Race Result

Racer:	Keith Bohnenberger
Race:	Girls on the Run 5k
Date:	Saturday, May 16, 2009
Location:	Fairfax, VA
Race Type:	Run - 5 km
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Time:	0:32:34
Comment:	Proud of my girl

Race Report:

My daughter Kirsten has been participating in the "Girls On The Run" program at her elementary school. As the name suggests, they run. It's more than that. Their mission is, "To educate and prepare girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living."

Kirsten has had a great experience. I highly recommend it.

I was Kirsten and her friend Kelly's running buddy for the race. Their goal was to run the 5K in 30 minutes. My job was to encourage them along and try to pace them for their goal. We showed up at the fair oaks mall early. I didn't know much about the size of the GOTR program or the size of the race. I was somewhat surprised at the sea of girls waiting to run. I think there were about 5000 runners, mostly elementary aged girls. Fortunately Kirsten's school was in the first wave. I was pacing the girls at 5 minute miles. Kelly was doing well but a 1/4 mile or so into the race Kirsten got a nasty side sticker. She toughed it out and kept on running. Every once in a while I'd check in with Kelly and Kirsten to get an idea of how hard they were working. I figured if they could comfortably talk I would go a little faster. If they were giving me short answers but weren't completely out of breath I figured I was at the right pace. For the first two miles I would update them every 1/2 mile. A few 1/2 miles were a little over pace and a few were a little under pace. Kirsten was still struggling a bit with her side sticker but she kept running. After the two mile point, I got the sense that my 1/2 mile updates weren't helping all that much so I switched tactics and tried to go with the distraction approach. I talked to the girls about what they were going to do for summer vacation. Kelly was going to Disney. Kirsten is going on a family trip to Kansas and was sure to point out how she was going to miss our typical beach week. As we got to mile 3 I told the girls to hang in there for another 1/10 of a mile. Either the course was off or my garmin was off. It turned out that we had about a 1/3 of a mile left. The girls hung tough. Once the saw the finish line they picked up the pace and finished strong. They're final push made me think I should have paced them a little faster. They missed their goal of 30 minutes but if the course was really 3.38 like my garmin said, then our pace was right on their 10 min/mile goal. I was really proud of the girls. A couple weeks before the race, they had as "practice race" at the elementary school. During the practice race, Kelly and Kirsten took off at about an 8:30 pace for the first mile or so but then they walked part of every lap in the school yard after that. I was really proud that they stuck with the pace better during the race and didn't have to walk at all. After the race they cheered on their friends and seemed to really be enjoying the event. It was a great Dad/Daughter morning! Of course I have to give Patty and the boys credit too for waking up early and coming out to cheer us on.