Freezing our Gizzards for Some Cross Country PRs for the Boys

Today we ran the Freeze Your Gizzard 5K in Ida Lee Park in Leesburg.  This is the third year that we have been to this race, and we really enjoy it.  It benefits a community food bank so you can bring donations of canned food with you as well.  Two years ago, this was one of the first races that the boys ran, and we ran the 1 mile fun run with them.

Here's Nic two years ago!

Here's Zach!

Last year Zach ran this on his own as one of his first solo 5Ks. So this year all of us were going to run the 5K.  This is not an easy course as it is cross country with lots of ups and downs.  Zach had run over 33 minutes last year so he wanted to try to PR the course this year.  Before the race, he told JD that he wanted a sub-30, but we reminded him that this was a cross country and not a road course.  He still thought he could do it.  Nic and I were just going to try to do our best to run all of the hills and have a good time.

Heather and boys pre-race

It was brisk and very windy this morning at race start.  JD and the boys jogged a little to get warmed up and then it was time to start.  JD and Zach took off and did the first mile at around 9:18.  Nic and I were more conservative plus we got caught on a jammed section of the course behind some people who kept stopping ot walk.  We ran a 10:52 on this section.  Nic was doing great and not having trouble with any of the hills.  The second mile is a bit tougher than the first with some harder hills, but it also has a short road section after the water stop to make up some time.  Zach skipped the water station and did a 9:44 in mile 2.  Nic walked through the water station, but then he pushed really hard on the paved section to get 10:42 for that mile.  I told him that we were on pace to negative split the race and also to beat Zach's time from last year.  He got a big smile on his face and started to push a little harder. I had told him to run behind me whenever the wind got bad so he was drafting whenever he needed to.  Zach had a great last mile at 9:02 and finished in 29:09 for an average pace of 9:24!!!  He was in the <14 age group which was huge so he finished 35/92, but only one other 9 year old was ahead of him and the rest were older boys.  Nic finished strong with a 10:04 last mile and a final time of 32:51 for a pace of 10:22 overall and of course, first 6 year old. 

JD and boys pre-race

We are super proud of Zach for getting his first sub-30 on a cross country course, a 4 minute course PR, and for meeting his goal.  We are also super proud of Nic for conquering all of those hills, beating Zach's time from last year, and running negative splits for a 5K.  That might have even have been a first for me with the negative splits in a 5K because I usually lose it in mile 2 when I'm running them all out.   

We finally wore them out!