Jace raced in the Byron Good Neighbor 5k on Saturday, July 17, and ran a 23:27. 18 seconds faster than he ran it in 2009. Not his fastest 5k, but an excellent time, no doubt. I think 5k's are one of the, if not the toughest running race distance. Its hard to not blow up, and your pace can depend on the competition. Heat, humidity, number of corners, and all the usually things play into it as well.
It was nice to see that Jace's friend and a football buddy, Matt H., was there to run it too. Jace and Matt ran the whole thing together side-by-side--except the finish. Little boys are waaaay to competitive to finish together, right. Byron is a certified 5k and it uses the track at the old HS for the finish. I think this helps ensure the exact distance. The race starts at the school, makes its way on county roads and neighborhood streets, then enter school property for the finish. For the finish, the runners enter the running track in the middle of one of the short ends of the track, then use approximately about 3/4's of the track (about 300 meters). Jace and Matt entered the track at just over 22 minutes. Matt immediately sped up and got about 50 feet ahead of Jace. About 100 meters later, Matt started to slow down and then stopped for a few seconds as if to throw up! He didn't though. Jace passed him, then [Jace] passed a couple more people, then in the last 100 yards he kicked it in and passed two more people (an older guy and a 15 year old boy?) before the line. Matt came in about 30 seconds later. Matt was fine, just over did it in that last loop. I can see how people can mis-judge the last little bit of the race. They enter the track, can see the finish banner, clock, flags, etc. You can see that you don't even need to run the whole distance so I can imagine that you get tempted to run harder. I think that's what happened to Matt. He's a great little athlete. Jace and Matt got 1st and 2nd, respectively, in the 9-11 year old category.
Keep checking HERE for updated results.
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