In fact, he reminded me an awful lot of myself at his age ... stocky, not particularly fit, but puppy-like in his eagerness to please.
And like a puppy, he was looking almost ashamed that he couldn't do the stuff that some of the other pups could do ... but I reckon he stood out from the pack because of it.
The boy (his name's not important) had jus finished the 1.5K 'Junior Dart' as part of a Fun-Run season at Sanctuary Cove, on the northern Gold Coast last weekend.
And his time, of 9 minutes, was quite creditable. Hey, I know lots of adults who would be proud of a 6 minute Kilometre. Like me, for example.
Unfortunately, I have a suspicion that he'd actually only run 1km, rather than 1.5 ... and his time was almost double that of a young girl who won the event. Even so, I reckon he was a winner.
But by the look on his face, he didn't agree.
I wish I could explain to him that some of us are not meant for speed. That we back-of-the-packers are never gonna get the gold ... but we win as long as we have fun out there.
Which brings me to my race ...
Officially, my time was 34:34.
My watch showed 34:04 but hey, I don't s'pose it really matters since the runner before me recorded 31:39, and there were no runners left in my category to follow me.
But I'm not unhappy - this was my first 'official' run for months.
On the weekend, I did a 5K fun-run, at Sanctuary Cove.
It was a pleasant run, all flat, around the edges of a golf-course estate - mostly on a pavement, occasionally on the grass verge.
It was a warm morning by the time the race got underway just after 7:30 (there were some kid's races first: I'll get to them in a moment - but maybe half of the course had some shade - which was welcome
It was a combined route, as the 5k and 8k runs were held on (largely) the same paths - although the 8K run obviously went well past the 5K turnaround before they, too, turned back.
Which was actually a bit depressing ... as I'm approaching the drink station, at the 1.5k point, the first of the faster runners is passing us on the way back. I assume they were 5K runners - but soon thereafter, I spot a young Japanese bloke passing me on the way back. And I later find out he's the leading 8K runner! I've done about 2k, he's already done 6!
His time, by the way, was 25:30 for 8K ... and the best 5K time? 15:24
By the way ... that drink station was at an interesting place. As I say, it was about 1.5 k from the start/finish - and therefore at about 3.5k for the 5K runners ... but for the 8K runners, it was 1.5k then 6.5k: which for slow runners like me would be a long time between drinks :)
It was, however, a nice day for a run ... just me and 350 other people sharing the autumn sunshine.
I'd initially signed up to do a series of 5 runs, in Feb-Mar-April-May-June - with the intention of doing the combined runs in a time of 2-and-a-half hours.
That would mean an average of 30 minutes per run ... a target I believed (and still sort of believe) I can achieve. My average race-pace is around 35 minutes, compared to 40 minutes for a Sunday jog so 30 mins is achievable. But now I'll have to do at least one race at 25 to maintain the average. Hmmm.
February's run was a washout. I had to fly down to Sydney each weekend during the month, for work, and while I'd done a few runs, they were not really training runs ... more just "ah, well, I suppose I'd best get back into it" .
So, to do an official time of 34:34 is not too shabby, I reckon ... and it means I can probably still reach my target of an average of 30 mins per race, by the middle of the year.
But to do so, I'll have to pick up the pace. And that means I'll have to look in detail at how each race is going for me.
I've got three more races in the Sanctuary Cove series ... and an extra race now, in a fortnight, at Griffith Uni in Brisbane (it's a 6K race, but I'll take a split at 5K and use that for this personal challenge)
Other observations:
On Sunday, I tried running a race, with music, for the first time.
I've noticed that despite the "no music" injunction that is mentioned at many organised runs, lots of people use headphones anyway.
So I stuck a 
track on (thanks, DJSteveboy) and stuck one earpiece in.
I thought I d keep the other ear free - for instructions, and to chat to other runners as we ran.
It seemed to work ... but next time, I might try a faster track.
This week, I picked a 145bpm track - "I Put My BigBoy Pants On" - (well, actually, it picked itself ... it happened to be the first track that I loaded ) so next time, I might try a nudge mix - perhaps a 150 or 152bpm track, just to make me pick up the pace.
I mentioned chatting to other runners.
I suspect that if I stopped doing that, and started pushing harder, I'd do a better time - but I'm not sure I'm ready to give up the social interaction that you get with a Fun-Run.
And I'm not sure that I ever WANT to get to that point, either!
I mean, for years, I argued that the words FUN and RUN had no connection .. that running was hard work, and stupid, and mindless, and all those things that vehement non-runners say.
But since I've discovered the joys of running (even at my plodding pace), I've come to recognise that the interaction with other runners is a large part of what I like about this!
As mentioned, there were some Kids' races earlier in the morning - and they were interesting.
The 0-6 year kids were great fun - they were enthusiastic, but not taking it too seriously.
The same was true for the 7-8 year olds ... although some of them were obviously more committed - team uniforms, and stretching, etc etc.
The 9 and 10 year olds were scary ... As I mentioned, one young lady won the 1.5k run in a time of 5:20 - which is a cracking pace ... and she was only 8 seconds ahead of another girl who set a blistering last 50 metres.
That was the race that included the young bloke I spoke about before.
And he looked so disconsolate that I had to go over and tell him I reckon he'd done a great job.
I m not sure if he believed me - but I reckon his achievement was worth more than the medal-winning performances of the natural athletes who were at the front ... because his run came not from the legs, but from the heart.
And I just wish I could have made that plain to him ... that he'd beaten the only runner that counted: himself.