We can learn a lot from a child: Albani's first 5K!

Albani won a free entry to the Ozark Mountain Ridge Runners Resolution Run 5K.  She won the entry 2 weeks before the event, so had little time to prepare.  That little time yielded exactly one training run, a mile that I ran with her 6 days before the race.  Bad weather and busy work schedules kept us from getting any more in (when I drop her off at before school care before 7:30 a.m. and pick her up after 5:30 p.m., it's a long day for everyone and dark when we get home!).

She also looks gorgeous running!

She was confident that she wanted to run the race, and also that she didn't want me to run with her.  I tried to change her mind about me running with her multiple times, but in the end I promised to get great start and finish videos and sent her off!  I told her it was okay if she needed to take walking breaks.  I expected she would finish in 40-45 minutes.

Pre-race

I waited by the finish line, and saw her coming in much sooner than expected!  She finished in 34:42, and when I got to her in the finish chute she exclained, "I ran the whole way!"  It turned out she leap-frogged with a lady I know from OMRR throughout the race, which made me feel better about her being out there without me.  I was incredibly impressed that she ran the whole thing without walking after her non-training -- oh, to have youth on your side!  She decided she could do it, and she did!

Clock shot

She placed 2nd in the 19 and under age group, a hard age group when you're 10!  Results are here.  She really wanted a trophy or a "big fat check" (my husband's phrase!), but still wore her medal and bib number around all day after the race.  She told me that she kept saying positive things to herself during the race to keep herself going.  Oh, the lessons we can all learn from children!

Awards ceremony

She also told me, "It hurt but it was so worth it!" multiple times.  She was very proud.

I ran my first 5K when I was 11, so she has me beat on that.  I remember it seeming so long, and I was actually training (running 2 miles with my dad probably 5 times a week), which is why I was worried about her doing this.  In retrospect, my attitude was much like hers though:  it was so long but so worth it.  Now we know she can do it, and she enjoyed it, so it was winning all around!  She will have a lot more race options now that she's up for racing more than 1 mile.  I hope racing can be a family affair for us for many years to come!

The rest of her professional pics: