He just keeps getting better!

Scotty was wrong!  Our eldest son is super-smart.  He teaches upper-level mathematics and is a track and cross-country coach at Willard High School north of Springfield, Missouri.  Scotty researches scrupulously and categorizes and arranges his information before coming to a conclusion.

And yet, there’s no doubt about it, Scotty was wrong.

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Annie and I went to Springfield to visit Scotty and his kids, Pfieffer and Payden, as well as to celebrate Pfieffer’s birthday.  Second son, J.B. was coming in too, so it was going to be a great visit.

Oh, and one more thing.  It was the weekend of the Bass Pro Shops Conservation Weekend.  For fifteen years, the company has been celebrating the annual event, in an effort to promote health and wellbeing.  “There is a huge positive mental health aspect to walking or running a 5k or relay or marathon,” Bass Pro Fitness Series Director Melissa Bondy said in a recent interview. “This isn’t really about just the positive physical outcomes. It’s about the positive mental and emotional outcomes that come along with being active and sharing such positive, uplifting experiences.” 

Every year in early November, The Bass Pro Shops celebrates the Conservation Weekend with many events.  The ones that interest us most are the marathon (26.2 mile), half-marathon (13.1 mile), and 5K (3.2 mile) races.  In the past, some of our family members have run in the different races, and at least one of our family has run every year they’ve held the Conservation Weekend.  Most notably, five of our sons teamed up to compete in the team marathon six times, winning it five times and coming in second that sixth time.  In the process, they broke the record multiple times and set the still-unbroken record for the team event.

Yes, we’re proud.

This year, David Scott “Scotty” Matthews was going to run in the Cohick half-marathon.  He would use the event to help him judge his fitness to run a full-marathon in December which, in turn, he hopes will qualify him to compete in the prestigious Boston Marathon next year. 

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Of course, as I said earlier, my son’s planning was perfect; his training was meticulous; and his goal was straightforward.

Annie, J.B., and I were going to stand across from the starting line to see the beginning of the race.

J.B. asked his older brother, “Are you starting in front or are you going to start farther back and work your way up?”

A lot of people with less well-made plans and a weaker knowledge of their own ability either start where they can fit in or jump in front so that faster runners have to make their way around slower ones.

“I’ll get as close to the front as I can,” Scott answered.  Hmmm, it looked like my son had some lofty goals…grander than even I had thought.

Not long after we three fans took our positions, the announcer started his final countdown.  His voice boomed over the loudspeakers, “Five!  Four!  Three!  Two!  One!  They’re off!”

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Scotty had worn a bright yellow shirt with a picture of a sloth on it.  The animal’s eyes glowed bluish and seemed to shoot out laser beams.  It was a, “Sloth With Laser Eyes.”  He should be easy to spot.

The leaders approached the turn in front of us, and J.B. shouted, “There he is!”

Wow.  Scotty was directly behind the leader…the eventual overall winner.

Yes, he had lofty goals.

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As I said earlier, there has been at least one Matthews kid participating in at least one of the events for the entire fifteen years Bass Pro has been hosting the event.  Five of our six sons have competed in at least one event.

Most notably, eldest sons, Scott and J.B. came up with the idea of the brothers competing in the Family and Friends Team Marathon.  They competed with various mixes of brothers and friends who subbed in when enough brothers just were not available.  They won the first year, and the second year, and…they kept breaking the record for the event, and breaking it again.  There was only one year when they were actually able to compete as a team of five brothers, and that was the year they put in their fastest performance, setting a record that remains unbroken at last check.

Scotty has competed in more of the events than any other of his siblings.

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Team Scotty hopped in the car after the start and drove ahead, getting out at another point to wait for him to pass.  He was moving at a faster pace than we had expected.  Even though he looked good, some were concerned that he might be pushing too hard.  It was, after all, a 13.1 mile race.

At the 10K (6.2 mile) mark, Scotty was running a blazing pace, passing the mark in only 38:49.

After making sure he was running well and feeling good, we jumped back in the car and looped around the roads, avoiding, as much as possible, the ones where the races were being run.

We waited at the 15K (9.3 mile) mark, worried that Scotty might have misjudged his pacing and faded or, worse, died out and stopped running. 

That’s not like our eldest son.  As a math teacher/wizard, dedicated researcher, lifelong runner, high school track star, and coach of track and cross country at Willard High School, he should know better than anybody what to do and when.  As witness the fact that just the week before his cross country team had won second place in the state tournament for the first time ever in the school’s history.

We needn’t have worried at all.  Scotty didn’t let himself or us down.  As he trotted past, his time was only 57:44.  He had actually picked up time since the 10K,

Back in the car, we made our way back to the Bass Pro Shops world headquarters, to be at the finish line when Scotty got there.

I stood by the rail and watched people pass who were running shorter races.  Some of them were barely walking.  Many times faster runners had to slow, stop, or dodge around people blocking the course.  I hate when they do that but knew it was almost inevitable at times…but where was Scotty?  I watched.  He should be coming in at any time.  In fact, he should be passing right…about…  My son looked like he was almost fresh and had picked up even more speed since I’d seen him last.  He flew past me and crossed the finish line.

Scotty was first in the 35 to 39-year-old class, with an overall time of 1:21:28.  In addition, he had taken about 10 minutes off his personal record for the half-marathon!  Yes, he had run the distance ten minutes faster than he had ever run it before!  He had averaged running each mile of a 13.1 mile race in only 6 minutes and 13 seconds!

But wait.  At the beginning of this post I said Scotty was wrong.  What was he wrong about?

When he first crossed the finish line and hadn’t had time to catch his breath or cool off, he told me he had finished first in his age category and eighth overall.  THAT’S what he was wrong about.  According to the official records of the event, David Matthews finished SIXTH overall, not eighth.

Yep, no doubt about it, Scotty was wrong.

Congratulations, son!  Keep on runnin’!

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