Ft. Vancouver recap (and a bit of motherly pride!)

Last Sunday was the Ft. Vancouver Run, wherein I ran my first 10K in quite a while.

My one and only goal for this one was to run without stopping. In other words, no walking. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. To this end, as my "no walking" goal included no walking water stops (and I still have yet to perfect the "Dixie Cup Shuffle") I carried my trusty Nathan handheld, filled to the brim with low-calorie grape Gatorade goodness (I LOVE that stuff - really!)

And....I did it. A couple of times I slowed to the point where switching to walking would have been barely noticeable, but not a single walking step did I take, from the time I started across the mats to the time I finished. My time was wholly unremarkable - 1:28 and change - but time was not my goal, so I am pretty satisfied with myself.

And, as a bonus, many of my awesome running peeps were there:

Now, you might notice in this picture the extremely bored-looking young man standing next to me. This is my 9-yr-old Nicholas. He decided a little late into the game that he really wanted to run the Kid's Race (1K), but I was not able to sign him up officially, as the kid's numbers had all sold out. However - the very nice folks at Energy Events let him run anyway, assuring him that if there were any medals left over after all the registered kids had received theirs, he could have one. As you can see, there is one hanging around his neck, so that was a total win.

Trust me when I say he was a lot more excited at race time:

In true, die-hard Runner Fashion, he even wanted to carry my handheld!

Obviously, a 1K isn't a very signficant distance, but when one is only 9, and has limited sustained running experience, 1K is a terrific beginner's stretch.

Right before the finish line - love the concentration on his face!
Just admire that beautiful mid-foot strike!

I was so proud of him. He clocked in at around 4:30, which, if he were to maintain that pace, would put him at roughly an 8:50 minute mile or so. Not too shabby, eh?  ;-)

Bring on the bling!!

 

He has told me he wants to do more, which makes my heart sing. I am really excited about introducing him to the Running World, and I am thinking of ways that I can help keep it fun for him while building up his stamina. And actually, this wasn't even his first race - last year, he did a Mother's Day kid's run, and before that, he did the Kid's Shamrock Stride - but up until recently, he hasn't shown tremendous interest.

As a sign of commitment - mostly to myself - I even had him fit for real running shoes, which we purchased at the packet pick-up for the race. Then we went to Target and got him his shirt and shorts - so now he is completely outfitted (in Dri-Tech, even!) and ready to rumble.

I am looking forward to the day when he will totally smoke me in a 5K.  I have a feeling it won't be too much longer from now, and that's just fine by me.

Next up - Shamrock 15K!