Better Than Winning My Age Group

I think I've won my age group twice. I really only remember once. It was in a winter 5K cross country race (not the road race I'd been expecting). For winning, I got a really cool blue blown glass Christmas ornament as a prize.  It still has the little paper tag to tell me that it was for first place in my age group - not that I need the reminder. 

The reminder that there were two of us in the age group, and the other guy had possibly never run a 5K before.

Anyway, I almost won my age group at the Sweet Corn Festival 5K.  I would have won it had I run it.  Let me explain: I did run it.  Twice that morning. I went out early and ran the course as fast as I could, and finished in (my PR) 19:27.  Which, as I look at the results, would have gotten me first in my age group.

But I didn't run it that fast with everyone else. Instead, I ran it with my son, Jonathan.  You'll need to go to the second-to-last page to find our finishing time, but believe me when I say that running the race with my 6 year old son, who ran or walked the entire 3.1 miles without stopping, was better than winning my age group.  For an age group win, I would have gotten a medal, which would have found a home in a drawer.  Running with Jonathan gives me a fantastic memory that will last a lifetime.