Goody 5/10K

I have family in town for a while.  It is a bunch of fun.  I have a large family and several of the adult children and spouses are into running, walking and exercising.  One daughter suggested we have a 5/10K while we were there.  I got to thinking about it and put together a 1K, 5K and a 10K course that would stay out of traffic for the most part.

We started of with the kids 1K.  We made a rule that no one could get ahead of grandpa and no one could get behind the last mom.  The kids (the oldest being 8), were complaining that grandpa would slow them down and make it so they couldn't run fast.  I told them sorry, but that was the rule for safety.  After some goofy warm ups, they lined up behind me and I said ready, set and go!  I wasn't much more that a block underway when I could hear some of them saying "wait up grandpa!", but I could still hear someone breathing behind me and keeping up so I kept up the pace!  By the time we had circled the block and were nearing the driveway, I peeled off and saw that my 8 year old grand-daughter had kept up and came in first, followed by my 8 year old grandson and then his little brother not far behind.  There was no complaints about grandpa being too slow after that.

Later that evening, the 5 and 10 K runners / walkers lined up and off we took.  The daughter who had suggested the race took off in the lead step for step with one of the son-in-laws and they lead the 10K from start to finish.  I ran for quite a while with my brother who is just taking up running, but I really started getting exhausted about mile 2 and had to slow down.  Many factors I think, a bit dehydrated, second 10K in the week and time of day. I caught up with my brother and the turn back as we doubled back.  Since it was my brother's first time going further that a 10K, he wanted to walk portions and I just didn't have it in me myself to run the whole way back either so we just talked as we ran/walked and had a good time.  I even had to stretch a few times due to some cramping (which never happens in the morning). That's is one of the clues that I had about dehydration.

On the way back, we saw the walking 5K group and they were having fun and doing well going the 3.1 miles to the waiting cars in the lot.  For our first family race things went well.  We all had a good time, the lead runners R & M ran it in under 1 hour and G and I gimped back about 1:25 or so.

The funny thing was, I went 4.5 miles this morning and had no problems other than needing to loosen up a bit at the first.  I have a few challenges this week with a long day hike in the Uintahs and a summit hike up Cascade with the Varsity Scouts on Saturday for On Target.

Shout outs to all the family who participated in the Goody 5/10K .  It was fun and inspiring to see all of you going the distance.  Another shout out to Bill who paced another half-marathon on Saturday.  It wouldn't surprise me if he logged some additional miles after.  Todd A is doing some great training for a BQ attempt at St. George in October.  Keep up the great work Todd!  Very impressive.  Last shout out is to all the June Boomers who did really will on their goals!  Hang in there and I will too!