John's Trophy

Have I ever mentioned here that John loves to run? He does. He runs or walks home from school as often as I'll let him. Sometimes he walks to school. During recesses he runs around the school's 1/5 mile track 6, 7, sometimes even 8 or 9 times. For every five miles a student walks, he or she gets a "shoe token" (a washer with ribbons tied to it that can be attached to a shoe.) John got more shoe tokens this year than any other student at his school. Recently Steven has been taking him to the nearby middle school after school where he runs the 1/4 mile track, as many as 10 laps at a time. John really loves to run.

Every year his gym teacher takes the school's best runners/walkers to participate in the Cottonwood Classic, a 5K race that is put on by our community. John ran it back in 2009 as well, but he hadn't really known what to expect, and wasn't as prepared for it. This time, he had trained, and he was ready. He could do this!

Before the race began, wearing his official race T-shirt and bib.

Waiting at the starting line for the starting gun.

Going down the final stretch to the finish line. He ran the entire way!

Crossing the finish line! The clock says 27:30, but since John started in the school group that started about 2 1/2 minutes after the main racers began, his official time (tracked by an electronic tag) was 24:57.

John won first place in the Men ages 8-9 age group!

I am always impressed watching him run because he is able to keep up the same pace for a really long period of time. He kept up a regular pace of  8 minutes, 4 seconds per mile. (Or about 2 min, 1 sec per lap on a 1/4 mile track) Way to go John!