Notes
The original plan was to run this by myself to see where I am at from a fitness perspective. Between the miles of late and the weight loss I was feeling very good about my time this am. But last night, there was some discussion around Connor running the course unsupervised and after looking at the course I decided it was better to run it with company. This turned out to be one of my favorite races for a lot of reasons and so glad I ran it with the boy. He was up at 6am and ready to roll, couldn’t sit still, and generally fired up to run today which was awesome. While registering I hear someone say the name Michael Lecompte (sp?). Sailor? Yup, got to meet to Sailor and Alycia and the pup. Chatted a bit before the race, about Maine Coast, etc. It was good to put a face with a screen name. After a warm up loop around the high school we line up and run. Connor was running too fast and the pace of the first .5 varies from 6:40 – 7ish and I know this won’t last but I want him to run however he wants. He slows down some but finishes the first mile at 7:40. I know this is way too fast and interested to see how the next 2 go. We slow way down and he is struggling some. 8:52 - 2nd mile. I continue to check on him and at one put start running backwards asking how he’s feeling. He’s asks me not to run backwards like that as though he knows he’s struggling and doesn’t like that I am not. He continues to slog through the 3rd mile but never stops. As we circle SHS before the finish we hit 9:21. We loop around, and can hear people calling Connor’s name so he picks it up some and finishes at 27:10. Not sure if the race volunteers realize the only thing worse than calling a 9 yr old boy “little guy” is to mistake him for a girl. Especially when he can run a sub 9 minute pace out of shape and you can’t. Anyway, this was really fun. Hung out with Donna and MacJim after the race and had a few laughs. My favorite part of the day was the age groups which weren’t divided into Male/Female. The groups were 15 and under, 16 – 30, 30-45, and 46 and up. So bizarre. Jim and Michael go 1 and 2 overall despite MacJim’s insistence on going the wrong way and adding a degree of difficulty. Great day and really glad to have the boy with me today.