Also friends of note for the 25K: Randy, Derek, Marv, Tami . . . the 5K run: Erin, Steve, Doug, Jess . . . the 5K walk: Cindy. It’s a lot of fun to have so many people you know participate and be there and cheer for. 
So you could say Jason has positively affected my family when it comes to inspiring us to run and exercise. Once he convinced Dad B. last year he could run the 15.6 miles this past Saturday, they’ve had many “coach to pupil” chats and advice filled conversations. In preparation for the 25K, I decided to give my dad an early Birthday present Easter weekend to get him pumped and ready to run. So Dad got “his biggest ever” Easter basket this year filled by me w/ goodies including Cadbury eggs, jellybeans, dark chocolate bars, (and actual running helps like) GU carb gel, Gatorade, a runner’s guide, Riverbank info packet, the “Rocky” CD, a bright green encouraging sign reading “You can do it, runners” on one side and “yeah Claude, run!” on the other side, a wicking sleeveless shirt and my personal favorite a white tee which I had inscribed for him saying “First Timer, Old Timer” on the front and “Go Claude Go” on the back w/ “25K” on the sleeves.
Not only did my dad do awesome at under his goal of 3 hours at 2:43 but he said he felt good the whole way and said he got lots of cheers for his t-shirt! “go Claude go!” which made me very happy. My mom got all geared up and ran her 1st 5K run and also did better than she expected at 41:37. 
Jason also did a personal best at 2:04 (last year he ran 2:08) and that was even w/ a pit stop break at mile 5. 
I also did my best 5K at 33:29. My friend from work Jess ran w/ me the whole way which was great to have someone to talk with and distract you from the run. I hoped to do around 32 and believe I could have pushed harder b/c we started out slow. About half way through I heard someone behind us say “we are definitely not doing a 10 minute mile, probably more like an 11 or 12 minute mile.” Up to that time I had just been taking it easy, not knowing how the hills would affect my energy, but then knew I needed to kick it up to make my goal. At about mile 2.75 we started sprinting to the finish and I had a lot of energy left to sprint so knew I could have probably gone faster the whole route. Bummer. However I have next weekend to prove myself at the “Running w/ the Law” 5K.So Jason did a 25K and I’m doing a cumulative 25K (as someone from work commented). This year I have run 3 5K runs so far. Two weekends ago we ran the Calvin Spring Classic (my time around 34 min) and a month before that we ran the Irish Jig (my time around 36 min). So I am getting faster each time. The Irish Jig was great b/c Jason ran w/ me the whole time and encouraged me. At about mile 2 there was a kid in his driveway playing the bagpipe! It was pretty cool and gave me the energy to finish and push on. At the Spring Classic after Jason finished (in about 21 min), he came back and ran w/ me the last 1/3 mile or so. He’s so good to me! It was fun to be on Calvin’s campus again and the event was much smaller than the other races which was kind of nice too. After the race there were many prizes. Jason won a gift certificate to a pottery place. . . I think I’ll be using that!
No comments:
Post a Comment