On April 21, 2012, I ran in the NCR Sprint for Cancer 5K held at Urban Towers in Las Colinas/Irving TX. They also had a free fun walk/run and a 10K race. It benefited Young Texas Against Cancer (www.ytac.org/Dallas) who donated $40,000 to UT Southwestern Medical Center for pediatric cancers. Geoff Godsey, from DFW Active Lifestyle (http://www.dfwactivelife.com/), emceed the races. My son John and his family came out to encourage me and take pictures of the race.
I took my 1 mile slow jog then looked around at the sponsors tents. Before the race started, I noticed my Garmin was missing from my wrist so I ran this race without knowing what my pace was. It was a cool 50 degrees for this fast loop around race. Those that did the 10K run had to loop around twice.
I had some pain in my right knee during my warm up, so I didn't start out running full speed. Several runners passed me up with some of them running in the 10K. I waited until I reached the 2 mile marker to start running faster. I started to pass up a few runners who had started out too fast. Without proper training, starting too fast will cause most runners to have to slow way down to finish the race. My RunOn! speed training class has helped me to pace myself and have enough energy to run the last mile strong... for an old man at least.
When I looked up to see the finishing clock I was surprised to see that my time was under 25 minutes. Without my Garmin, it was difficult to keep a consistent pace or know what time I was running. I finished with a time of 24:52. There were over 20 races this weekend so there were not very many 60 and over runners at this race. I finished first out of only 2 in my age group, 47 out of 184 men overall, and 55 out of 446 overall.
I wore my DadFest bandana to help promote the June 16 Prostate Cancer race. Go to www.dadfest.com for more information about this race. My son and I spoke to several men about the importance of early PSA screenings. If you need info, contact the best at USMD Prostate Cancer Center.
After I got home I ended up finding my Garmin... in the back seat of my truck... I guess that happens when you get old. It made me happy to find it as I cannot afford a new one... life is good.
Place Bib # Men Overall Overall Chip Time Pace
1/2 919 47/184 55/446 24:52 8:00
I run to raise awareness for prostate cancer and to benefit my community.
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