King Tiger 5k

June 4, 2011 7:30 AM
Charlotte, NC

	Time	Pace	Division	Division Place	Gender Place	Overall Place	Bib #
Owen	24:30	7:53	M35-39	24/48	129/292	175/574	267
Malissa	38:53	12:30	F25-29	33/39	227/282	502/574	265
Michael	22:49	7:20	M1-14	6/36	97/292	124/574	266
Kyle	--	--	Fun Run	--	--	--	1586
Alicia	--	--	Fun Run	--	--	--	1585

Written by Malissa

Here are a few pictures from the race:

Kyle is upset in this picture because he wanted to stand by Alicia and she wanted to stand next to her friend...

The girls trying to make him feel better.

Now that he's the center of attention he's happy.

Our favorite runners!

Kids all lined up for the fun run.

Alicia loves to run. She has a very determined personality. When she sets her mind to something she doesn't stop until she is finished. She gets this quality for her daddy and I think it's a great quality for a runner to have. Alicia has been running a lot at school. During recess she runs laps on the track with 3 other kids from her class. Her teacher started the contest with the whole class to see who could run the most laps and only four of the kids stayed with it. Alicia won first place and if you add all the laps for the month of May, she ran a marathon!

Kyle doesn't care to run much and he's also not a competitive person (well, at least not as competitive as Owen and Michael are). Sometime I worry that because Alicia and Michael do like to run and are very good at it, he will feel left out or compared to all the time. Even though he doesn't like to run he was very excited about this race. He kept saying that he couldn't wait for it to start. Before the race I told him to just have fun while he was running. During the kids' fun run we started getting a little nervous because so many of the kids had already crossed the finish line and there was still no sight of Kyle. I was worried he was either hurt or on the side of the road crying. Owen and Michael went to look for him and found him running with a big smile on his face, zigzagging back and forth (I like to picture him with his arms out while he was zigzagging like a airplane). He was so happy to see Owen and Michael and happy they ran the rest of the race with him. After the race he told me he had so much fun. I'm so glad he was able to find his fun in running.

I don't have any pictures of Owen or Michael crossing the finish line but wanted to share their times:
Owen's goal was 25 and he came in at 24:30
Michael goal was 25 and he came in at 22:49

Right after mile marker 1 Michael turned on the jets and Owen didn't see him again until after he finished. Michael thought Owen was behind him the whole time and didn't realise he was running so fast. He said he would see a guy up ahead of him and think, oh I want to pass that guy and then would do it. Maybe I need to try that method in my next race...

With another 5k under my belt I wanted to share some more thoughts that have been dancing around in my head. I still struggle from time to time with being a slow runner. Since I started my running journey, back in January, a lot of my friends and family have started running and sometimes it gets to me that I am the slowest of the bunch but then I think about how far I have come. For so many years I hated running and now I love it. I  beat my last 5k time by almost 3 minutes and with each run I get faster and am able to run longer and longer distances. I'm so excited for our 10k run the end of July in Virgina, our half marathon the end of August in Utah, and my Marathon run in San Diego next June! That's right, depending on how well my half marathon goes I plan to run the San Diego full Marathon June 2012.