Freihofers's all-womens 5k run

          Kate Kloss, Elsmere principal, left and Kathy VanValen, who drove me to the school.

It has been my great good fortune to be invited to participate in the Freihofer’s Women’s 5k Race in Albany, New York for each of the last five years.  The experience gets better every time I go.

A long trip to run 3.1 miles you say? Well, maybe, but I can’t think of a better reason to travel that far. I never say “no” to this invitation because I love everything about this race from the enormous community support it receives, the top-flight runners it attracts, the school visit program which sends elite runners into area schools to talk to kids about running, to the acknowledgement it bestows on women’s running.

Running is a one-person sport but it provides a healthy social outlet and bonding experiences for lots of runners of all ages and abilities. More than 200 teams participate in Freihofer’s: club teams, corporate teams, high school teams and family teams. This year there were sister-sister, mother-daughter, grandmother-mother-daughter and even two great grandmother-grandmother-mother-daughter teams.

The race has been around for 38 years, always sponsored by Freihofer’s, a generous, giant bakery operation that cares about every detail and makes it possible to award significant prize money to the open winners. For many years the race has been the national 5k championship for women.

Kate Kloss, the principal at Elsmere Elementary School, greeted me like an old friend. I’d been there before and shared my kid books with them—and they actually wanted me back! The fourth graders were on an all-day trip on the Erie Canal that day, but the rest of the 300 students gathered in the gym and we talked.  Ten or so of them lined up behind the microphone, most of them with a bit of paper in their hand, to ask me questions. Articulate and insightful, these kids between the ages of 6 and 11 wanted to know how I got started running, what I like eat before a race, what I do when the going gets tough (Have I ever felt like quitting?), and the last little boy wanted to know the one thing I would wish for. That answer had nothing to do with running.

Then the background music came up and these kids began to sing. Every one of them. They not only sang, but they acted out the words to accompany their song titled “Proud.”  I didn’t see a single kid who wasn’t singing or who did not know every action. By the time they were finished, there was a tear in my eye and a song in my heart that said, “You know, this generation’s gonna be okay.”

Race day dawned warm and sunny, but not hot enough to be an issue. The course runs through Washington Park in Albany and ends close to Albany City Hall and the New York State Capitol. Every runner goes home with a box of Freihofer’s chocolate chip cookies.

There were two of us who came from Colorado this year. It was pretty thrilling to see Brianne Nelson of Golden take first place with a time of 15:46. In her mid-thirties, this mother-of-two took first overall in the 2016 Horsetooth Half Marathon in iffy weather last month.  Yes. She beat all the men. And last Saturday she beat all the women.

As always, the race was a great experience, but I can’t stop thinking about those kids at Elsmere—I won’t soon forget the time I spent with them.