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| Dutchman Downs 5K Course |
There used to be a really nice race on July 4th weekend in downtown Raleigh. It was a 4 mile race that went through some really nice old neighborhoods. But due to a decline in participation, they decided not to have the race this year. Bummer. So when I found out that because we belonged to the swimming pool in the Dutchman Downs neighborhood, we were welcome to join the July 4th festivities, even though we don't live in the neighborhood, I was kind of excited to run their neighborhood 5K run. I knew they had a race since I had seen the mile markers painted for it. I often run through the Dutchman Downs neighborhood, since it's a nice older neighborhood with tree lined streets that reminds me of New Jersey neighborhoods. Don't get me wrong, I like our new neighborhood with it's updated coordinated landscaping and all, but sometimes I miss the old NJ neighborhoods I used to run in. When I mentioned I might go over there that morning to do the race, I was really surprised when Owen asked if he could do it with me. I explained that this was
3 miles and the farthest he'd ever run before in a race was
1 mile. In the 1 mile fun runs he has participated in he typically would run out of steam about half way through and then would complain for the rest of the race. But I could tell this time he was determined to do it, so I said ok and we headed over to the pool parking lot to check it out.
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| Owen with his cool race number (yeah, it was a small neighborhood race, can you tell?) |
I had no idea how many people would run in this race or what type of runners there would be. Turns out it was mostly high school kids (lifeguards and their friends, track team kids, etc) and a few older folks who were walkers. Owen was certainly the youngest runner. He was pretty excited about that. The hand written race numbers were a nice touch and Owen liked his number, "1010". At the start, we took off pretty fast and I encouraged him to pace himself but I was mostly unsuccessful in convincing him. Owen has two speeds, fast sprint and slow walk, which he alternated between for most of the first mile. He would speed up to pass people, and of course would brag about it, sometimes too loudly! And then he'd walk and they'd pass him again. By mile 2 he looked pretty tired, but I just kept encouraging him to keep going and that he was doing great. We were, by the start of mile 3, dead last but he was still moving at least. Even the walkers had passed us by this point, but we kept going, walking when he needed to.
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| Owen and his friend Jack |
We passed Owen's friend Jack's house in the 3rd mile. Jack was getting ready for the July 4th parade that was to follow the 5K. Jack had his roller skates on and balloons tied to his bike helmet. This distracted Owen enough to get him excited about finishing, so we could get back in time for the start of the parade. We rounded the last corner with less than the 0.l mile to go and I saw that the race organizers had a roll of toilet paper held across the road as finish line tape for Owen to cross. He sprinted to the finish, breaking the "tape". It was really cool! I came in after him so technically I was last.
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| Owen after finishing the race |
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| Owen and Jack in the parade |
The parade was a lot of fun. I had to walk/run it to keep up since Owen and Jack got a ride on a neighbor's golf cart. After the parade, we went swimming and had some post race snacks at the pool. It was a great way to start the July 4th weekend and I was very proud of Owen for finishing his very first 5K!
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