Dad's 5K

This was a day of running firsts for Dad. A mediocre sprinter in high school indoor track many moons ago, he ran his first distance race and his first outdoor race of any kind in the Hot Chocolate 15K/5K this morning.

So you'd think this guy would be content just to finish.

You would be wrong.

But we'll get to that. Look at the cheering section he had!


It was cold, in the low 40s, but Mom and the kids traveled with Dad to Grant Park before 7 a.m. and waited patiently for the race to begin. Dad was supposed to get there with a "team" from our building, but its members were still gathering downstairs when Mom and the kids came through. So Dad ditched that team for his own!

The 5K was scheduled to start at 7:40, but it was delayed until 7:55 because a semi had crashed on the course earlier in the morning and the police had to re-route it. But Mom and the kids had a great view of the finish line, for whenever people starting crossing it!

They waited and waited and waited for Dad to pass them, and by the 40-minute mark they decided to pack up and head to our meeting spot.


Yes, Dad felt slow. He was stuck in the crowd - there were more than 18,000 people in the 5K - for most of the race and couldn't stretch his legs until the last tenth of a mile. At that point, Dad swung outside to get a clear lane to the finish line - on the opposite side of the street from Mom and the kids.

Dad had hoped to break 23 minutes and wanted to get under 25 at the very least, reasonable goals, he thought, given his training. But he finished in 26:40, good for 1022nd overall out of 18,361; he was 683rd out of 4,603 men and 80th out of 555 in his age group.

It was his first race, and he learned a thing or two. He just might have the running bug now.