but he was pretty focused. I was surprised at how far he was running... would the motivation to beat a girl really propel him for the entire race? Well, no. It did get him .88 miles into the race without a walking break though, by far a Brandon record for continuous running.

That first walking break occurred right before the first major hill so it was good timing. Brandon had darted ahead of Katie so our walking at that point included looks back to see where she was. Eventually she caught up to us and we stayed about even for another half mile. The first mile split came in at 8:55. I knew that was trouble. That was an amazing time for Brandon and even included some walking. My only fear was that he blew himself up early and wouldn't be able to finish the race in a strong fashion.

My fears started to come true about a mile and a half in. We hit the aid station and Brandon took a little break to drink some water. It was at this point that Katie pulled away and Brandon realized how much effort he had put into trying to stay ahead of her. The combination of an exhausted body and the sight of Katie fading into the distance was a real mental downer for him. Negative words started coming, including the annual "never sign me up for a race again" and "I'm going to give up, seriously." Nothing I hadn't heard before. I just tried to stay positive and continue to encourage him.

The annual "burn Thomas" tradition started early this year.

It was a little concerning though, he was taking longer to rebound than I expected. Half run half walk at most. While he had always been exhausted at this point in the race (around mile two) he had never ran the first half of the race so hard. I could understand how he was feeling, it was like mile twenty of a marathon where you started out way too fast for him. Eventually he came around. I wasn't sure he would, but the continued encouragement and reminding him to only compete against himself and to forget about other people seemed to work.

The last half mile he actually ran pretty strong! One walking break where I encouraged it up a hill, but otherwise he ran the race in. He took off for the finish way earlier than in previous years and really impressed me with what he had left in the tank for the finish. I sprinted after him and even pulled even with him with about fifty yards to go to pretend race him and hopefully encourage him to run faster. He looked over at me and didn't run faster or even make a face. I think he was that tired. I pulled off the gas and let him beat me by a few seconds.

Brandon did awesome! He crushed last year's time by a good two minutes and continued his downward improvement of his 5k time. After being tired and out of it for five or ten minutes after, again a yearly tradition, he perked right back up and had fun. He's always glad he did it after the race, but during he kind of hates it. Hey, kind of sounds like me! Anyways, perhaps the best part was to come. I was going to take Brandon's sister on the one mile timed run so she got to do a race too. It was free and you could sign up at any time. Katie mentioned she was going to do it, so as soon as Brandon heard that he piped up "I want to do it too" after rejecting that idea earlier.

Getting ready to burn Katie in the one mile run.

So it was off to the one mile fun run! I ran with Brandon's little sister, who is nine, and it went about as expected. We sprinted and walked our way to an 11:30ish mile. No way to pace the little ones. I'm glad we only signed her up for the mile because there was no way she would have enjoyed running two more of those. She had a good time though and it was fun to have her included. Brandon raced Katie and actually ended up beating her. I kind of wish I could have seen the "race" and heard the chatter between them. According to Katie though, Brandon actually beat her, she didn't let him win. Brandon ran an 8:34 mile after finishing the 5k just a half hour prior!

All told Brandon ran four miles in just over forty minutes. Super impressive! I'm sure he was sore for a few days, he was already limping to the parking lot when we went to leave. I was very proud of him though, to do four miles and run that hard is really impressive for a kid that doesn't train. It was hilarious how competitive he got with Katie, they trash talked for fun back and forth, and it was rewarding to see him try his best even if it took everything he had. We ate our free hamburgers, chatted a little, then headed home for the night.

Look at his improvement over the years!

Brandon's official time: 31:55, 10:18/mile.

And, for fun: