Disclaimer: Short distances still leave a lot of room for memories. And, in contrast to long distances, short distances don't seem to cause too much memory loss. 

Enjoy!

The First Night Resolution Run is a road 5k that is held in our local town, and organized by my running club. I’ve been wanting to run it in previous years, but the timing had never worked out right for me. So I was excited this year to have gotten my daughter Stefanie motivated enough that she would run the race, either with her friends, or with me, and, inevitably, I would run, too, either with her, or just by myself. In either case, I would get everything ready to tiptoe the starting line this year! Good thing I'm such an enabler.

For trail runners: This course is absolutely flat.
For road runners, 5k-specialists, and beginners: The course features two hills, one at around 0.5 miles, the other at about 2 miles, but both are short and gentle.

Pre-race:

My daughter is not an avid runner, but she occasionally runs with me. She loves trails and does best on trails, even on the rugged, steep trails in our area. She usually runs 3-6 miles with me in the woods. However, on the road, she can be speedy fast if she is in good shape, leaving me behind in the dust. But currently, she was running only around 2-3 miles on road, with considerable room for improvement in terms of speed, or rather, maintaining her naturally nice speed.

She had gotten three friends to run the Resolution Run with her, but all three chickened out last minute. So, to my delight, I got the honor to run with her.

The run was supposed to start at 6:30 p.m., with registration open until 6. As I was not sure if we’d really run, I decided to register just pre-race.
I worked the whole day, until after 5 p.m., and arrived at home at around 5:30. I quickly threw on my usual winter running gear, grabbed a pair of mittens and a hat, shooed my daughter toward the front door, making sure she was dressed well enough for the biting wind and cold, and my husband drove us downtown to registration.

We made it there just in time, received our timing chips, and walked the quarter mile (or less) to the start line.

It was freezing cold at 20 degrees, with a fierce, icy cold wind, bringing the wind chill down to around -5 degrees. That would make for a fast run!

The race:

We lined up toward the back, as I knew we’d otherwise get run over by road runners and 5k-enthusiasts. The horn sounded, people cheered, and off we went.

The race encourages costumes, and many people around us were wearing fun costumes: pajamas, animal costumes, tutus, togas, you name it. I was just wearing a jingle bells bracelet, and Stefanie wore a jingle bell around her neck, a “cat ears” hat, and a fox tail (well, she’s a teenager, so I had to get over my own embarrassment and just go with it).

At first, the speed was very slow, with us having to weave through the crowd. This is where I realized that my daughter was too polite and careful to just push through the crowd, whereas I would sneak through every loophole that was opening up. But, Stefanie being a quick learner, she hung in there right behind me, and slowly, we made it into a pack with our pace range. It felt comfortable, almost a bit slow for me, and Stefanie was not breathing too hard, so I thought we could just trot along with them.

The first half mile was behind us, and the first hill started. Already people started walking, and the field spaced out nicely. Stefanie and I made it up the hill quickly, and then continued on, winding our way around the campus of Penn State University.

It was at some point there that I realized this is a really fast course. It naturally lends itself to speed, with very gentle downhills that speed you up effortlessly, flat, even road and pavement, well-lit, and a friendly, fun crowd. I secretly wished I could take off and just run as fast as I could, but I reminded myself that it had been me who had convinced my daughter that this was a fun race, and that I’d stay with her to get her to the finish line. So I stuck to my resolution (after all, it was a resolution run!) and cheered Stefanie on to keep going.

She took a walking break at around 1.5 miles, then ran nicely again, at a wicked fast pace at times, and walked again for a short stretch at around 2.5 miles. She ran up the second hill (wait, there was a hill??), and walked on the flat. I attribute this to her inexperience? This is when I knew I’ll have to run more with her, and teach her the ropes.

What surprised me was that there were many kids, 6 to 10 years old, who ran more or less our pace. I made a mental note to bring my sons, too, next time, and make it even more of a family event.

Shortly before the finish, I told Stefanie to go for it, and she sped up. I had to work hard to keep up with her. We passed many runners on that last half mile, and then I saw the clock at the finish line - 29:something. I told Stefanie that she could make it sub-30, way faster than her goal time of 36 minutes, and we sprinted over the finish line at full speed. 29:51, and I was so proud of my daughter!

Post-race:

We met up with my husband and the boys, and we went into the church building where bag storage was, and where my daughter and I kept our jackets. After the awards ceremony, our family walked through downtown, looking at the ice sculptures that are set up there each year and which usually last at least several days before they melt away. We got some real Austrian apple strudel, and some pizza, and then went home to watch “the ball fall”.
All in all, it was a really fun family event, well worth the effort and sweat!

Wow.  That's a great time for for first 5k.  Wait - was it her first? Anyways, that's good.  I bet you were a proud mama.  With some more training, you might not be able to keep up with her for that distance.

Congrats!

So glad you had a great time. What a nice mother-daughter experience!

Great read, Marie!  And congrats to Stefanie on her (first?) 5K!     Sounds like she could do really well if she did a little training.

It's always great to run with your kids, although sometimes it's difficult to get them motivated.