Fun Run

Falcon Heights held its first (hopefully annual) 5K fun run/walk last Saturday.  I've been training for this event for months.  Well, maybe not specifically for this event, but I've been running about this distance for awhile now.  I felt ready.  I like competing in the 5Ks that are billed as run/walk.  I figure even if I tire out after running the first third, I can still switch to walking and probably not finish last.  When they throw the "fun" in front of it, it's even better.  When a run is described as a "fun run" it means that 1) You may or may not get a unique race number.  2) They may or may not have an official timer.  3) They will very likely NOT be posting individual results.  It's all for fun.  No matter when you finish, you can always pretend you could have run faster if it had been a "serious" race.

On Saturday, three members of our family participated in the race.  A. chose to do a fun walk.  B. and I ran together.  B. went into this race without having trained at all.  He has some new running shoes but he chose to wear his old beat up ones (I think he chose them because they were already tied). 

The starter pistol fired and we took off.  We were swift gazelles bounding across the open plain - for about thirty yards.  That was when I received the first query regarding whether we were close to the finish yet.  We were not, I confessed.  In fact, we had barely begun.  The rest of the race consisted of B. intermixing slow walks and sprints as I cajoled him from one landmark to another ("C'mon buddy, let's just try to run up to the corner").  Any time B. was walking, I would run in big wide circles along side him so I wouldn't leave him behind.  I'm a big believer in momentum and inertia.  I feared that if I stopped running I wouldn't get going again.  I think by the end of the race, I'd run about 8K.

As we caught sight of the finish, B. found renewed energy and we finished strong, once again gazelles.  We crossed the line side by side in just under forty minutes.  It was the longest motivational speech I've ever given.