Race Day Approaches

Saturday marks the date of Nora's first race. She is running the .67 mile kids run in Germantown Hills, which is part of an event in support of their fire dept. I have run in their 5k the past two years and have really enjoyed the race. This is the first year that they have included a kids run.

Nora and I have been training for a little over a month for her race. The goals for her training were simple: 1. build confindence; 2. build endurance; 3. build some speed; 4. run a continuous mile prior to the race. To do this I plotted out a loop around the house that matches the distance of her race, which she has run several times (confidence). Additionally we have done a long walk at the site of my Eureka Trail Run, (endurance) intervals at the h.s. track, (speed) and finally a mile run at the track. We have both had a lot of fun running together and Nora has made some great progress. She is very comfortable with the distance she is going to run and has developed a good finishing kick. The thing I am most proud of is her ability and willingness to run through fatigue, mental or physical. That was most apparent when we ran a mile together on Monday.

She had never run a mile without taking walking breaks. I sprung it on her that we were gong to do the mile at just under the 1/2 mile mark. The mile, to her, was a big mental block. When I told her, she instantly started to worry and psych herself out. I was able to talk her down and remind her that during our interval work she had run more than a mile, just not all at once. During all this she did not slow down or break stride. She just kept powering throug as she processed the info. She decided she could do it and turned in a great time, 10:43!

Proud Dad.

Now as race day nears, I am nervous and excited. I want Nora to push herself and run the best race that she can, but at the same time I just really want her to have fun. I am excited to watch her run, but nervous that I may pressure her a bit. Gotta walk that line carefully.

As for me, I am running in the 5k that day as well. My initial plans were to try and post a sub 20 minute time. However, I have do very little training for myself as I have focused mainly on Nora. The sub 20 attempt may have to wait until the Jingle Bell 2010. I am still going to give it a go. You never know unless you try.

Stay tuned. There will be a race update complete with pictures.