Awesome weekend (Learned again what this is all about)
This past saturday the cub scout pack we are involved with, with my 2 sons marched in a a small parade. Before this parade though they run a 5K & 10K race, and I made the offer that if any of the boys wanted to run it I would run with them. Well the only one to take me up on this offer was my 9 year old son.
This was his 3rd 5K since I had surgery July of last year, and he has improved his times with each race. He and I talked about what he wanted to do with this race and he said he wanted to beat his previous time which was 35minutes. I told him that I would help him with this but in order to do it we would have to run the whole race and not walk any of it, but we could run slower and faster as we needed to.
So we lined up about the middle of the pack and instantly have to start weaving around people as so many walkers decided to line up in the middle. I wore my garmin watch which displays our pace and distance along with time. I knew we had to run an avg 11 minute mile to really get his PR, so every few minutes I look at the pace and tell him speed up or slow down and count down the miles. There came a number of points where he needed to slow down and wanted to walk and a reassured him he could do this and he was doing an amazing job. We get .1 miles from the finish and I tell him "OK now run as fast as you can" He grabs my hand and off we go, and he is still keeping pace with me. The people lined up heading to the finish line start cheering for him and clapping and he pushes harder. We cross the finish line in 33minutes and change.
I fill out our time cards and place them in the correct baskets for our age groups. I notice that there is only 1 card in the 10 and under group and I smile. We go ge****er and Bananas and I tell him I want to hang around for the awards before we change and head off to the parade.
Well they get to the Boys 10 and under and you hear "In Second Place Anthony Corley" He has the biggest smile as he jumps up and runs to get his medal and gives me a huge hug when he gets back.
This was just one more time over the past year where I knew I made the right decision to have my RNY and enjoy a second chance at life. I have been proud of my boys many times but this was 1 time that will be difficult to match.
After this we then had to walk 1.5 miles to the start of the parade route and then the whole 1.6 mile parade. After the parade I enjoyed a nice hot dog with my 7 year old and 9 year old boys. I don't know who had the bigger Perma Grin Anthony or me.
First 5K 9/27/20 46:32 - 11 weeks post op (PR 28:55 8/15/11)
First 10K 7/04/2011 1:03 First 15K 9/18/2011 1:37
First Half Marathon 10/02/2011 2:27:44 (PR 2:24:35)
First Half Ironman 9/30/12 7:32:04
