That awkward moment when you lose a run to a 12-year-old girl you know. (Read 397 times)

When I was at my fastest I still got my ass handed to me regularly by a 79 year old guy in our running club.

When I was at my fastest I still got my ass handed to me regularly by a 79 year old guy in our running club.

My old running group had a couple of runners in their late 60s who would drop a bunch of us youngsters like a bad habit on tempo runs.  I aspire to be like them when I am older.

I've never really been clear about the unofficial rules of racing- ie. dont out sprint women and children in the last 1/4 mile of a race.  i got a hard lesson on that when i first resumed running 11-12 years ago. i was running a local 10k- my first 10k- and was running stride for stride with this 12 year old girl- i think we were holding like 6:45's... we get to the last 1/4 mile and we both start sprinting- for me it wasn't about beating her but i wanted to set the bar low on my inevitable PR. this was a time trial for me- i just so happened to appear to be racing a 12 yo... i out kicked her to the finish- to the amusement of my running friends... i beat her to the line by a few seconds... but when i later looked up the official results- she had beaten me by :01 on chip time. my running friends still occasionally ridicule me. i lost on all counts that day.

that girl- Jenny Barringer Simpson.

At our local turkey trot 10K in 2010 I was coming up on the finish line, 'bout a half mile away, already pretty much maxed out.  There were very few other runners around but I pulled up even on a 12 year old boy and as I passed he picked it up to match me stride for stride.  I was one hurtin' puppy and remember thinking 'cmon kid just give it up'.  I was probably 5 milliseconds from giving up myself when I felt a glitch in the force ... oh so slightly he had let up.  When I sensed that, I was able to actually go a little harder and finish a few seconds of him.  Afterwards I told him that I was just about to give up and cruise in behind him and that in the future, being that close to the finish line, NEVER EVER let up.   Turns out I knew his Dad very well, another outstanding runner.  We ran low 38's for that race, so pretty dang outstanding for a 12 year old.  Anyway,  three years later this kid runs in the 35's or better for 10K.

He was on his way up.  And me? Not so much.  He's one of the top HS runners in the area and I'm proud to have competed with him just once on his way up the running pecking order.  He probably doesn't even remember that race but I sure do.  Us old guys are on borrowed time and the kids are only going to get better ... so be sure to treat them nicely now because soon enough they'll turn the tables on us!

My son is better than me.

Isn't that what we all hope for?  Congrats, dad.

 

Isn't that what we all hope for?  Congrats, dad.

I agree. Fully!

I have three teens.... 1 of them goes full effort.  He can't beat me yet, but he really puts in the effort.   The second son I can get to go to the occasional run... If there is a raffle for prizes after.  He puts down about a 50% effort in the race? But he is out there.  More than many teens these days...

The third teen is a massive challenge.  Refuses to ever leave the house on foot.  I can slap a 10 dollar bill in his hand and say "walk to the 7-11 (three blocks away) and you can buy whatever you want."  He gets defiant to even such a generous offer as that, and refuses to leave the house. Will end here, I could go on forever about his Self-Limiting behaviors he does. (He is in counseling, doing all I can).

But...

Main point:  If a young kiddo is beating us, THAT IS SUPERB!  I will not be upset for a moment if one of my kiddos beats me one of these days... :-)

Again, sorry for long winded, but a PS:  I was at a race on Saturday, and a well-known fast runner in our community came upon a young girl that was about 8 or 9 years old.  I visibly saw the fast runner approaching the girl from behind, and even though she is competitive and could have passed the 9 year old gal easily, she slowed her pace a bit and the little girl sprinted out ahead of her + beat her.  Alot of people noticed this action and what a nice thing to see is all I can say. :-)

PSS.  Sorry so long winded!  I blame it on the 2 beers I just polished off... :-P

Just thought I'd post an update on said 12-year-old. She opened the season last Tuesday with an impressive win in a quad meet. She beat 82 runners including this girl: http://athlinks.com/racer/122614435 (who she edged out by a second). They were both more than a minute ahead of the next girl. The really impressive thing is that they traded the lead throughout the race. Neither would let the other one go. The other girl actually pulled away by as much as 20 meters in the last 150 and my girl came back and got her in the last 50 meters. She set a school record for the course and had a pretty good sense of humor afterwards too. She asked me if the girl she beat was going to be at any of our invitationals this year. I asked why? Her response "Cause she can have the win next time." She was pretty dead.

She then followed it up with a disappointing 37 second win at against a very solid school at home. Unfortunately she was never pushed after the first 400 meters. So she had to settle for the third fastest time in school history. She was 7 seconds off the school record. But worse yet 4 seconds off her big sister's time.

I coach a middle school cross country team. I've known I had a very talented girl coming up for two years now. Granted I'm not a great runner. But I'm usually faster than all but my top 1-2 boys. I know there are fast girls out there. But its a different dynamic when it's a 12-year-old girl that you coach.  She put a hurting on me today on a 6 miler. My male ego is hurt a little, but I have a lot of pride as well.

 

Here is the summary. We started off easy enough

 

Mile 1 8:46 pace (probably would have gone a little quicker but there was a Raccoon on our trail.

Mile 2 8:43 (It was an out and back and wanted to keep my top group with me for the first two at least)

Mile 3 8:14 It was time to start to go. (Most my top group hung to the halfway mark so I could leave them and still know where they finished.)

Mile 4 7:44 I wanted to see who'd respond. I got my answer dropped everyone but my top girl, (Top boy was away, he'd probably have hung).

Mile 5 7:53 She was breathing heavy and I felt great. Or so I thought.

Mile 6 7:34 for me, 7:19 for her. We were dead even with about a quarter mile to go when she unloaded a ridiculous kick and I was unable to respond to.

.

I finished 2nd in a 5K a few weeks ago and lost to a 11 year old that ran a 20:20. He had me by 100 yds at the turn but could only get to within 5 seconds of him. Here is the kicker, he beat me last year too at age 10. Last year he ran a 19:40. Unbelievable! To make matters worse, he told me at the end of the race that swimming is his strength and has been doing more of that recently. Made me feel great