The BoroDash is a 4 mile race in Murfreesboro on Thanksgiving morning. Nashville has a simular race in which some of my family run each year. So I decided to hopefully get a tradition going of running this race. It is always for a special cause.
But, this year I went back and forth on running the race. I had already spent quite a bit on races this year with the Nashville marathon and some running gear. I went back and forth on spending the money or not. Also, I didn't want to run by myself. I wanted Michael to run with me. He is 8 years old and is fairly active. He can probably do 4 miles. I missed to the deadline to sign-up for the race with a discounted price (Also, missed the deadline to get a timing chip as well).
But, the day before Thanksgiving (Wednesday) I decided to go ahead with it and headed over to North Blvd Church of Christ when the registration opened in order to ensure that we go in and we didn't have to wait so long. Also, Kris Parkhurst in the office asked me to pick up his families registration as well.
Got over to North Blvd and got Michael and I signed up. I was very excited about Michael running with me. He had never run 4 miles before; I thought he would do fine, but I assumed we would do some walking. Michael actually didn't even know that I signed him up for the race. Got home Wednesday night, gave him his t-shirt and told him that he was running the race. He never asked how long it was till later in the night. No compliant on the distance so that was a good first step.
Michael and I each wore our t-shirts to Church Wednesday night. Michael was proud to be wearing his shirt.
Thursday morning we go up early and it sure was a foggy morning and a bit chilly. Not cold, but chilly. We got up and got ready to go. I got my running stuff together and so did Michael. Heather, Josh and Kayla were coming for support.
I didn't bring my IPOD with me for this race as I was running with Michael. This was going to be weird without any music.
We got there and found a pretty good spot at a Mexican place accross the street from the tennis courts at MTSU. We saw Santa and some other runners running with turkeys on their heads. Our kids thought those were the funniest thing.
Time to head to the starting line. The fog was so thick that a lady asked me where the tennis courts were. We actually were standing right next to them on the other side of the street. Foggy morning.
We headed down to the start line. I wanted to get some pictures of us running so I brought my phone.
We went and got in line and ended up being near some friends from Church. These ladies run races all the time. They are hard core runners. Mrs. Jerrigan was one of them. Mrs. Jerrigan was Michael's teacher. We'll be racing his teacher; this was a great motivation for him.
About time to start the race. The gun goes off and we walk to the start line and then we start running. Michael started off pretty fast. I assumed we would run a mile and then start walking. When we got closer I would convience him to start running again.
We kept running. Mile 1 marker and then we headed to the square. At mile 2 I knew he was a bit frustrated as we were only half way there. He was starting to get tired. I actually felt pretty good. Mile 3. Around mile 3 and half he was ready to stop and walk. He was so close to doing it I told him to just run slowly and not walk so you could say you ran the whole thing without walking. About that time Mrs. Jerrigan came up behind us. Michael would then sprint up about 50 yards ahead and I would catch up. We did this for the next mile or so. Mile 4. Only 1 more mile left! He was really getting tired, but he kept running. We got closer to the finish line we speed up. We turned the corner to the finish line and ran on the MTSU track. Mrs. Jerrigan was with us. We sprinted to the finish passing numerous runners. Michael and I ended up running the 4 miles in 40 minutes! Good for him! We didn't have a timing chip so he didn't place but I believe he would have been in the top half of his bracket (which was all kids under 14 or something like that). Great job Michael! What a great race! Let's do it next year.
10 years ago
