Race Report - 2012 Cookie Dash 5K

Race swag: A bright colored NF tech shirt and.....COOKIES!

Today´s race plan was an easy choice. This was the third time my ¨wife¨ Anya and I ran the Cookie Dash 5K. It still feels strange to call her my wife. After all, we had just gotten married six days earlier. I had paced her the previous two years and this year was to be no different. This was the first eyar that my thirteen year old son Mace ran this race as well. He had just come off his first High school JV soccer season and was ready to go. I basically told him to stick with us until he felt he needed to go faster or slower. Well, he left us behind after about one mile, but we kept him in sight for most of the race. Not bad for someone that barely runs for running´s sake these days. Just one more proof that soccer creates all around athletes:-)

Anya had had a great week of running and I was looking forward to helping her reach a new PR, even though she was convinced that a PR was not to be. We took off in the middle of a crowd of a bout 600 runners. I guess cookies at the finish line really attract large crowds;-) Hey, that´s why we come back every year. It was my goal to keep Anya running even splits, 8:30 min per mile for 3.1 miles. However, I told her we would be running 9 minute miles. She had had some really good training times and based on that, I knew she was selling herself short.

After about two miles, I could tell she was in much better shape than last year. She had been doing following a fairly strict cross training schedule along with her runs and that really helped her. She was still keeping up conversations compared to last year, when she barely wanted to nod in response to my ¨coaching¨. With about a quarter mile to go I told her to just leave it all out there and she did. Folks were cheering her on and I couldn´t have been happier for her. Her training paid off and a good result had her asking for more. To top it all off she finished third in her age group. What an accomplishment!

Mace was waiting for us at the finish line after having run his best race in a while. I couldn´t be prouder, smart and athletic, I wonder where he got that from;-)

Pacing my wife of 6 days to a new PR, what could be more rewarding:-)