Ooooh. I actually remember there was one before that. Sophomore year. First year of running. I had just joined the indoor track team. I think I had been running for maybe a week. Our town had the worlds best turkey trot. I’m not pounding fists and there were no Kenyans. My coach was the RD so he gave us bibs.
It was a 5 mile race. I’d never run 5 miles. Our long run was about 4.5 at the time. And I did it once. Remember it’s my first week of my first season. I didn’t even have shoes. My mom bought me shoes the morning of the race and I wore them. I think they were the first Nike structure. I had been running in loaners from the coach.
I had no idea how to race. I think some of us from the team tried to just run together. I think I ran around 33 mid. It was cold. Snowy. Hilly. I hated every second. My brother drove part of the course yelling at me. I thought I’d never race that far ever again.
No age group award for me. Lots of the local kids from around the county ran and were much better. The race was won around 25 min by a local hero. I still look up to him. Phenomenal runner. And that was one difficult course.