The Del Oro Cardio/Health 5K came and went and I think it was a huge success. Students legitimately seemed to be enjoying running. The crazy fan groups did an amazing job supporting the runners. Several students posted some very fast times. The whole 2 day (8 heat) event was marked by an atmosphere of fun and celebration. I’ll show a slideshow in class today or tomorrow and have a presentation for the winners (fastest time, best crazy fan group, and beating your goal time by the largest margin). Students will spend a few minutes reflecting on the whole process from training to cheering to running. Speaking of reflection, here are a few of the things I’ve learned along the way:
- I’ve got some very tough students – One girl fell during her run and took two relatively large chunks of flesh out of her leg. She got up and kept running. She still finished under her goal time. When she got to the finish line with blood running down her leg, she quietly asked if she might be able to go get a bandaid.
- The competitive drive of some students was brought out with the 8 heat model – Friday runners wanted to know the best times from previous heats. Some of them were spending their time right before the run calculating the pace they would need in order to be in the top 5. This is from students who have run over 50 miles this term and haven’t seemed to care about their pace or their place at all.
- The crazy fan groups showed quite a bit of creativity – There were signs that said, “Run Like You Stole Something,” “Sweat is Fat Crying,” “Running Won’t Kill You… You’ll Pass Out First,” “Keep Going,” “Don’t Fall,” and “You’ve Been Running Longer Than… Kim Kardashian Was Married.” There were super soakers, baked goods, party hats, air horns, confetti, silly string, chalk art, scooters, 80s costumes, and a chicken suit. It was delightful to see the time and energy that groups put into helping their classmates have a good time on the course.
The fast times – These times might not seem fast as far as a high school cross country team is concerned but remember, this is freshman P.E. and these students haven’t run this far in their training all year. We had several gentlemen coming in under 20 minutes and our first lady at 21:40. They put in a ton of effort and it showed.
Mr. Zerwas Teaches Here 