I was in training for a marathon and needed to do a long run this weekend — at least on the order of 10 miles or so. But I wasn’t going to pass up this race as it’s a bit of a Laramie institution. I figured I'd just run a good 3 or 4 mile warm-up, run the race, and run a good 3 or 4 mile cool down, and that’s just what I did. I ran from my house to the race on a roundabout route, picked up my packet and decided to run in a T-shirt. That was a bit more of a decision than it sounds like as it was quite cool out. It had rained a substantial amount the previous couple of days and left the air cool and the dirt section of the course muddy. Consequently, the organizers opted to reroute the course on paved roads. It still rolled out to 5K, and resembled the normal course in many ways. We started off with a wimpy, "okay, go" and I was instantly duking it out with kids one-quarter my age and one-half my size. A zillion kids run this race and almost all start off at a dead sprint and die after 100 meters. A number of big folk were in front of me from the beginning all the way through to the end. The interesting thing about this race was catching up with a 9 year-old boy about 0.5 miles in, Nicholas Jenkins. Just as I closed on him at the top of a small hill, he looked up at me and got this determined look in his eye. He immediately picked up his pace and placed himself inches off my hip. I don’t think he knew me from Adam, he was just picking someone to pace — I know who he is because he’s the same age as my daughter and went to school with her for a short time. For a little while I found this kind of annoying, but then found it very entertaining. His ear was literally just inches from my left elbow — I had to be careful not to inadvertently whack him in the head. We ate up a couple of people, but mostly just held position for awhile. A couple of people gasped "way to go!" and "good job". It took me a minute to realize they weren’t talking to me, but rather to Nicholas. Nick’s breathing was labored and I was incredibly impressed with his metal toughness. He finally cracked at two miles and fell off my pace, but I was impressed. It’s not that I’m so fast, but rather that he’s so young and was clearly capable of pushing himself under situations that very few 9 year-olds would or could do. I had my normal weak finish (i.e.- no kick), and finished in 21:40. I was happy enough with my effort, and won the 40 to 49 age group. That’s no big deal as two guys in there 50’s were about 1 minute in front of me. But I did get a nice plaque.

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