Lessons From a 9-Year-Old: Big Sur 5K Race Report

The nice thing about running a 5K rather than a longer endurance event is that instead of spending several hours on the course, you’re only in the arena for a half-hour or so. In other words, it’s not a compete day-killer – and even when you account for gnoshing post-race food and shooting the breeze with friends and co-runners, you’ve still got plenty of time to get home and relax for a bit before plunking out a race report.

Which is why I’m able to report on the weekend’s running event in such timely fashion: instead of participating in the Wildflower Triathlon, Quicksilver 50M, or Big Sur Marathon – all of which took place this weekend, and are all fantastic races that I’ve done in the past (see links) and would love to do again at some point – I returned with my daughter to the Big Sur 5K, which last year was the scene of her first-ever road race.

I wrote about that run last year, and this year’s version wasn’t dramatically different, so I’m not exactly compelled to do another traditional report that could potentially read like a carbon copy from 12 months ago. However, there were enough memorable points that I thought it might be fun to throw together some snapshots, observations, and perhaps a few tidbits of advice to share.

Accordingly, allow me to present some scenes from the Big Sur 5K:

It always amazes me how mellow 5K runners are in comparison to marathon runners. You know how at the start of most marathons, the announcer always has to tell the runners to stay behind the start line? True story: about 30 seconds before our race, a race crew member had to get on the loudspeaker and tell everyone to move up about 20 yards so they would be at the official line when the gun went off. It’s like a Bizarro world for a seasoned marathoner.

Footwear for the day consisted of the Vibram Bikila LS for me, which will be formally reviewed here in the next week or two. As for my daughter … I’m going to hold off just a bit for now, because I’m still kicking around a post about minimalist footwear for kids that I hope to have wrapped up soon. A trained eye can probably figure it out, though.

And speaking of shoes …

Here’s one practical tip, courtesy of my 9-year-old daughter, who is the tiny blond head next to the girl in short shorts in the above photo: if you’re going to give a great effort on a sizeable hill in the first mile of the race to clear some space for yourself away from the walking crowd, make sure your right shoe is laced securely as you’re doing it …

… otherwise you might have to give back a lot of that time when you finally make it to the top and realize that it’s untied.

Another tip for 9-year-olds: just because you’re small and cute, don’t think that earns you any special privileges on the race course. See my daughter in the black shirt? About a half-second after this photo was taken, the grown-up dude next to her totally swerved into her to cut the corner a little more closely … you know, so he could bust a 10:48 mile split instead of a 10:49.

More from the “adults acting like idiots” department: one of the people in this photo – I won’t specify who - made a point of telling everybody “We’re running in front of Brad Pitt’s house right now!” She was referring to the row of houses on the left side of this path, while the rest of us – or maybe I should just speak for my daughter and me – could care less about our proximity to a material possession of a Hollywood celebrity …

… because we were much more attentive to and appreciative of the beautiful, natural ocean views on our right. But again, maybe that’s just my daughter and me.

Two thoughts stand out here: 1) I often tell my daughter that with her long legs and knock-kneed stride, she reminds me of a baby giraffe sometimes. I’m thinking that if she ever expresses disbelief, I’ll use this photo as Exhibit A. Also …

2) One more practical tip from my daughter: if you’re going to give a great effort on a sizeable hill in the last mile of the race to start reeling in some people who went out too fast, make sure your left shoe is laced tightly as well …

… otherwise … yeah. Kind of a bummer.

One final tip: if you’re trying to break your course time from the previous year and you end up giving away about a minute or so in shoe-tying predicaments, you’d better high-tail it during the last half-mile to make up some ground. To my daughter’s credit, that’s exactly what she did …

… and sailed into the finish area a full two minutes faster than the year before. She even managed to win an age group award, which was a nice bonus. Now when the marathoners win age group awards at Big Sur, the prize includes a bottle of Monterey County wine; but for some reason, the killjoys on the race committee decided that the winners of the 5K's 8-11 age group aren’t entitled to a similar prize. Whatever.

Even without the alcohol, it was a pretty sweet morning all the way around – which is pretty much what you expect when it comes to Big Sur events. My daughter and I both went home with happy feet, glad to have spent another fun race morning together, and talking about similar future mornings to come.

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