Colder Bolder 5k

Today was the Colder Bolder 5k  and the conditions were perfect. Much more than I can say about {last year’s Colder Bolder race}, which was most of the kids’ first race. Last year was cold, snowing, and icy – true to the race’s name, I suppose. This year, they even announced that the start of today’s race was actually a warmer temperature than the start of the Bolder Boulder race I ran at the end of May.

Tylor and Kyndall sat this one out, so after we got our packets picked up, we found a spot to park them and headed to the starting line. The start was broken up into waves so we picked our projected finish times and joined a wave. Because of my frustrations with the crowd and dodging people at the Turkey Trot, I decided to start in a faster wave, but I went to the back so not to frustrate any other runners around me. I’m very happy with that choice. I was able to keep up with the wave for several minutes before I slowed down to let my sister in law catch up. By then the race was comfortably spread out.

Kimberly and I ran together for the first two miles. She, being pregnant, needed to slow down and walk a few times, so we just hung out and did our thing. It went pretty well. Mile 1 is fairly flat, and we hit that in 14 minutes. Mile 2 has more uphill sections and that was a 16 minute mile. Just before we finished that mile, we caught up to Caleb, who was walking. Nearly in tears, he told me he had a stomach ache and really wanted me to walk the rest of the race with him. I instantly went from race mode to mommy mode, told Kimberly to finish without me, and gave my son a big hug. Of course I would walk with him.

Caleb and I talked about what might be causing his stomach ache and Kimberly went on ahead. We were considering that may breakfast was too greasy (sausage and egg sandwich) or just wasn’t sitting right. Maybe he drank too much water before running? Later we decided it was adrenaline. He went out too hard and too fast messing around with Lily and Honey and, combined with too much water, gave himself a nice little tummy ache. We walked slow for a while, then fast. We tried jogging a reasonable speed and then would walk again when his stomach would hurt worse. About half way through, he was ok with doing some more running so we would run until he couldn’t and then we would walk. We were pushing through the final tenth of a mile, and he must have suddenly started feeling better because as soon as we got in the finish line chute, he took off sprinting.

I wasn’t going to let Caleb beat me that easily, since he had me walk with him in the first place, so I took off sprinting too. I was teasing him, saying I thought we were going to finish together, and he slowed up, just enough to get me to slow up too. And then, with a smirk, he sped up again. I lost my momentum and couldn’t quite pick up my speed enough to beat him across the finish line, but victory was mine when the official times were posted and I saw that I actually beat him by 2 seconds. First time ever! We must not have crossed the start line at the same time.

Caleb was feeling much better. Jerry and Ian got great times, and both Nate and Lily got PR’s. I think I might have, had I not walked with Caleb, but he needed me, so I don’t mind. After the race, we of course stopped for our traditional post race Starbucks!