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Mark and Andrew before race stretching and scratching |
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Kids before the run |
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And they are off! (bad pic, I know) |
The kids had a blast and they were proud of their medals. In true runner's fashion, they were using the race as an excuse not to do anything that they didn't want to. "But my legs are tired from running the race" ; "Do I have to do that? I just ran a race."
A few minutes following the kids run the 21k race started. After I gave some words of encouragement to my brothers, they joined the other 10k runners at the start line and with the sound of the air horn, they were off.
I hung around and cheered for the fast 21k runners who were coming through as they began their second lap and for the 10k winners that had started to arrive. After an hour after he started, I spotted Andrew sprinting hard the last 200 meters to the finish line. He crossed the finish line with a huge smile and his arms raised in the air. It was his first race and you could tell that he really enjoyed the experience and the accomplishment. It made me remember the feeling I had after my first race. He finished with a very impressive 1:01:06. Soon after Mark comes rounding the last turn and he finished in 1:10:58. He had beaten his last year's time by a couple of minutes.
Andrew ended up 1st in his age group and 17th overall and Mark was 3rd in his age group and 38th overall.
There were many course records broken at this years event. As more and more people hear about this lesser known Xterra event the competition gets tougher and tougher. If my health permits, I will definitely be back next year to compete.