They were holding the race at the University of West Floridas Cross Country field house. It was gonna be a 5K trail run, but apparently the kids had a pretty tough time last year, so they they only did one mile on the trail and the rest on the road. The road in this case is pretty hilly! So no easy run any way you look at it. The fun part is that you get to run through a small creek right at the beginning of the run! Nothing better! HAHA
They did the Fun Run before the 5K this time and I used that as my warm up. I have to share this story with ya. These little kids just love to run and are so excited about getting the chance to run in a 'race'. There were kids as young as 3 years old running. The fun run also has some trail running. Probably about 1/3 of the course was trails. Since this was my warm up run, I was taking it pretty easy.
About 100 yards from the finish, I noticed this little kid in front of me that was struggling a bit. He couldn't have been more then 6 or 7 years old. Little dude with classes. He was holding his stomach and pushing hard. I came up along side of him and encouraged him to push on. You could hear his parents cheering him on at the finish line. I stayed right with him all the way to the end. He did great. We both crossed the finish line at 8:26. Great job by the little man.
I also ran into one of my former students. He was at the race with his little boy Matthew who is 5. Andrew graduated in 2007 and I don't think I've seen him since. He looked great. To top it off, little Matthew took 1st in his age group.
The 5K got off right at 9:30. The weather had cleared up a bit by start time and the rain pretty much had stopped. Of course there were a number of kids running the 5K, and they took off like bullets when the race started. I wasn't looking to PR this race. I really just wanted to go out and have some fun. I keep it nice and easy on the trail part. Passed a few runners here and there. I probably was at around a 8:20 pace. My Garmin didn't start when when we took off, so I'm not sure the exact pace. Like I said, we exited the trail after the first mile and were on the road. I'm not lying when I say that UWF has some hills. WOW! It's been awhile since I ran out there and those hills were kicking my butt. I approached this race the same way I have the last couple of races. I stopped when I needed and keep the pace as high as I could when I ran. It worked out pretty good overall. I ended up finishing with a time of 25:57. I'll take that!
I enjoyed good times with my running friends and finished up with so yummy cookies!!
As always my friends, remember: 'Real athletes run, all others just play games!'.
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