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Post date: Nov 21, 2012 6:26:29 AM
July 2010
We only had three entrants in the "Run to the Lake" 5K/10K but they were three Raptors so, needless to say, they took care of business in grand fashion!
The first Raptor to finish was Nolan, who had only received his Raptors uniform a week or so ago. He put it to good use in winning the 5K outright. The announcer later said it was one of, if not the closest 5k finishes in the history of the race but Nolan held on to win by one second over Eugenio Geiken of Berkeley HS whose Dad is the former coach of the MLK Middle School and a good friend from my AMS days.
That was totally awesome, Nolan!
Go, Nolan!
Nolan has won road races before but never one of this size and prestige. This was a big race.
I knew it was a big race when I found our other Raptor, Annabel, before the start. I've never seen Annabel even remotely nervous before a race or a meet but this time she was! I could ramble on describing it but the pre-race picture below pretty well says it all:
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Annabel about to be fed to the sharks!
Like all good runners though, Annabel turned her nervousness into forward motion and, at the end of her first big-time road race ever had won her age group and run a sparkling 23:01. I had asked her to try and run a 22 minute-ish race, just to give her a loose goal to focus on but (I shouldn't admit this!) really I would have been extremely happy with say a 25 or 26. Instead she just missed dipping into the 22s and she is officially On The Map as a very talented young distance runner.
Annabel finishes without a shark in sight. Or another competitor. She not only won her age group, she finished 55th overall out of 408 runners.
And Annabel had to dig a bit deeper in this race. Prior to today when I've talked to her at the end of races she'll say the race was fun and not too difficult. Today when I asked her she looked at me with wide eyes and said, "That was hard!"
Sarah, our sole 10K entrant ran yet another gallant race. She had been up a good portion of the night with their dog, Sprite, who had consumed a chew bone a bit too quickly and spent the rest of the night vomiting. On just a tiny bit of sleep Sarah ran only a few minutes slower than her usual time. That's brave!
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A pooped Sarah still smiling!
So, another bunch of great performances. For a small club, the Raptors pack a big punch! It's super fun to be a part of all this.
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