Winter Distance Series Family results

The 4 race series finished up this past Saturday with the 10K in Black Forest.  Aside from a stiff wind from the West it was good running conditions yet again.  The snow from the previous Thursday was all but gone.  All 4 races had good weather to run in.  Race 3 was the trickiest being that it had 4 to 6 inches of partially packed, grainy snow to run on - throughout the whole 5 miles.  So times for most were slower than they could have been.

As for the family results - well I managed to hold off my son in each of the 4 races and beat him by the 4 race cumulative time of almost 6 minutes.  He place second in his age group after the series, this being his 3rd out of the last 4 years he has picked up an age group award in the series.  I am very proud of him.

My ex-wife and my 2 daughters (ages 13 and 8) also ran all 4 races and they all did well.  The Mother of my children ran the series for her first time and came in 7th in her competitive age group.  My oldest daughter came 5th her her age group for the series - this her second time in the series.

And then there is the star of the family, #3599 in the above photo.  Her first time running the series.  She has run a couple of 5K's before, but never anything longer.  So the 4 miler, 5 miler and 10K were all new for her.  The plan was that she would run with her Mother for each race.  Race 1 came and halfway through she was a minute or so ahead of her - and waited for her Mom to catch up.

Race 2 she apparently just bolted off at the start and never looked back.  Race three was the out and back race - 2 1/2 miles out at the turn she was about 20 seconds ahead of her Mom and sister.  She beat them by 3 1/2 minutes.

Oh, did I mention that she set age group course records in each of the first 3 races?  Race 1 she beat it by 1 1/2 minutes.  Race 2 was a new course so everyone set a PR on that course.  Race 3, on the snowy trail - where for comparison purposes I finished 1:45 slower on race day than I did in my best training run - she took a pretty incredible 7 minutes off the age group record.

And then on Saturday she beat the age group record that had stood for 9 years in her age group - admittedly there have not been a lot of 1 - 9 year old's that have run the race - but when any age group record - for any race, but in this case a fairly tough 10K - is beaten, it's a job well done.

She beat it by almost 22 minutes.   To say that I, and the whole family is amazed at what she did and incredibly proud of her is understating it.  Oh, and she also beat her Mother and Sister in the series by over 8 minutes too - just for good measure and extra bragging rights.