Best Race Ever
Running is one of the only sports that brings together people of all ages, shapes and sizes and pits weekend warriors against professional Kenyan speedsters on any given Sunday morning.
I began running with relative frequency after my second child, Josefina, was born. My first half marathon was roughly nine months after her birth. Since then, I’ve run off and on in a variety of races. 5k fun runs. 10k’s in windstorms. And one more half-marathon. Today I ran my slowest race ever. But it was by far the best one yet.
Today, Julius donned his sneakers and joined me for the 5k in Elma, WA. It was a perfect day for it. Cool breeze, sun shining, mostly flat race.
Within the first mile he wiped out and scraped both knees. After taking a moment to recover, he literally brushed himself off and started running again. We took a couple more walking stops. And hung out with the water guy at the aide station for a while, chatting about the pros and cons of water vs. gatorade per the logic of a 7-year old.
But when we crossed the finish line together, Julius raising his arms with joy, it was awesome. Everyone was cheering him on, and that adrenaline pushed him to run the 5k in 38:12. The fastest in his age group. Which meant he won a trophy.
When presented with his prize, he was asked: “How was it?”
“Painful and hurtful,” he exclaimed panting with a wide grin on his face from ear to ear.
They gave me a trophy as well…just for having brought him to the race. My first trophy, too.
But I just love the fact that my son tried something new and scary. He had no idea if he could do it, since till today his longest distance run was a mile.
The car ride back we went through a list of people he couldn’t wait to tell:
“Mrs. Anderson [his gym teacher] is going to be so proud,” he exclaimed.
Then we talked about the fact that he can’t always expect to get a trophy. And that it wasn’t the point, anyway. If he runs the next race in less than 38 minutes but doesn’t get a trophy, it’s still better than today.
“I can’t wait for the next race,” he sighed while eating his victory McFlurry.
Training starts this week. We are going for another 5k in June. I can’t wait, either.
[...] longer run when Julius asked to join me. Remembering how much fun he had when he ran with me at the Elma 5k a couple months ago, I was happy to have him with me. I was thinking we’d probably run pretty [...]