A cool design, both the shirt and the "medal/ornament"!

Another quest for a sub 20 minute 5K foiled. But this one didn't sting quite as bad, because I was accompanied by my best bud, my "soon to be a teenager" son Mace, who turns thirteen on Christmas. I wasn't even going to run this race, but he decided Friday night after I picked him up from his mom's house that it would be cool to run a 5k again. He hadn't done it in a while and just felt like it. I was glad to hear it, I'm ALWAYS up for a race;-)

We slept in as long as possible and left our house at 7:30AM just 30 minutes prior to the race start. The race started and finished in downtown and we were just 5 minutes away. We got lucky and snagged up a parking spot that became available just as we pulled into the otherwise packed parking lot. Over 1000 runners had registered for the race, so parking could have been a lot worse.

We made our way to the race start with 5 minutes to spare. The temperatures were barely above freezing and Mace opted for track pants and a long sleeve shirt with gloves and a hat, while I went short sleeves and shorts with gloves and a hat. 'Twas cold. I spotted Jason and a few other of the usual suspects. I felt ready to go, but I knew that it would close as usual. I lined up in the third row while Mace line up somewhere in the middle. He wanted to run a steady race and work on pacing himself. He did a great job, finishing steady and strong. It helped him not to have his dad tagging along and annoying him along the way;-)

Not my strongest finish, but a second place age group win nonetheless.

I started slightly faster than I should have, but coasted back just in time to average 6:17 minute per mile pace. I clocked the second mile in 6:30 and felt like I was still on track, but I dropped off too much to stay in contention for a sub 20 minute finish. In the end,I crossed the finish line in 20:12, missing a sub 20 minute finish as close as ever. Oh well, while this was my last chance in 2011 to run sub 20, I managed to do it in October at Spooktacular 5K, so I know I can do it and it's just a matter of time for me to do it again. In the end, I finished 24th overall and second in my age group. Plenty of opportunities to do reach new PRs next year and hopefully run many more races with my son;-)

Me and "Mini-me" (my son Mace).