Cross Country… Why not?

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After my 5k race last week, I decided to give cross country another shot. Over the summer I tried a few practice sessions with the San Diego Socal Roadrunners which is a local running club. It was fun but since I was also doing soccer at the time, I decided not to do it.

But now that soccer is coming to an end, I thought about it again and met with the coach to possibly join the team. I didn’t realize, however, that the cross country season is practically over. The coach said that the only races left were two qualifiers for the USATF National Junior Olympics. He was nice and invited me to come to practice anyway.

My first practice was on Tuesday, the same day as the NBC News taping at my school. It was a long day since I was up at 5am, ran 7 miles at school, and then had his practice at 5pm.

The practice was kind of hard for me. I had never done any sort of special warm-up or stretching before running and the team all seemed to know what they were doing. Also, the practice was a series of six 600 meter runs at race pace with very little rest in between. The coach told me to run with certain kids and I did my best. My cough was getting worse but I didn’t want to complain. After the workout, the coach asked me to come back and try to compete in the first national qualifier which is this weekend, on Sunday. I said “okay.”

So far, I don’t know anyone on the team. They have all been together since June and they all know each other. I’m sort of a stranger to them and nobody really talks to me, but it’s okay.

I’ve started taking antibiotics and doubling up on my green smoothies every day to get rid of my cough. I am looking forward to the race and hope to do well.

My First 5K

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This past weekend I competed in my first 5K. That is about 3.1 miles. I had never done it before and thought why not?

The youngest age division was 12-and-under. It was a very different start than when I do the 1-mile races. The start was very very casual. They didn’t give any announcements, just all of a sudden a horn went off and tons and tons of people just started moving. There were a lot of people walking, pushing strollers… I was nowhere near the front and tried to just weave my way through all the people. I knew that my time wouldn’t start until I crossed the starting line, but I was excited to get going.

Once I got past the starting line, I took off. There were so many people to go around. I noticed as I ran by, I overheard several comments. Someone said, “Hey look at that little guy- good job buddy!”

Another man pushing a jogger said to his baby, “Wow look at this kid, I hope you are like that one day.”

Several people just said, “Way to go, kid!”

I thought that was nice.

The track had several cones so I knew exactly which way to run. After each mile, they also had an announcer tell you the gun’s split time. After the first mile, it was 7:50. After the 2nd mile it was 14:25. I came into the finish at 22-something. My official race time was 21:10.

Somewhere during the 3rd mile, I saw someone ahead of me who looked like he could be in my age division. He looked 11 or 12. I decided to try to catch up to him. As I got very close, he saw me and started sprinting away.

I kept increasing my pace and about a minute later I caught up to him again and passed him. I thought he might try to catch back up with me so I kept my pace high but I wasn’t sprinting. He never did catch up. Later, I found out I placed in 2nd and he placed 3rd, 30 seconds after me.

Have you watched Secretariat? I saw it a few weekends ago. I sort of felt like Secretariat during that part. Secretariat comes from behind and then increases his lengths ahead of who he passes. That was such an inspiring movie.

Anyway, I had a blast at the race and hope to try one again soon.

There was a really nice man at the end of the race who said he felt awesome during his entire race and not a single person passed him, until I did. He wanted a picture with me. He was really nice 🙂

Why Running Is Fun!

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Yesterday I ran in the 2010 Junior Carlsbad Race. Anyone can participate even if you can only crawl. This was my second year and it was a beautiful day.

I get butterflies in my stomach at the starting line because there are so many kids and you don’t know what’s going to happen. I dedicated my race to my dog, Cash. Exactly 1 week ago yesterday, he died suddenly and I miss him terribly.

During the last stretch of the race, I was running side-by-side with another competitor. I thought about Cash and I felt like he gave me an extra boost of power. It was just what I needed.

I love you, Cash!

Click here to see the results from yesterday’s race.

Watch video highlights from the race:

Steve Scott Comes to Carrillo Elementary!

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How fast can you run a mile?

9 minutes?

8 minutes?

7 minutes?

Steve Scott is an amazing man. He is well-known for being one of the greatest milers in American history. In his career, he ran 136 sub-4 minute miles (more than any other runner in history)!!!!

That is so fast. Wow.

And he came to our school. It was an HONOR to meet him. He gave a talk at flag salute. He talked about how you don’t have to come in first place to be a winner. And I agree. There were many races and championships where he did not come in first place. He may have missed the mark by hundreths of a second. And that did not make him a loser at all. He is a total champion in my opinion!