After running both cross country and track in high school I came to Purdue and had pretty much stopped running, that all changed though these past two months as I have been talking to not only my two brothers who are in high school but also my mom and dad.
You see I come from a family of runners. My mom has run everything from 5k’s to marathons, and my dad has just started running again as well within the past year. Every time I call home he is always telling me how far he ran and much stronger he is feeling, he is training for a half marathon with my mom over the summer. I was so jealous of not only him but my whole family!
So when I heard about the Purdue Cancer Center Challenge I went ahead and signed up. The race was this last weekend and after going out and running over the past two months I must say I felt great after the race. It started at 8:30 a.m. up at the stadium. My goal was just to break 20 minutes; I mean it has been a good three years since I had a real race! The race started and I was hitting my splits dead on, 6:17 first mile, 13 minutes at the two mile things were going great!
During the second mile I was starting to feel tired, this is when a person came up next to me and started running with me, he edged me on and I felt like competing! He ended up beating me but hey, I met my goal! I broke 20 minutes with a 19:47 and placed 12th overall, in a race of more than 1,200! I also placed 4th in my age group, and missed a medal by 1 place, maybe next time! It was a big day as we raised over $65,000 for cancer research here at Purdue! Finally I had something to brag about to my parents and brothers back home! The pictures are of the finish and some of my Sunday school kids I found at the race afterwards! Boiler Up! Josh
