My father is a runner. He doesn’t understand why I’m not. He always wants to me go to races with him. He offers to run at my pace. I explain that he could run backwards in a circle around me and I’d still be too slow for him.

This weekend I decided to go to a race with him. I decided at a stupid time though. I declined the 5K on July 4 and ended up at a 5 miler on July 5.

I just walked it. I went with my father and one of his friends that he car pools to races with. I got all kinds of advice like if I saw someone with grey hair I was supposed to trip them since this race only had a 60 and over age group instead of 60-64 and 65-70 etc and they wanted to win.

From Dad’s friend, “Now we want to you boogie out there. No strolling.”

From Dad, “Ok, so when we finish we’ll go get a leisurely breakfast and then we’ll be back to see you cross the finish line.” Have I ever mentioned how loving and encouraging my family is?

I went to the back of the pack and set out at a good pace. I decided to try to beat the lady wearing pyjamas and support hose. That seemed like a doable goal. But she was fast! I had a hard time keeping up. There were four of us and a dog in front of the walking pack. Eventually she grabbed my arm even though I was wearing ear buds. She asked if I was local. I said no and that I was visiting my family. That led to a discussion of how everyone in her family had died and her sister-in-law had breast cancer again. No one has ever talked to me when I was running a race. Too busy trying to survive. Then she grabbed my arm and asked if my family was right with the Lord. Ok, time to move on. I eventually pulled away from her.

The race was around a lake. Around mile 4 the dog decided to get in the lake. Seemed reasonable and he was quite put out that his man wanted him to get out and keep walking.

Every time I saw a car like my dad drives coming toward me I was fairly certain it was them coming to see what was taking me so long.

I ended up in the front of the pack. I thought I was the first walker in. I finished the 5 miles in 1:12:22. That’s just over a 14 minute per mile pace. I was happy. I was hoping to be able to keep a 15 minute mile pace. Turns out though that there were super walkers there. The first place person did an 8 minute mile. How is that even possible?

I ended up being the 3rd female walker overall. No awards for walkers though. 🙁 Now I’m researching how to racewalk so I can be fast like the 8 minute mile guy. Ok, probably not that fast. But my goal is to be able to eventually do a 10 minute mile.