It was not a fair fight from the beginning. I’m on a taper, the legs are fresh and the tires on my Instep Stroller were inflated to maximum pounds per square inch to reduce rolling resistance. I met Brandon near the start line, pretty sure that neither of us did a warm up, he was in costume and I decided to wear running gear and my non-technical Iowa Hawkeye’s (how about that win on Saturday!) stocking cap.

Brandon was gracious to bring his double wide BOB stroller, the Cadillac’s of strollers. Before the race I somehow convinced him that it would be better to put the two girls in the double wide and that I’ll just push my one year old son in the stroller, oh and that he should also push the double wide. Brandon bought it, hook line and sinker, my strategy was already working. The race would feature RunColo pushing my one year old son weighing in at 23lbs and Brandon pushing the double wide and 80 plus pounds in little girl weight.

Before the start of the race we saw the Mayor of Washington Park, with his Steve Nash haircut, Justin. Justin gave us the lowdown on the race and then Brandon and I lined up at the back of the field for the Scream Scram 5k.

It’s a weird feeling to line up in the rear of the crowd, I don’t like it one bit. I wasn’t taking this race seriously, but my competitive drive wants to be at the front, ready to race. The gun went off and we took off, we must have been doing 13 to 15 minute pace for the first quarter of a mile, getting around walkers, people in costumes, dogs and others pushing strollers was tough, especially if you are pushing a double wide stroller, which luckily for me, I was not.

After a quarter mile runners are asked to stay on the left side of the road, Brandon and I did not heed their warnings and instead ran on the right side of the road, the open road, where no one would get in our way. The pace was now starting to pick up, right before the first mile I looked over at Brandon and realized that he still had his mask on, he was working really hard and I was laughing, shortly afterwards he took the mask off.

The negative splits continued and runners were now being passed by two guys in strollers running sub 7 minute pace. With about a mile to go my son started getting fussy, so I figured I better get to the finish line. I picked up the pace and but some pavement between me and that guy pushing the double wide. With about a half a mile to go, I was working pretty hard and probably picked it up to six minute pace. In hindsight, I found it pretty funny because I wasn’t just passing people, I was blowing by them. I figured that most of them were running 7+ minute miles for the their last mile and then here comes a guy pushing a stroller running six minute pace, probably doesn’t happen that often.

When I made the right hand turn for the final sprint to the finish, I kicked it in another notch as I could see about seven people in front of me and figured that I could pass all of them. Passed a large group of people and saw the marker for mile 3. I also heard some footsteps, pitter patter, pitter patter, someone wanted to battle it out. I love the fight to the finish, so I picked up my pace but could hear the steps, he’s making his move. It was a youngster, high school kid and I loathe getting out kicked by high school kids, but let me tell you something it’s pretty much impossible to sprint when pushing a stroller..unless you have total disregard for the child in the stroller.

He pulled up on my shoulder, the finish was 10 meters away, he cuts right in front of the stroller and I have to hit the brakes as to not clip his ankle – defeated at the line – I even had the crowd cheering for me. At the finish the kid told me that he couldn’t let a guy pushing a stroller defeat him, I told him that I would have done the same thing, well played young man.

I have no idea what my time was, didn’t bother to wear a watch. Brandon clocked a 21:59, so I was probably a tad faster than him. Oh, Brandon thanks for pushing my kid in a 5k, I owe you.

I do love the Scream Scram 5k, I think next year I will go as the Marlboro Man. What’s the over/under on me being able to break 21 minutes wearing cowboy boots, Wranglers, cowboy hat and smoking a cigarette each and every mile..while running of course?