Sean Runs a 5K

For the second straight year, I ran a 5K with no training whatsoever. However, my time this year was about 1 minute and 30 seconds more than last year. I could blame my left ankle that I somehow tweaked on a wet hill the day before or the fact that I'm a year older. Instead, I'm going to blame my 5 year old, AKA, The Moose.

On Sunday morning, my son woke up with a rash on his chest and back. This was probably due to the fact that he wore his brand new soccer shirt to his game...in the rain...and then for another 90 minutes after the game courtesy to team pictures. Upon seeing this rash, we decided that a trip to an Urgent Care was necessary. The doctor confirmed that it wasn't contagious and that it probably was a reaction to food or something else (like wearing a brand new, wet shirt for about three hours). With that news, we went straight to the race.

For the race, the plan was that I would run the 5K while my wife would walk the course with a stroller for the kids. This worked perfectly for the first 20 minutes or at about the time that I was running on one side of the road while my family walked on the other side. Apparently, just waving hello wasn't enough. My two year-old (Pedro Tulo) started crying and The Moose yelled for me. I stopped and The Moose decided that he wanted to run with me. We ran for about 30 seconds with him holding my hand. Actually, ran might not be the right word. It was more like me running slowly while dragging him along. I accepted the fact that I was going to miss out on 5K glory and finishing in record time (though apparently not in record time; see below) to run with him. It was going to be a nice father-son moment. However, The Moose decided he wanted to go back with his mom and brother. Before saying goodbye though, he gave me a high five. Then asked for a hug. And then a kiss. It was very sweet, and I'm now accepting offers from Hollywood to make a movie about this. I then continued running.

So now for the information you want to know.

- I finished the 5K in 31:27. While slower than last year, when I ran this race in 2012, I finished in 31:34. So I'm 7 seconds faster now and that doesn't even include the approximate 12 minutes (give or take 11 minutes) I spent with The Moose which slowed me down!

- Overall, I finished 131st out of 253 runners.

- I also finished 33rd out of 47 men between 40-49. What the heck? I moved up to this division this year and figured my (relative) youth would help me dominate this age group. Apparently not. Oh well. I guess I'll have to wait 10 years to dominate the 50-59 age group.

- According to online results, the winner was a boy under the age of 8. He completed the 5K in an unbelievable 6:40. Yes, that's an average of a 2 minute and 9 second mile. Roger Bannister who?

- I bought new running shoes on Thursday night just for the race. I wore them all day Friday to try to break them in and that seemed to work.

- For entertainment, I listened to a Bill Simmons podcast with Chuck Klosterman where they discussed Prince. Really good stuff.

- The post-race bagels looked really good. Of course, every bread product looks really good during Passover. Fortunately, they also had fruit.

- My ankle bothered me all Sunday and into Monday particularly walking down steps.

With a completely healthy ankle and not being held back my son (and maybe a little training), I could have easily defeated the kid who ran the 5K in 6:40.