Sunday, October 14, 2007

BEARS ON THE RUN 5K (kind of)



Today I ran in a local race called Bears on the Run. It is a fundraiser for my 9 year old's school. In theory it is supposed to be a 5000 meter race on a 400 meter track. But the starting directions were to do 14.1 laps. Hmmm....pulling out my pocket calculator reveals something amiss.

Anyway, I decided to run while pushing my twins in a double toddler jogger. That added around 75 to 80 pounds to my "race weight". The starting line had about 50 people, with about 70% grade school and junior high school kids. The starting gun went off and so did the field.

Early on there were a good 20 people in front of me, but I just kept moving forward. My twins were laughing and saying "Faster" (easy for them to say).

My 9 year old was walking laps as part of a walk-a-thon on the same track so as we passed we gave high-fives to each other.By the 3rd lap, I had moved up to third. I stayed there a couple of laps, but then moved into second. I could see the first place runner ahead, but just couldn't get closer than 100 meters. Soon, I knew I was approaching the final laps. On one lap, the lap keeper said "3 to go". So I kept it up. Some people on the side said "You only have 2 laps to go". But I figured I should listen to the race official.

As I came down for my bell lap - I looked ahead. First place wasn't there anymore. That was strange...but I began to suspect what had happened.

Sure enough, after I finished I learned that they had added an extra lap to my race. Oh well....I did a 6000 meter race pushing my twin boys(3 and half year old) and a double stroller. Nice fun work-out. Final time was a little over 25 minutes.


Team Geraldi - Me, my twins Christopher and Aidan, and big brother Brandon

5 comments:

Peter Lubbers said...

Go team Geraldi! Pretty cool you came in second with the double stroller!

Alan said...

Thanks Peter, but remember that a majority of the field were kids. Btw: my son Brandon did the walk a thon and did about 5 miles. My 3.5 year old Aidan walked almost 2.5 miles with him. Ultraholics in training :)

Rajeev Char said...

Awesome stuff Alan! Yea your kids are all set to become chips of the ol' block!
Were there ribbons placed around the track to keep you from getting lost :-)

Michael Kanning said...

Fun stuff! But if you're really looking to crush 5K-ish PR's, you should come to the 2.95 mile high school Varsity XC race at Crystal Springs next Tuesday. If you get 2nd place pushing a baby stroller there, I'll give you my SC50K coffee cup :) Anyways, glad to hear it was fun. With the way your kids are going, perhaps I will have the honor of pacing Team Geraldi at Western States 2025. Good luck with all your upcoming races!

Alan said...

Thanks Raj and Michael. Pretty soon I won't be able to keep up with the kids...and in a few years they can run races pushing me in my wheelchair :)

Also, Michael - AWESOME time at the Firetrails run! A little over 8 hours in a hilly 50 miler?!!! Man - you are downright scary!!!!