On Saturday night we were having dinner at a little pizza restaurant near our house, sitting outside. My youngest son, Tom, noticed a "Games2U" truck driving by. I said that reminded me that there was a 5K tomorrow at the community college (PHCC). My oldest son, Andy, said he was interested. I was a little bit surprised but said ok. So, we got up early in the morning and I took the two boys to the race. Originally my youngest was just going to watch. I figured that would be ok as there would probably be people there we knew. Jenny was doing her run but was going to try to get there by the start. Just before the race start, I also signed up Tom because as he did not want to be left out. But, I told Tom that he would have to run by himself as I promised to run with Andy (although I asked a couple of people I knew that would be running to look out for him). He said ok. But, I wasn't sure, these races can turn into a big drama between the two boys. We did almost a one mile warm up on part of the course.
The race started. It was a beautiful morning and was a really nice course. The three of us started together, and about a 1/4 mile out Andy and I started to pull ahead of Tom. No complaints or drama from Tom, just as promised. At about 3/4 mile Andy had to stop and tie his shoe. Tom cruised right by us. We got going again and passed up Tom and kept on going. The course was a double loop with some out and backs. We saw Tom a few times and he was just running along without any problems at all. Oftentimes there is some complaining, some screaming, and a few walk breaks. Andy and I stuck to the plan and hit the splits pretty much where we wanted to be. I tried to push Andy a bit but was careful not to overdo it. Andy recently had run a 7:20 mile at school. I had looked up the equivalent 5K time on Runner's World website, which said 24:20 for a 5K. We came right in at 24:19, a new PR for Andy by 1 minute. After crossing the line I went back to look for Tom. He wasn't really that far behind us and came in with an impressive kick, which is always a crowd pleaser due to his smaller size but larger than life look of effort on his face. Tom's time was 26:40, about a 2 minute PR for him and the very first time he ran a 5K by himself. Although, it turned out not completely by himself. There was a 19 year guy he happened to be running the same pace, so they stuck together just about the whole way, which was nice. Then after the race, they had some pretty good snacks and of course the Games2U truck.
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