A Firecracker of a Race

After a 1 year hiatus a 5K returned to the streets of downtown Ann Arbor on July 4th. I have competed in this race most recent years and was pleased to be able to do the same on this July 4th.

My wife can attest to the fact that I get somewhat emotional at races. It could be the adrenaline. It could be the caffeine. It could be the nerves. And to some extent, it probably is, but still, in every race, there are things that just hit me. This race was no exception.

The race traditionally starts with a bugler playing the most beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. This always brings tears to my eyes. Luckily I wear dark sunglasses.

There was this 7 year old waiting to start next to me. He had apparently run a very good 5k at a race a few weeks earlier, and his father was bragging loudly. Now I’m a pretty decent runner, and on occasion even place in my age group. Well, according to the father, his pace was faster than mine.  I pushed him to the ground when we started as not to be embarrassed by having him beat me I had mixed emotions (and no, not really about being beat). On the one hand, if what the father was saying was true, that’s pretty cool that this little guy had such wheels. On the other hand, it was pretty clear that the father had pretty clear expectations about how the kid was to perform. This translated into the utter lack of joy the child had on his face. When the race began, he ran like he just robbed an ice cream truck. While I joked about pushing him, there were some adults who did just that (hopefully just because they didn’t see him). He managed to stay up and was ahead of me for a few minutes, but he really couldn’t sustain the pace. He ended up finishing first in his age group, but his performance wasn’t as good as the last race. I couldn’t help but think how he would have done with expectations removed.

One thing I have learned is that you can’t predict who is faster than you and who you can beat until you are in the middle of the race. And in a 5k, unlike triathlon or duathlon, there is no age written on the competitors’ calves, so no way of knowing if your passing them matters. The only thing I had to do and the only thing you can do is race yourself.