The Driscoll’s Strawberry Classic is the big event for the Tampa Bay Runners running club and the race was spectacular. There were over 400 participants with distances ranging from the 1-mile fun run, 5k, 10k and the 15k challenge where runners would run the 10k first and then run the 5k next. This race was the first race I participated in since 2019. It was safe to say that the excitement was similar to when I ran my first ever race.
My wife and my dad’s wife walked the 1-mile fun run with my 7-month-old daughter, and I ran the 5k with my dad. All five of us arrived in the parking lot at the same time, which worked out great because I had picked up everyone’s packet to give to them.
After walking around for a few minutes to get an understanding of the race, the fun atmosphere made it easy to relax and get rid of the last-minute jitters before the race. The 10k racers were just finishing and the 5k was about to start. My dad and I were stretching and joking around before the start of the race. I couldn’t get over how excited I was to finally do something normal again and for that to be standing at the starting line of a race. We lined up in the corral and the horn blew to start. We were off!
Almost immediately, we were reminded why this course was described as rolling hills since almost the first half mile seemed to be at an incline. After the first turn in the course, we started to decline, and the sun was shining on our faces. The weather couldn’t have been better. I was running along side my dad and made sure he wasn’t going too fast so he wouldn’t be burnt out at the finish line. We reached the 5k water stop at the corner of one of the turns. As my dad grabbed water, I continued to make the turn and decided it would be a great idea to look backwards. Sure enough, I lost my footing and almost fell right on my face. Thankfully I caught myself in time that I didn’t walk back with a handful of teeth.
The race continued and we were able to laugh about me almost falling the rest of our run. The course brought you through a beautiful neighborhood with overhanging trees with moss draping from them. About halfway through, we notice the photographer taking photos. We raised our hands up with a big goofy smile and posed for the camera. Before we knew it, we were about a quarter mile from the finish line, and you could start hearing the music and everyone cheering. I was happy to run next to my dad since he isn’t as experienced in running races as I am, and I was proud of him for finishing this challenging course.
We made the last turn to have the finish line right in front of us and were excited about all the strawberries we were going to get afterwards. The first thing we did was take a selfie together with our well-deserved medals. Wish me luck for trying to convince my dad to do the 10k in next year’s race!