Run a 5K with the kiddos, Check!

Last weekend a stake in our area held a 5K. It was to get food for the local food bank. Food bank, for at least three days I couldn't remember what that was called so I kept saying that we were running to get food for the food shelter. I knew that wasn't right, food bank came to me late one night. I tell you I do my best thinking at night! Anyway, so the cost was a can of food and then you could run. I was feeling so excited about it until I looked at the calendar and realized that of course it was happening the weekend B was on call. I thought about sending our food with someone else and just staying home. Not to mention, check in started at 8:15 in the morning on a Saturday and the park was 45 minutes away from our house. We all know how I love my sleep so to have to get up early on a Saturday morning is not something I'm a huge fan of. On a post call day the week before the race, B and I were running one morning. (He doesn't work the day after he's been on call.) I was talking about the 5K and that I was so bummed that he wouldn't be able to do it. He agreed and then said that he was sure that he would have cases all morning that Saturday because that's usually how it goes. He said that I should do it. We both agreed that M and K would like it so we should try it. We talked to the kiddos about it. We told them what it was and that we could run for a little bit and then walk and then run and then walk. They said they wanted to do it, so we planned on it. I was actually feeling pretty excited about it except for the fact that B couldn't be with us because even if he didn't have surgeries that morning, the park is too far away from the hospital, so he still couldn't come. Not only could he not come, but let's not forget that it's in the wee hours on a Saturday morning. When the alarm went off on race day I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to bag the whole idea and go back to sleep. Of course B didn't have surgeries and he was home. I looked at him still sleeping and almost climbed back in bed, but,  I was awake anyway so I decided to put on my big girl panties, workout clothes and went to wake the children. We ate breakfast at record pace, they gobbled up their food and we made it to the park by 9:15! I know you're probably thinking that check in was at 8:15 and it was, but it went until 9:30 so we still made it on time right?! Anyway, we checked in, handed over our canned food and went to wait for the race to start.

 This was taken at the starting line. There were a lot of people shoved onto a little path that goes around the perimeter of the park. The course was out and back. I thought that was nice. That way we knew when we were half way done! Our goal was to finish it in an hour.

They really liked it at first and then they said that they were tired and wanted to stop. I shouldn't say they. It was M that said she wanted to stop. I don't know if it was the runner in me or the fact that we were barely running, meaning, we were jogging a very slow jog, whatever the reason I told her that she could do it. I told her I didn't think that we needed to stop yet. I had heard someone say that there was a water station at the half mile mark. I told her to keep going and we would stop at the water station. We held hands and just kept going. K did awesome! He was ahead of us the whole time. Not far of course. He was close enough that if he had stopped we would have run over him with the stroller. He just kept running and looking around. He wanted to know what the frisbee golf cage things were and why there were so many soccer fields and why people were playing soccer and why the path was dirt instead of a paved trail. etc. etc. etc.

Water! I didn't know where the half mile mark was but as we were running I thought that there was no way we would finish in an hour if it was taking us so long to get to the water station that was at half a mile. Then in the distance I saw the table, coolers of water and the missionaries telling people to get a drink. I pointed it out to M and told her that we were almost to the water. She lengthened her stride and we made it to the tables of water at record pace! They got a drink and then we started running again. We had to cross the street, so I told them we would cross the street and then walk for a minute. Well, happy news! We had just crossed the street when a lady in our ward passed us on her way back and told us that we were almost half way done! The water station hadn't been at half a mile, it had been at a mile! Someone else told us that the turn around point was at the bottom of the hill and around the corner. M really wanted to walk. I told her that running downhill was the fun part. I told her that you go a lot faster downhill. I said we should run until the half way point and then we could walk. When we got to the turn around point I said that we should only walk for a minute or so. I told them the longer we walk, the longer it will take to get back to the finish line. M was whining that she wanted to be done. I told her we just have to go back and then we were done. We agreed that we would walk to the bottom of the hill and start running again. We made a pact that we would run until the water station again. It was up the hill and across the street. We would stop and get another drink and then we could walk. M was so excited to walk that she blazed up the hill!

Sitting in the stroller being pushed while there's a breeze must be hard work! (I know his hair is long! Don't judge him. I cut it the next day before church. :))

We had just left the water station and had agreed to walk. I didn't have a watch so I didn't know how long we had been running, but it was getting pretty hot outside and we all were feeling like we wanted to be done. Most of the path was in the trees and so there was a lot of shade, but it was up ahead. We talked about how long we wanted to walk. We all decided that walking was slower than our slow jog, we didn't want to walk for too long because it would take too long and when I mentioned that there were snacks after we finished they were magically full of energy and ready to pound out the last little bit of the race. We said that the shade up ahead was where we were going to start running again and we were going to run the rest of the time.

I promise there was a ton of shade, it just doesn't look like it! When we got to the shade M asked if it was harder to run and push the stroller. I said yes, but she wanted to try it any way. She pushed it long enough for me to get a quick picture and then she said it was heavy and hard and she didn't want to do it anymore. We were almost done and M was tired and wanted to stop. I knew that she could do it so we tried to distract her. We played a few rounds of I spy. But truth be told, on a path along the perimeter of a park there aren't a whole lot of things to spy. We spied fellow runners shirts, the tops of the frisbee golf cage things, grass and the bark on and off the trees. Pretty soon there wasn't anything else to spy. We started to play the animal game where one of us thinks of an animal and the others have to ask us questions about our animal and try to figure out what we are. We had made it through three animals when we heard and saw two boys cheering for us. They were telling us that the finish line was just around the corner! I told M and K that we were almost done! I told them that at the end of a race you run as hard as you can, so they both started pumping their little arms and legs and ran as fast as they could across the finish line! There were about 8 race officials at the finish line cheering us on. K crossed the line first then me and little B with M right on our heels.

After we got a drink and enough snacks to feed a small army, we went back to the finish line and got this picture. We had finished 73rd, 74th and 75th. There had been 148 runners. It had taken us 43 minutes to do it.I was bursting with pride for M and K and that even though it was so hard for them, especially for M, they had kept going! I didn't know that there was going to be an awards ceremony. We had planned on eating some of our snacks and then leaving, but the spirit told me to wait. I'm so glad we did because K got third place for his age group! He was embarrassed and didn't want to go get his certificate. As we walked up to get it, he wouldn't look at anyone. They told him that he could get a candy bar. He didn't even take time to look at what they had, he just grabbed one. When I asked him if he was sure he wanted that one, he wouldn't even answer, he just wanted to sit down. I do wish that they had given everyone a certificate of completion or something like that, but they didn't so M walked away with nothing but her three pounds of snacks and one really proud mama! I gushed about them to B when we got home and just kept telling them that they did awesome. They rocked the 5K and I hope that they'll do it with me again some day