Gerald C. Matics -- Author

Yesterday I ran the Collegeville 5K Run/Walk for Arthritis, which is sponsored in large part by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, where Lisa works.  It's not a bad little race, and it was actually the first race I ran last year at the beginning of my latest comeback.  (I think I'm on number 197, but who's counting?)  Then, I'd been running for only about two weeks after a solid nine or ten months without running a step, and on a morning so muggy you almost needed an Xacto knife to slice through the humidity, I wheezed my way to a 19:43.  Surprisingly, this got me sixth place and, if I remember right, a win in my age group.  Naturally I put it on my calendar for this year.

It went even better: I won the race.  The time was slow -- 18:07 -- but "slow" is of course relative.  After the first tenth of a mile, I led every step of the race and didn't even hear footsteps past the first mile and a quarter or so.  So, really, it was like a tempo run for me, which I was fine with since I haven't been working out much lately; a late-winter cold laid me up for a few days, and it was all but impossible to get back into the groove.  At 38 years old, this should not be a surprise, although I do have high hopes for the spring-summer season.

What made it even better was watching Jack run the kids' race and come in second -- "First boy in," he says proudly, "just like Daddy!"  That'll melt the old heart, believe me.  Only problem was, they hemmed and hawed about when they were going to give out the 5K awards, so I floated back and forth between the finish area and the track, where they were holding the kids' run.  I ended up running around the track with Jack, holding his hand about half the way around, and when he finished and we had about ten seconds to celebrate, Lisa told me they just started giving out the awards.  Arrgh!  So I trucked back up the hill to the finish area.  As I was still a couple of hundred yards away, I heard my name announced and a smattering of applause.  The announcer said they might have to come back to me since she knew my son was doing the kids' race, but then she spotted me and said, "Here he is, still running!"

Big yucks all around.

I had the last laugh, though, when I opened up the envelope they handed me along with my medal and discovered a $100 bill.  I had no idea there was money at this race!  Lisa and I talked about dining out on the race, but then she remembered I need new running shoes desperately.  Fortuitously, we had to pass Runaway Success, a local running shoe specialty store, on the way home, so I popped in just as they were closing and treated myself.

Not a bad beginning to the weekend.

Here's a picture of me winning the race and another of Jack and me, the first boys in, with our medals.