The Running Obstetrician

BILL LANDERS 5K 2015

May 9, 2015, GLASTONBURY, CT.

*** Click on the photo below to scroll through the photo album ***

     *** Click on the photo above to scroll through the photo album ***

    This seventh annual Bill Landers Building Bridges Memorial 5K was a very special race for this Running Obstetrician. You can read all about it in my Running Blog Post about the day, but as you can see from the intro photo in the above photo album, this was my first 5K race with my oldest daughter, Cassie. She had a great time running with me and one of her classmates, and she ran a really nice steady race, stopping to take some photos with her Twitter-crazed father along the way!

     The Bill Landers 5K is an annual event put on by the Town of Glastonbury. It is in memorial to Bill Landers who was a prominent person in our town, loved to run, and died from cancer in 2008. Along with being a great spring 5K usually on a perfect weekend with all of the flowering trees in bloom, the event is a fund raiser for two $1000 scholarships for one boy and one girl Glastonbury high school students. Also, the town elementary schools compete for who can register the most runners, and that school receives a monetary prize to do something nice for the school. My kids' school has pretty much won this prize since this part of the race was introduced.

     We had a blow out 463 runners in the race this year. The morning was little chilly, but as soon as the kids run started, it really didn't matter. Everyone was pretty jazzed up to see the little runners take off. My son, Kyle, did an awesome job in the fun run, and he seemed to have a great time running it too. 

     The race itself is great. There are a few small hills here and there, but for the most part it's pretty flat. The field is decently small, especially for the start which is an entire open street, and so if you are looking to make some kind of qualifying time, this would be the race. We met up with one of Cassie's classmates, and our qualifying time was to have fun and see if we could make it the whole 3.1 miles. This was really the first time Cassie had tried this kind of distance, so we decided to run-walk if we needed to, and see if we could make a 40:00 goal to finish the 5K race.

     It was actually a TON of fun running with an 8-year old and 9-year old in a 5K. The whole time they were chit-chatting about school: what band instruments they were going to play next year, their principal that they saw running in the race, where their teachers' houses were along the way. One of the highlights of the race for them was getting to throw a paper cup of water on the ground at the water station, and no one was going to give them a hard time about it!

     As we made it to the slight up hill finish for the last 0.1 miles, Cassie asked, "Aren't we supposed to run really fast to the finish line?" I thought this was so cool. We made a dash for it, and passed a few runners along the way. My wife got maybe the coolest picture I now own of us finishing together (it's the first in the photo album at the top of the post). I was so proud of her, and she seemed to have such a good time. I am psyched for the possibility of my kids joining me in this love for running.

     If you can stay for the after-party it's well worth it. The awards ceremony is great, because you usually end up knowing people from town. The snacks are great, and it's a good time for the kids to hang out a little with their friends on the town green while the parents get caught up - even in their sweaty and un-showered conditions!

     All in all a great time. I'm pretty excited to see this race become a Morosky family tradition. I look forward to the day that my kids are leaving me in the dust as they go on to qualify for their big races later in the season. For now, I'm going to enjoy strolling along and Tweeting photos as they chat about elementary school and all the fun parts of being a kid while getting a fun run in. Thanks, Bill Landers!

CMM - The Running Obstetrician, May 2015