Helvetia 10K

As a Deacon (ages 12-13) in the Aaronic Priesthood, Jake has been working on his "Duty To God"--a program to help each young man in the Church focus on what he is becoming and teaches him to learn, act, and share. There are projects in each different stage of the Aaronic Priesthood (Deacon, Teacher & Priest). The project during the Deacon years is a physical one. Jake has run several 5Ks in the past, so he set a goal to prepare for and run a 10K (6.2 miles).

I decided I was going to train for and run it with him. I only had 8 weeks to prepare, however. And after a month of training, I lost a week due to inclement weather and mommy duties. I'm not a natural runner like Jake and need every single day to train--and then some--to improve my time. So I told him I was going to graciously back out. Besides, Jake is so fast, (okay, everyone is faster than me, but he's really fast) and I wanted to be able to see him finish, not have him waiting for me in the end.

The day of the run was a beautiful one! We couldn't have ordered better weather. Fortunately, the run started at 8:30am for Jake so it wouldn't be too hot. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a sitter so Jared was the appointed photographer and cheerleader representing the family that day.

Here he is pre-race. All smiles now. We'll see what he looks like after...

 

 

Warming up. I'm glad Jared got this one. It was the only picture of Jake actually running.

So serious. I think Jake prefers to call it "focus." Maybe it's because he's surrounded by a sea of females!

Ah ha...there's a smile.

 

He had some cool pictures taken by the photographers on the course. If you want me to forward those on to you, let me know. He got in a neck-and-neck push for the end with another lady. The announcer said it was making for an exciting finish as they came into the stadium. The lady overtook him at the finish line--but just barely. A nice bonus...the announcer actually pronounced our last name correctly! I think we have Julianne Hough to thank for that. (I was Jenn Hugh when I ran it 4 years ago). 

 

And here he is post race. A little bit of a smile. :) Must have been before he had his complimentary burger that he claims was the best burger of his entire life--I'm not sure if the fact that he just torched through 1,000 calories had anything to do with that or not.

 

Notice he changed his shirt. I would have too. I found the one he wore during the race in a bag later that day. Oh, my. It could have walked into the house itself. It was soaking wet and let's just say it didn't smell like roses, so the shirt took its rightful place outside on the back patio where it could air out until another load of laundry was done--later that week!



 

Race stats:

Division: 15 and under

33 runners in this age group

 

Jake finished 2nd for the boys

and 4th overall with a time of 47:44.

 

WOWZERS! Okay, based on my 10K time of 65 minutes from four years ago (told you I was slow--but that's actually fast for me...I usually start out running at 12 minutes per mile), if I had run this with him again, he would have been waiting for almost 20 minutes for me to finish. And of course he ran this without any music or distraction in his head. He says he likes to think when he runs. Not me, man. I need the noise to drown out my strained breathing and wheezing.

 

43:18 was the fastest boy. Two girls beat Jake running 43 minutes and 44 minutes. Our friend knows one of the girls from other running events and says she's pretty elite. WAY to go JAKE!! Run with fast people and you get faster, too.

 

He finished up his track season with school the middle of May. He ran in the 800 and 1500 and almost always finished in the top three in his events. Although as he trained for the 10K, I think he found he actually enjoys the long distance running more and is looking forward to trying cross country.

 

Jake's next goal...a half marathon. Go get 'em, Tiger!