Just for you Dad - and all of the other dads I know - I ran 5 miles Father's Day morning to support Prostrate Cancer research (that right, I ran for the junk behind the junk).
And I was not alone. There were 8,000 entrants with just over 5,200 runners completing the 5 mile course through Central Park. Many of the runners were father's running with their sons and daughters. I was really cute to see the father/kid pairs crossing the finish line together. I was in the same area as a father/son pair. The son was around 10 years old and his dad was really tall - he had really long legs and a huge stride. His son was enjoying the race about as much as I was, not at all! He was probably about as tall as I was too, so his stride was at least half the distance of his dad. His dad would encourage him "just run down this hill and then we'll walk a bit". The dad looked like a seasoned runner that could finish the race in 45 minutes or less but he stuck by his son, always encouraging him, and they crossed the finish line together just ahead of me.
It was super humid and harder than the half-marathon. I finished in about 1 hour 11 minutes (I just checked my official results - yesterday I thought I finished in 1:07, bummer I was slower than I realized) a 14:20 pace/mile. Over a full minute per mile slower than my half-marathon pace. I did learn I don't want to train or run in hot and humid weather;I'll stick to training in 40 degree weather or the air conditioned gym!
