"On Cosby" Moonshine 5k

Cosby, Tennessee

	Time/ Pace	Div.	Div. Pl.	Gen. Pl.	Ov. Pl.	Bib #
Michael	21:23 6:53	Male 10-14	1/?	3/?	3/?	211
Owen	21:43 6:59	Male 35-39	1/?	4/?	4/?	209
Alicia	27:51 8:58	Female 1-9	1/?	?/?	?/?	212
Katie	29:00 9:20	Female 1-9	2/?	?/?	?/?	214
Malissa	33:49 10:53	Female 30-34	?/?	?/?	?/?	210

Written by Owen:

This was my birthday weekend. What a fantastic weekend it was! We were lucky enough to have our friends, the Alves, join us on this weekend trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Friday we made the trip to Gatlinburg. We had dinner and then hit the hotel ready for our race in the morning. This is the 5k that Malissa and I ran last year. It's a small race, and the winning time last year was within reason for Michael and me. Last year I paced Malissa, and Michael wasn't there. So back then, I told myself we'd come back next year and see if Michael could win a race.

It's an out and back course, so it was easy to see how much of a lead people had. At the start, I could tell that Michael and I didn't have a chance to win because there were two really fast runners. After a half mile, Michael and I were in 5th and 6th place. I knew that the top three overall got pretty cool trophies, so I told Michael to concentrate on 3rd.

Michael passed those two guys that were in 3rd and 4th. So now Michael was in third, and I was in 6th. I could see that both of them were hanging with Michael pretty close. I thought they were probably thinking about that 3rd place trophy also. I thought, maybe, that if I passed them that may make them think that 3rd place was out of reach and they wouldn't push Michael so hard. So I pushed it and passed them.

By this time Michael was 20 seconds or so ahead of me in third place. I tried to keep up with him, but could not. But I think my plan worked, as those two guys finished behind me in 5th and 6th place.

They gave the overall winner that trophy, then 1st, 2nd, and third male awards to the actual 2nd, 3rd, and 4th overall places. So I got a cool trophy too!

We talked with the overall winner, pictured above. He said his roommate had won this race in the past and he liked the trophy so much, he traveled from out of town to try and win one for himself. So kind of the same thing that I was trying to do for Michael. Turns out he coaches cross country for a high school, and the second place winner was one of his students.

Alicia and Katie had a friendly rivalry leading up to the race. It was probably fueled by both dads more than by their own competitiveness. They had trained together for a previous 5k, but were held back and ran together. This time, we told them to race their own race and have fun. When I saw them after I had passed the turn-around point, they were still together. At the finish line, Alicia crossed about a minute before Katie. They took 1st and 2nd in their division. If they both trained more, it would probably be a pretty good competition.

After the race, we took in all that Gatlinburg has to offer, which is a lot. Mike and Lynn treated me to an amazing birthday weekend. The highlight for me was the aquarium, which is AMAZING.