Menard Memorial Run

Sheila talked the family into doing a 5k run/walk on Saturday. I was hoping she would comment on it. But I guess it is up to me. :)

Kudos to Grandma Lula who came in first place in the 60-69 year old bracket and to Alanna who came in second place in the 9 year old bracket (she actually completed the race before all the rest of us).

So, I did pathetically little in the way of training...maybe three or four one mile jogs (that were partly walks). To make matters worse, I needed to use the restroom when the race started. Realizing that I was not a contender anyway, I waited for the port-o-potty to be freed up before I started running. Upon exiting the john, I came to realize that I was going to have to do some serious jogging to pass up the the mother with two toddlers in a stroller and a baby in a back carrier.

To protect me pride, I started jogging (I'd originally planned on just doing a fast walk). After about three minutes I'd past the grannies & mothers with strollers who were just walking. I could see my mom about 200 yards ahead of me pushing Matthew in a stroller. I tried to speed up, but my conditioning was pathetic--my burst of speed turned into a walk as I sucked air.

I decided that if I was going to make any gains on my family, I was going to have to take baby-steps. I picked some girls who were being encouraged by a person running backwards. It took a few minutes but I passed them.

Next baby-step was a lady pushing a stroller...this proved more difficult than I thought. She was actually going just slightly slower than my pace...but she wasn't having walk periodically to catch her breathe. I'd close the gap, then I'd lose ground as I switched to walking. I didn't pass her to almost the mid-point.

At the mid-point I finally caught up with Sheila, Christopher and Ben Rindlesbacher. Sheila and I passed the boys. We stayed together for a few minutes, but my hip was hurting at this point and I gave up any pretense of jogging. Sheila started jogging again and I wouldn't see her again until I'd passed the finish line.

My moment of humiliation came when the geriatric express (four or five gray-haired people) came running up and passed me. Oh the shame. It was fun doing this with the whole family. I'll just make sure I train a little better...and void my bladder well before they sound the starting horn.

EDIT By Christopher

Ben, Alanna, and I got to the starting line fast, so a few seconds after the race started we were all in the top ten. After about 2 hours minutes Alanna shot ahead and was not seen until the end. A while later we had decided that as long as we beat the old men we were fine. Within the mext 5 minutes we were passed by50 3 old guys. we were ahead of the rest of our families (-Alanna) for about half the race.

~Christopher