Chasing a Zoomer

On March 14, our family went to a Pi Day (3.14, get it?) gathering with some friends from church. We ate a variety of pies (shepherd’s pie, pizza pie, strawberry pie) and tried to remember how to interact with other humans in a face-to-face setting.

I’m a card-carrying introvert and do my best to steer conversation topics away from myself, but my recent effort to improve my 5K time came up. This prompted someone in the group to ask [name redacted], a twenty-year-old college sophomore and once high school cross country runner, how fast he could run a 5k. This led, in short order, to [name redacted] challenging me to a 5k race through the neighborhood. That escalated quickly.

[Name redacted] is a member of Generation Z - he’s a Zoomer. (I initially titled this post “Chasing a Millennial,” but then realized that [name redacted] isn’t old enough to be a millennial.) As it relates to running, [name redacted] has several qualities that I lack - experience, ability, and metabolism, to name a few. But the perq of racing someone nearly half my age is that I have exactly nothing to lose. Expectations are extremely low, just as I like them. Race accepted.

Three days later, we met in my driveway. [Name redacted] went shirtless to remind me of his metabolism. I wore my shirt, both to love my neighbors and to keep [name redacted’s] confidence from further surging.

I then proceeded to chase [name redacted] for 3.1 miles. Occasionally I lost sight of him when he’d make a turn, but I generally kept him in sight, albeit unreachable sight.

[Name redacted] crossed the finish line in 19:41. I crossed in 20:29, significantly faster than I’ve ever run a 5k before. 1st in my age group. Second overall.

March 17, 2021 5k Time - 20:29