S.W.A.T. Trot - Take 3

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As I sit here filling out the registration form for the upcoming S.W.A.T. Trot 5k a lot of thoughts go through my mind.  The S.W.A.T. Trot is an evening run and it is run just outside of Brookwood High School.  This year it is on June 12th and I am once again hoping for a 5k PR.

My mind first goes back to 2007 when I ran my first 5k, the Saratoga 5k Fun Run.  There is a long story to get to that point in my journey and the best thing to do if you have some time is to go read about where I started.

I was not able to run the S.W.A.T. Trot that year because of a schedule conflict, so my first one was in 2008.  I had run the 2nd annual Saratoga 5k Fun Run and set a new PR of 23:23.  The Saratoga race is a very difficult hilly course and so I was really excited to run the S.W.A.T. Trot just over a month later and set another PR.  I had hopes of getting down near 21:00 and had a very good shot at it.

The S.W.A.T. Trot of 2008 had much different plans in store for me.  I won't go into all of the details here, but it can all be read starting at the race report and continuing by starting at the bottom here, and then starting at the bottom here.  The short of it is that I ended up with a broken collar bone by being tripped at the start of the race.

The S.W.A.T. Trot of 2009 was a tough race to run.  It wasn't my first race back after the broken collar bone, but was only about 4 months after I had started back at almost square one after taking almost 8 months off with multiple surgery's and many doctor visits.  I was really looking forward to it, but was also very nervous about running it, especially past the scene of the crime.

The 2009 race had a distraction that made most of the nervousness disappear.  My daughter Payton had just a couple months earlier decided she wanted to run Cross Country her freshman year and this was her first 5k race to teach her a little bit about pacing and not giving up.  We took a moment of silence at the crime scene as we were waiting for the race to start, and I joked with her about being my body guard as we lined up to start.  Needless to say my plans were a bit more reserved this year than they were the last, and I was much more careful going out.  The race was great, and we both placed in our age groups.  I was really proud of her for running her first 5k. Looking at where she has gone from there is just absolutely amazing in the short time that she did it.  We ran this race in 24:50 and she tried to quit multiple times, and just 5 months later ran a 20:23 in the State XC meet.

Thank you for following me down the foggy brick road of the past.  Memory lane is so much fun to run some times and one of the reasons I keep up with blogging.  So many thoughts are lost if not written down.  I found myself reading over some of the posts I linked above and enjoying the reminiscing in my head.

I am still not running at the speed I was running two years ago when I set out to try and hit 21:00 in this race, but I am getting closer every day.  I will still go out and give it my best.  Payton will be running it with me and possibly my older daughter Ashlee as well (depending how her thigh feels by that time).  Wish us luck as we head back out to attack this race one more time.

What is the next race you have on your racing calendar?  How often do you take a run down memory lane?  Try it.... it is worth the trip(but don't fall)!

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow blog - twitter - fanpage - call