Bumblebee Foods 5K at the Big Bay Balloon Parade

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Today I ran in my second 5K. It was the Bumble Bee Foods 5K at the Port of San Diego Big Bay Balloon Parade. The race kicked off the nationally televised parade at 9:45 a.m. There were 100,000 spectators there!

I was very excited about this race since I hadn’t been running much since school let out for winter break. My plan was to have a strong start, run at a solid race pace, and empty out with a very strong finish.

I’ve noticed that with 5K races, there isn’t a big emphasis at the starts. Since there are so many people including a lot of walkers, the start is not as intense as with the 1-mile races or my cross country races.

Your time doesn’t start until your chip crosses the start, but I think it’s a good idea to still start near the front because it eliminates the need to have to weave through so many people when you’re racing.

I got to the starting line pretty early and waited. There were a lot of adults around and by the time the race started, I got pushed back several rows. I think people couldn’t see me or just decided to get in front of me. Oh well.

I did not feel I had a good start because there were so many people to run around and the road was very narrow. Everyone was trying to get out so fast that somebody even fell in front of me!

Once I was passed the start, not as many people were in the way. Then I went into my maintaining pace. At the end I was too tired to sprint so I just went as fast as I possibly could.

I was looking for some other kids that might be my age but didn’t see any. During the race, I thought I was running kind of slow, but when I got near the finish and saw the clock, I was surprised to see that I was way faster that my last 5k! My time was 20:07.

After the race, my legs felt weird because I used all the fuel in them. I was sweating a lot and breathing hard.

I didn’t know how I did or what- it was hard to tell. We were going to go home, but the remembered to watch the balloon parade. The balloons were huge!

My mom decided to ask about the race results and guess what? She found out that I had won for mens 12-and-unders!! I was so excited and proud of myself. I couldn’t believe that I came in 1st place. What a fun morning.

Click here to see the race results.

Camp Pendleton Marines Visit My School

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Today, at Flag Salute, the Marines came to collect all of the food we gathered for the Camp Pendleton food drive. It always feels good to know that the families at our school can help others when we work together.

I received my weekly running award and later, was surprised with a special invitation by Naval officer, Michael Enriquez. Watch below 🙂

I WILL DEFINITELY DO IT!!!!!!!

Marine Corps Marathon

Who do you follow?

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Wow. One of the highlights of my time in Alabama was getting to meet Chris Solinsky.  He is the US 10,000m record holder and came to speak at opening  ceremonies. I learned at his speech that he did not start off as a very good runner. In his first race, he came in last place. Then he made a decision to never come in last again. He worked really really hard and became an amazing runner.

On May 2, 2010, Solinsky competed in the 10,000m for the first time at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University. Not only did he win the race in an amazing 26 minutes, 59.60 seconds, but he also shattered by more than 14 seconds the previous American record for that distance of 27:13.98 set by Meb Keflezighi on the same track on May 4, 2001.

His performance was the second-fastest in the world in 2010, and he became the first non-African to break the 27-minute barrier! He is a five-time NCAA champion and a gold medalist at the the Pan American Games. He was also the 2002 Foot Locker Cross Country champion while attending high school in Wisconsin. He won that race by 20 seconds, tying the largest margin of victory in race history.

He was also the Wisconsin HS state champion in the 3200 as a sophomore, junior and senior, breaking the state record as a junior in 8:58.39.

THIS IS AN INDIVIDUAL I AM WATCHING 🙂

It was such a pleasure to meet him. He was so very nice and encouraging. His talk was amazing and he even started the Bantam Boys (my division) race the next morning.

 

This is an amazing video of his very first 10,000m race where he sets the American record:

USATF Cross Country Junior Olympics – 12/11/10

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Yesss!! I finished my race in 5th place!!!! I was so proud of myself when I finished. When I saw my mom, she hugged me so tight. She was very amazed.

At the start, there were 250 boys lined up all the way across this huge field. I was on the far left with the rest of my teammates. I had a strong start, but there were a lot of boys that were ahead of me when the course narrowed. I just kept my pace strong and cleared my mind.

My coach told us that since this is the last race of the season, that we should be completely exhausted by the end. We should have nothing left. So I ran at my maximum. When I finished I was so tired. I was so tired that I was crying.

My team took 2nd place. We were all very excited. Here are our results.

After the race, my mom and I went straight to Toys R Us and I got to pick out a new yo-yo! This was very exciting because my mom NEVER takes me to Toys R Us.

We went to a special victory dinner with my team and then after that we went to the USATF Awards Ceremonies. I got 2 awards – one for my individual results and the other for my team results. I had such a fun time this weekend and am so happy!

Some more photos from the race.

Even more photos!

Live race footage

Day Before the Races..

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I am here in Alabama and it is the day before my big race. I met a new friend at the airport on the way here. His name is Jack and we ended up sitting together on the plane. He is on the same team as me. I am still meeting a lot of my teammates because I started so late. We had a lot of fun. He brought his DS and we battled each other in Mario Kart, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, and New Super Mario Bros.

This morning I went to the course at Veterans Park and jogged through it to get the feel of it. The start is really wide and then it narrows into a path that goes around a lake. You have to go around the lake twice before you then loop around another section to the finish. After the jog-through, my team practiced several starts.

After our morning at the course, my mom and I went to the Wynfrey Hotel and we bought some sweatshirts for souvenirs. I got a really cool bright yellow sweatshirt 🙂

I have been thinking a lot about tomorrow and I am a little bit nervous. My mom tells me I shouldn’t be, but I am. I bet all the runners are feeling the same way. My mom says to just do my best! And I will.

We ended up going to lunch with Jack’s family. Then we headed over to the Opening Ceremonies at Samford University. It was really fun. They had a big band playing music as we paraded into the stadium. There were 16 regions from across the country. I am from Region 15. Each region had these “Hoover Belles” leading the way. They were girls who were wearing really big dresses and hats.

At the ceremony, the director of the competition spoke. Also, a man named Chris Solinsky spoke. He is an amazing athlete and runner. He gave a speech encouraging all of us to do our best. Afterwards, at the big Pasta Dinner, I got to meet him and get his autograph. It was so cool. I will have to write more about him later.

That’s all for now. I’ll keep you updated.

Off to Hoover, Alabama!

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This weekend I am going to Alabama because I qualified for the USATF National Junior Olympics Cross Country competition. I am very excited and proud of myself.

My goal is to try to come in the top 25 runners. I learned that if you place in the top 25, you achieve All-American honors. I don’t really exactly know what that means, but my mom told me that she was 20 years old when she earned it in tennis. Since I’m 8, I think it would be cool to get it now 🙂

I also hope to complete the race in under 11 minutes. These are very hard goals but I once heard that if you reach for the moon and you fall short, you will land in the stars. I like that. So I want to aim really really high.

I also like the idea of winning a medal, too.