Be sure to check out Friday's Dallas Morning News. There is supposed to be an article about the upcoming Dadfest race, and I along with Marty Sisk (who also was operated on by Dr. Justin Lee at USMD Prostate Cancer Center) were interviewed. The article will be in the sports page, written by Debbie Fetterman.
My race this week was the American Heroes 5k on Memorial Day, May 31st 2010 at the Ballpark in Arlington (where I am a season ticket holder for the Texas Ranger games). I arrived early and received my bib number and chip, then I took a few pictures in front of the finish line and with the military honor guards and the beautiful Miss Arlington who later sang a fantastic national anthem. She told me that her platform was cancer awareness, just like me, which made me feel great.
Before the race, I had a stretch and a massage then looked around at some of the other sponsor booths. Mike Doocy of Fox 4 Sports was the master of ceremonies, and his cameraman wanted to interview me before the race. He had already interviewed me at the Cowtown race a few weeks back, so I told him to give someone else a chance to talk. He interviewed a young man wearing a headband with American flags sticking out on each side. He told about his grandfather being a WWII hero. That got me thinking about my own family; I have two uncles on my mothers side that served in WWII.
There was a Lil Heroes Troop run for the kids which was lead by members of the US Army, then we got ready for the 5k and 10k race. There was a 21 gun salute to honor all of our fallen warriors, and when we lined up for the race there was an F18 flyover. Everyone for both the 5k and 10k lined up together at the start of the race. The Army had an Apache helicopter fly above us, and then landed at the finish line
The race started right in front of the ball park, and as usual, I started in the first row. Ready set go, we're off. I took started out, running at my usual starting pace. We went along Ballpark Way for the start of the race towards 3rd base side, then took a right turn. Several people passed me up, but I've learned that some of the ones who lead early, tire out sooner, and I can finish ahead of them. I prefer to save and have as much energy as I can for the last mile of the race, and do the best I can.
Unlike my previous race, I did see a mile marker in this race, which I appreciated. I thought that I had run further, but it was just 1 mile. There was a hill, not too steep, then we came back to ballpark way going toward the Arlington Convention Center. There was a turnaround for the 5k and a straight away for the 10k runners. I was glad that I signed up for the 5k on this hot and humid morning. We headed back to 3rd base side of the ballpark and then took a right turn to home plate.
I thought it was just around the ballpark to the finish line, so I started running hard. When we got to home plate, we had to run past it towards another road, and then finally there was the home stretch back to centerfield for the finish line. When I had gotten to home plate I started running faster, then when I needed to I slowed down to get my wind back. Once I had rested up enough, I went back at it. Finally I could hear people cheering and Mike Doocy speaking so I raced hard to the finish line. My time was 27:57.1 I checked out my photos on this website (my bib number is 1293) and found that I should've finished around 27:46 but there must have been some kind of mistake.
The first place winners received a plaque of President Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. I sure wanted one of them, but finished 3rd in my age division and received dogtags instead. You can see my final results here.
You can also see pictures of my Arlington Highlands 5k here (bib# 259), and the Red Nose 5k Run here (bib# 160).
All of these weekly updateventually eventualy be on my blog http://www.runteddyrun.blogspot.com/
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My final line 55-59 Male:
Place Bib# Time Pace Overall Overall Men
3/11 1293 27:57.1 9:00 143/509 103/246
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