Saturday marked the fourth year in a row that my son Jamie and I ran the Kona race in Northville. Can we count the number of ways that this race could go wrong? Sure, let’s give it a try!
- Jamie had not trained very much, due to a variety of factors, which included a busy lacrosse season, as well as a general lack of enthusiasm that seems to stem from being a teenager.
- The night before the race, we attended a pool party with his class. It was the last gathering of this group of kids before they go their separate ways in high school, so I couldn’t keep him home. The kids were active for about eight hours, swimming, playing football and baseball, bike riding down the road to a friends house, all the way up until about 11:15 p.m. And of course, they had such great, healthy food as hot dogs, walking tacos, chips, and brownies.
- This was one of the rare races that I was unable to pick up the packets ahead of time, which meant we had to be there extra early.
- I overslept, and therefore we had a mad rush out the door at 5:40 a.m., causing me to forget important things like race fuel and hydration. :/
- Upon arriving to the packet pick up location at 6:15, I discovered I needn’t have rushed; the person who was supposed open up the community center, where all the packets were, overslept. Packet pick-up was delayed 45 minutes while they waited for him to arrive.
- For the first time in four years, the race start was at a location not conducive to parking, and we were forced to take a shuttle, thus adding time to our already shortened morning.
- Because packet pick up had been delayed, and we had to wait in line for a shuttle, we arrived at the race at 7:16 a.m., one minute after the original start time. (Luckily, they delayed the start for 15 minutes because of all the hassles.)
- And the best part of all: it was 79° at race start, and humidity was in the 90s. 😮
I really considered not doing this race, even up to the point where we were standing in line waiting and I realized I had no shot blocks or water for him to use during what was clearly going to be a very difficult race. On top of that, Jamie looked miserable, and I didn’t want to force him to do something that it was pretty clear he had no desire to do. I told him we could turn around and go home right then, but he just shrugged and said we were there, we might as well do it. Not an ounce of enthusiasm in that response, I assure you.
We started about 7:30, and I knew there was no chance of this being even a “decent” race for Jamie. He looked tired, and he pretty much just slogged along, at a pace much slower then I knew he was capable of. I didn’t say a word, though. Within about a quarter-mile, my watch started to beep; that’s when I realized I’d forgotten to turn off the heart rate alert. I knew I couldn’t go 6 miles listening to that damn thing, so I stopped, quickly reset it, and then caught back up with Jamie. Unfortunately, that meant I would have no clue what our actual pace was throughout the run. Which, honestly, was probably for the best; it was not a day for watching our pace.
Kona is known for a fairly big hill near the beginning. Although it lacks a little bit of the “dread” for me after running in North Carolina last year, in 90% humidity, that hill still packs a punch, and Jamie and I struggled to get up it. We continue to slowly jog along the route that we knew so well, and unfortunately, we discovered they hadn’t added any water stations to make up for the weather. The first one wasn’t until almost 2.5 miles in, which is just a long time to be running in a 10k without water, especially on a miserably hot day. Jamie had to walk a couple of times before we even got to the water station, each time at a mile marker, and then of course we walked through the water station itself. He seemed to struggle to start up again, and I asked him what he wanted to do. He just shook his head and started running again. My poor baby; he was clearly miserable!
We hardly talked through the entire race. I knew he didn’t want any encouragement, and I also knew he wasn’t up for any kind of conversation. We made our way around to the second neighborhood, which had a couple of hills on the way to the second water station. He couldn’t handle the first hill, so we walked at about 3.75. He likes walking about a 10th of a mile whenever he does take a break, so we did that, and then ran through the mile marker at mile four. Not long after, we hit the second water station, and he walked a little longer for that one. As we walked by one of the course directors, I heard someone mention on a radio that there was a vehicle that was driving on the course, and it wasn’t “playing nice” with the runners. A couple of minutes later, we saw a vehicle coming up from behind us, and we made sure to get far to the right. Our first year at Kona, we very nearly got run over, so I am always careful at this race!
Somewhere between mile four and five, I saw a site that I just couldn’t help but chuckle at.
Look close: a couple in front of us are holding hands as they run. Doesn’t that just warm your heart? 🙂 I couldn’t help but make a comment, calling out, “If you guys do that for six whole miles, I’m going to be really impressed!” They and everyone around us laughed, and the guy called back, “No, only about three.” I joked that I was impressed, because my husband wasn’t even here, much less holding my hand as I ran. The woman called back that they weren’t married yet, and I had to answer, “Oh, that explains it!” That exchange was probably the brightest spot of the whole run. 😉
As we continued to get closer to downtown Northville, I took a couple of sly pictures of Jamie. Not that I wanted him to relive the misery, but I know someday he’ll want to look back on all of his runs, and see how he’s progressed.
I know that was taken at exactly mile 4.83, because right after I took the picture, he asked me what our distance was. (The watch I handed down to him a couple of years ago died, so I was the only one who had a Garmin.)
Eventually, we turn down the last road before we would hit the park where the finish line was. I had told Jamie when we hit mile five, based on my math, and what I remembered of his worst race finish, that if he could maintain a 12-minute mile, we could probably keep this from being his worst finish. Even though I know he was pretty miserable, I also know he’s very competitive, with himself as well as others, and I knew he would hate to have this be his worst finish of all his 10K’s. Despite his exhaustion, I could see his brain doing the math and gauging his effort level, and he actually did start to speed up a little bit. And then…
He stepped squarely into a pothole. :/
There was no mistaking the severity of that incident. He immediately cried out, and he lost his balance and almost fell. He stopped dead in the middle of the road, but his competitiveness propelled him on immediately. Unfortunately, I could see that his ankle hurt pretty bad, because he was doing kind of a hop/limp down the road. I told him to just stop and walk, and asked him how he was.
“It hurts,” he ground out as he hobbled along. I told him to just walk, and that we could just walk the rest of the way if he needed to. He’s stubborn, though, and after walking for a little bit, he started gingerly running on it again. He was slow, but he was determined to finish at a run.
As we got closer to the end, he suddenly pointed to our right and said, “I know where we are! Look! There’s our car!” I had to laugh. He was right! We ran right by the lot where we parked. His sense of direction is obviously better than mine!
The closer we got to the finish, the more determined he was to give it his all. There is a pretty good decline going into the park, and I could hear him groaning as he made his way down on his sore ankle, but he didn’t stop. In fact, as he rounded the last corner towards the finish line, he really turned it on. I was surprised he had it in him, but he was determined to finish strong. It was pretty impressive, so much so that the announcer actually complimented him as he sped towards the finish line. We crossed together, and then he grabbed his medal, a water and…a salad?
For real, they were giving away salad! And he took one, lol! Don’t worry, he took two bagels, too. :p He was pretty tired, though, and he sat on the ground for quite a while. Eventually, we got up and made our way over to the ice cream tent.
Heck yeah, we were getting ice cream when it was 85 degrees! Actually, we both took two. Hey, they were small. 😉
We sat back down and rested a little while longer before leaving. We had to walk a few blocks back to the car, and I knew he needed to regain some strength after running in that awful weather. As we waited, I looked up his previous “worst” time and determined that today’s run was, indeed, his worst-ever 10k pace. 🙁 I broke the news to him, because I knew he was wondering, but I praised him for even coming out, despite all the obstacles against him. Then, I grabbed my phone and used the QR reader to scan the code on his bib to see what his “official” time was. As I expected, it was over a 12-minute mile, but then I looked at the bottom of the screen.
…the heck?? Dude–he took first place in his age group! 😮 And there were 5 other kids in the category! Holy crap! I handed him the phone and said, “Look!” He glanced at the time and shrugged, saying, “I told you it was bad,” but then I told him to look at the bottom.
“Jamie, you took first place in your age group!” He looked at me like I was nuts, and then he looked down at the phone. I could see him trying to act like it was no big deal, but he smiled a little, just for a second. 😉 I made him get up and go over to the race results tent, where we looked up his bib number and sure enough, first place out of six! And for his first place finish, he got…
A new tote bag. Which of course means…I got a new tote bag. 😀
He was really tired, so his “win” wasn’t as exciting as it might have been, not to mention I know he was frustrated with himself for his not-so-great finish, but I think it was great. Sure, it was a horrible time for him (a full 14 minutes slower than his best 10k), but you know what? We have run that race 4 years in a row, and he has never even come close to placing. This is a very popular race, and every year, the “speedy” kids, the ones who glide to the starting line and run 10ks effortlessly, always come out on top. But obviously, this year, the speedy kids couldn’t take the heat (literally) and decided to stay home (or run the 5k). So as far as I’m concerned, my son is the real winner, because he came out and braved the conditions and all the strikes that were against him, and he ran the best race he could in that moment. And for that, I am so proud of him!! 🙂
He worked so hard, I of course took him to Starbucks afterwards.
But as it turned out, it was a waste of $5, because he was only in the car for about 10 minutes before this happened…
Ha ha ha! I love that kid. 😀 I had to wait to take our annual “Kona medal” picture until Sunday, when he was more rested.
I love our Kona medal pictures. If you do a search on my blog for “Kona Race,” you’ll see all four of the pictures he’s had taken since we started running this race together, and you’ll probably be just as amazed as me at how much he’s grown! I can only hope he will continue running it with me in the years to come. <3
Thanks for reading!
