An 8-Year-Old Takes Charge at the Annual Dipsea Race

Reilly Johnson, and 8-year old girl who's talent lies in trail running, beat the defending champion of the Dipsea Race by seven seconds last Saturday at the 100th running of the famous annual race.  Blip TV's video was made as an interview of the little girl, following after Dipsea.org's on her win. The video adds an artistic technique in portraying the young girl throughout the race, as well as providing details of her motivation during the 7.4 miles she championed.

 As a runner, I find it amazing that a girl of that age can run a time of just over an hour on a trail of that mileage.  She was given a 25 minute head-start, yet didn't allow any of the other runners to gain more than that on her for the whole race.  The second place finisher, Melody-Ann Schultz, 68, grandmother of four, and three-time champion of the Dipsea race for the last three consecutive years applauded and hugged Johnson at the end of the race. 

"She shot out like a little bullet," said Schultz in the interview.  "And it's quite a treacherous course.  You have to be aware of your footing all the time."

Schultz and Johnson were close competitors throughout the entire race.  Reilly tripped and feel at one point, allowing for the 68-year-old verteran in the race to pick her up and keep the young girl motivated toward the finish line.  After the fall the two ran neck and neck until Johnson pulled ahead.

"She was like a gazelle... if I did catch her in the last minute, I would have grabbed her hand and we would have gone over the line together," said Schultz.

Reilly's father, who finished the race 63 place behind his daughter, said that when she began training for Dipsea that her goal was to get a black shirt.  Black shirts are awarded to the top 35 racers in the pack, which seemed like a reasonable goal for Reilly when she started timing herself.  However, no one imagined that her outcome would be this successful due to her age.  No one ever thought an 8-year-old could run that fast.

"Once I hit the street people looked at me like I was crazy because I was in the lead," said Johnson.  "My brain was going like crazy... I can win, I can win!"

And that's just what she did.  Johnson made history not only for the year, but also for the youngest to ever win the race.