Pilgrim's Kids Care 5K

I don't usually run or like 5Ks because they emphasize what I am worst at ... speed. But there was a small race at Montrose Harbour where a church was raising money for Back on My Feet. BOMF needed drivers for the guys in the program so I signed for driving duty and for the race itself. Because the program in Chicago is now just over one year old the runners included guys who had trained all year and new members who were running their first race.

Glorious day, sunny, temperature around 50. The new runners were nervous, the veterans just getting back into it from their fall training and races. It was a small informal affair with a cyclist leading the group on a marked course on the sidewalks from the harbour, around the hill (the only one on the North Side of Chicago!), the soccer fields, north to next set of soccer fields and back.

I wasn't going to work too hard on this one until one of the new guys I drove to the race started trash talking me. I picked my way around some kids and dropped him at the half mile mark. get up a fast pace for me anyway, and finished around 20th for the race. If they had divisions I would would have gotten 2nd or 3rd for the post 50 guys. Of course, if they had been big enough to have divisions, they probably would have had faster runners and I would have been my usual middle of the pack finish.

The real story was the pride of the new runners and the delight of the marathon finishers who were interviewed by some of the Church volunteers for some kind of a video and then saluted by the announcer after the race.