This past weekend I participated in a really unique 5K race. I recently learned about this event through some friends of mine who were putting together a team. Chelsea King was a high school cross country runner and straight-A student from Poway, CA.
In 2010 she was murdered while doing a practice run after school. I don’t like hearing stories like this. Her story felt particularly bad to me because she was a runner and was hurt while doing what she loved.
I heard that her favorite colors were orange and blue, so the night before as I was getting ready, I pulled out some orange shorts and a blue tech shirt to wear. When I got to the race, I saw people carrying sunflowers. This was her favorite flower. As I looked around, there were sunflowers everywhere. Pictures of them. People carrying them. It was really cool. I thought about Chelsea and even though I didn’t know here, I could feel how much she is loved and missed.
I didn’t have a lot of time to warm up for this race because we arrived a bit late. It was really hard for my mom to find parking so I just made it to the starting line with about 15 minutes to go. I found a place at the start and jogged in place a bit and did a few standing stretches.
Once the horn sounded I was off. The course was not flat. It had several gradual and long inclines that made it tougher than usual. Throughout my run, I just kept seeing sunflowers everywhere. There were a lot of runners wearing blue and orange, too. There was a band playing live music. I felt like Chelsea King was there. It was really neat.
As I made the final turn, I was relieved to see the finish line. This run was for Chelsea. I finished her run.
