My Son’s Kona Run Race Report

If you’re ready to read a motivational, inspirational, feel-good post, you’ve come to the right place! 🙂  What follows is a write-up for my son’s second 10k race.  (He’s practically an old pro now. 😉 )

Before I start the race report, I’d like to start by introducing you to my oldest son.  As everyone who has read my blog knows, I have been keeping my kids’ names confidential on my blog.  I did it because they were kids, and because I just didn’t feel that I wanted to have their names publicly out there on the great wide web.  We’ve all heard horror stories about Internet crazies, right?

However, I’ve come to realize in the last few months that my oldest son’s name is already out there in the public domain, since he is now running races as an official entrant and not just doing fun runs and one-milers.  The truth is, if someone really wanted to know his name, they could figure it out.

So, because it’s hard for me to remember to refer to him all the time as DS#1, let me just go ahead and officially introduce you to…

 

 

Isn’t he handsome? 🙂 Also, note that his name is in a font called “Hockey is Life.”  I couldn’t resist!

Now, onto the race report.  To give you some background on this race, Jamie had run his first 10k in Plymouth back in March (you can read all about it here).  It was freezing cold that day, and he struggled to keep running through the whole thing.  I couldn’t blame him–all my digits were numb!  He finished with an 11:21 pace, and since it was his first 10k, I was happy.  Our next race was a Mother’s Day run, and he ran a 10:39.  Again, another cold day, and he seems to not run well in the cold.  He does very well at the short runs, but his longer runs are in the mid-11 range, and his last long run (5.5 miles) was a 12:18 average pace. 🙁 He’d had a lot of hockey and baseball lately, and I felt I had to cut him some slack for that, but I really struggled with how to approach this race.  On the one hand, as a “coach,” I just knew he had more in him than what he was giving lately.  But as his mom, I didn’t want my poor baby to push himself too hard.

On Tuesday, four days before the race, I asked him to run as fast as he could for two miles, and that would be his last run before the race.  He ran the first mile in 8:53!  He had to walk twice during the second mile, but he still managed to average a 9:41 pace.  I was really proud of him, and I could tell he was quite impressed with himself.  I asked him if he though those 11- and 12-minute average long runs were really as good as he could do.  He decided that he was going to try very hard to do a sub-11 pace for the race, and I agreed that I thought he could do it.

The 10k was in Northville, which is about 45 minutes to an hour from our home.  There were various distances to be run at this event, but ours, lucky for us 😛 was the very first one–start time of 7:15am! Oy. That meant getting up at 4:45 am to get there by 6:30am.  That’s a lot to ask of an adult, much less an 11-year-old kid who isn’t a morning person.  😛

As expected, Jamie was hard to wake up Saturday morning, but once he got in the car, wrapped in his bedspread (LOL), he started to perk up.  We made a quick stop at Meijer’s for a pitstop in a ” real” bathroom and also to buy me a sweat/snot rag, since I’d forgotten mine.  We parked by the finish line (a smart move on  my part, as it turns out) and then walked about 1/2 a mile or so to the starting point, which was at a racetrack called Northville Downs.  It was neat to be walking and running on the track. 🙂

 

 

That picture was taken about 7am, and I don’t think Jamie was awake yet. 😉  We walked over to the large group of runners waiting for the 10k and headed toward the back.  Much to my surprise, the 10k actually had pacers! I guess this 10k is a qualifying race for some important 10k, so they have pacers.  I was excited about this until I saw that the slowest pacer was for a 65-minute finish. That was about a 10:28 pace…a bit much for my son who was just hoping to break 11 minutes per mile! After my experience with the pacer at my half-marathon last weekend, I really liked the idea of running with a pacer, though.  I asked Jamie what he thought about running with the 65-minute pacer for as long as he could handle it, making sure he knew we could hang back when it got too tough. He agreed, and we lined up with her.

Our pacer’s name was Lorenda, and she was great!  Very easy-to-talk-to and obviously an experienced runner.  We chatted for a few moments, and she kept looking at me like she knew me.  Finally she said, “Do you have a blog?”  This was a big moment for me–it was the first time I’d ever been recognized from my blog!  Eventually she realized she knew me from my friend Katie’s blog, specifically from the post Katie had just made a few days earlier where I’d taken pictures of her.  It really brightened my day to have someone recognize me from my Internet presence!

When the race began, Jamie and I started just behind Lorenda, and they had us run around the race track to start.  That was neat! When we were leaving the track, I saw Katie, as well as our friends Jessica and Renee–they all cheered for us and cheered for Jamie too, which was cool. 🙂  I don’t think Jamie noticed though…he was too busy trying to mentally prepare for “heart attack hill.”  I had warned him ahead of time about the big hill near the start of the race, and he kept asking me about it.  “Is it harder than the big hill at your half-marathon? Is it harder than the hills we did at the Metropark?” I could tell he was worried about it, so I just did my best to encourage him and tell him it was better to have it at the beginning than the end!  When we got to the hill at about the one-mile mark, he trudged up and I kept with him.  It was a struggle, but at the top he turned to me and said, “That wasn’t so bad!”  LOL, I love him. 🙂

I had decided to wear the Garmin for this race, because I didn’t want him focusing on his pace.  Instead, he focused on keeping up with Lorenda.  As we ran, I struck up a conversation with another runner, Pam, who was keeping up with Lorenda as well.  I discovered Pam had also run her first half the previous weekend at the Dexter to Ann Arbor run!  We had a fun time chatting about the race and comparing the hills in that race to our current one.  I kept watch on Jamie and on our pace–Lorenda was a bit ahead of time, which I knew would allow us to walk through the water breaks, and I was pleased to see that Jamie was doing okay.

There were a lot of hills on this run!  We just seemed to keep going up and up and up! We walked through the first water break at about 2.5 miles, and I gave Jamie one of his shot blocks. He seemed to enjoy the idea of having “race fuel,” LOL!  We still kept pace with Lorenda and Pam, and right before we hit the water station, the two of them realized they knew each other from high school–how funny is that? Isn’t it amazing what running can do? 😀  They stayed with each other for the remainder of the race, talking and catching up.

Right after the water station, we had a very surprising event: we were in a neighborhood, and suddenly Jamie (who is very aware of stuff around him when he runs) shouted, “Car!!!”  Sure enough, a car was driving right into the throng of runners!  This lady was so incredibly rude–she  was barreling down the road right into all the runners!  She didn’t seem to be a bit concerned for the welfare of the dozens of runners in her way…she just kept on going at a speed that was much too fast.  She got really close to several people, and so close to one guy that he slammed his hand on her hood when she went by.  Her response was to flip him off.  Talk about classless!  I’m sorry, but that was just completely rude and I was positively angered at her disregard for runners.  You know the people in these neighborhoods get plenty of notice about these races, and if she can’t be bothered to accommodate a few thousand runners for a few hours’ time on a Saturday morning, that’s just reprehensible.

We continued running, and we got to another hill that was fairly steep, and Jamie asked if we could walk for a bit.  Of course I told him he could, and he was grateful for the break, but he didn’t walk for long.  I was actually surprised when he announced that we’d run again at the “white mailbox”–that wasn’t much of a walk break!  We started again, and Lorenda and Pam were at least 20 or 30 feet ahead of us.  I could see Lorenda turning around to check on us (I love pacers!!), and I waved and told her we were fine.  I didn’t expect Jamie to try to catch up with them, but he was determined, and soon we were with them again. I was impressed with his determination!

By this time, we were past mile 4, and Jamie told me he was doing okay.  We had another water break right afterwards, and he took the water and another shot block and was good to go.  I was so astonished that he was still keeping up with Lorenda, especially since she was still running a bit fast for the 65-minute finish.

When we got to about mile 5.5, we had our last water station.  Jamie took the water when he saw that Lorenda was taking it, and it was at that moment that I realized that his whole focus was on keeping up with her.  He didn’t care what her pace was–he just wanted to keep up with her!  That last mile was pretty tough for him…I could tell he was starting to falter, and he even said something to that effect at one point, but he refused to give up.  When we got into Downtown Northville, we saw my friend Cindy (who was running the 5k) right at the main intersection, and she cheered him on.  When we made the turn onto the last surface street before we hit the park where the finish line was, Lorenda was still ahead of us by about 20 feet at this point.  I could see Jamie was trying to speed up, and I said to him, “Don’t worry about it, Jamie–you don’t have to catch up with her!”  He immediately responded, “But I want to!”  And to my astonishment, he went into a full-on sprint to catch her!  At that point, we were on a decline going down into the park, and I’m not ashamed to say that my knee, which was sore but not awful up to that point, began making its displeasure known on the decline and I simply could not keep up with him. 😛

I let him go and he did eventually catch up with Lorenda–I was astoished!  Once I was on a flat surface, I was able to almost catch up, but when we crossed the finish line, he was six seconds ahead of me.  And let me tell you, he made sure to inform everyone who would listen that he beat his mom by 6 seconds. 😉

 When we finished, he was clearly exhausted.  I quickly found Pam and Lorenda before I lost them for good (Pam had finished just before Jamie), and we traded contact info.  Then we got a picture together.  Pam is on the far left, with Lorenda next to her.  It was only after I looked at this shot later that I realized just how tired and overwhelmed Jamie was.  Poor guy!  He’s practically falling over!

  Jamie and I both owe Lorenda a great deal.  One thing I know about my son is that he’s very competitive. As an example, he came home with the report card seen here on Friday. He hates the thought of someone doing better than him, so when there’s an opportunity, he always wants to be first–at anything!  (I won’t lie–he gets it from his mom. 😉 ) I made certain to get a picture with just Jamie and Lorenda because years from now, when Jamie looks back on this race, I want him to remember her.  I know without a doubt that if he had not had someone to compete with during the race, to give him that opportunity to be “first,” he would have never run as well as he did.  I am so grateful to Lorenda for not only providing that “carrot” for him to chase, but for also being so friendly, kind, and caring throughout the whole experience.  She was always checking up on him, and she was so very, very encouraging at the end…it made me teary to hear her cheer for him as he raced past her toward the finish line, even though she had only met him an hour before.  I have decided that pacers are angels sent from the runners’ section of Heaven, because only angels would be so selfless and generous of heart.

Once Jamie caught his breath and got some food (the kid loves the post-race bagels!), I let him sit in the car, which, as it turns out, was in the perfect place for watching the end of the race!  I left him to listen to his iPod and relax while I walked just a few feet to the finish line and cheered all my friends across, including my friend Cindy, whom you might remember from my report on her first 5k back in October.  Cindy is nursing an injury, so she was unable to complete the 10k as she’d planned, but she had a great run for her 5k and is hoping to continue healing for more running soon! 

Before we left, we found the results board, where Jamie and I finally got to see his time:  an astonishing 1:03:18!!  I nearly cried when I saw it–more than seven minutes faster than his last 10k, and more than a minute per mile faster!  If you thought I was over-the-moon excited, you should have seen him. 🙂  He was so very proud of himself…I don’t think he stopped smiling the entire way home.  Which says a lot for a kid who got up at 5am and ran 6 miles, lol!  And just so you know how hard we both worked, when I got home and plugged the Garmin in, I discovered that my time (6 seconds slower than Jamie) was actually a new PR for me!   I was totally shocked, since I felt like my last 10k, back in the fall, was going to take a lot for me to beat. Of course, that means that Jamie’s best 10k time now even beats my fastest one. 😉

 If I had any doubts about whether or not Jamie was happy with his run, they were erased pretty quickly.  Starting on the ride home and continuing for the rest of the day, he said to me over and over, just at random times, “Thank you for taking me to Northville today so I could run, Mom.”  He said it at least 5 times, no lie, usually accompanied by a hug! 😀   Talk about a great feeling as a mom…beyond being proud of his accomplishment, I was especially thrilled to know that I had been instrumental in helping  him accomplish something that boosted his self-esteem so much.

He willingly posed for a shot with his medal, and if you know anything about that kid, you know that he hates it when I take his picture, so I think that alone tells you what a positive experience this race was for him.

 

 

I believe this may very well be one of the best photos I’ve ever taken. 🙂

Thank you so much for reading–and letting me brag endlessly about my wonderful son!