that it is a wonderful thing to share one of the things you love most with the people you love most.
Today, my family participated in the Girls on the Run 5K. As you likely know, I have been working hard to establish a GOTR program in my hometown. It is going great and the boys have been excited to help out. So we were thrilled to enter this race. It is a great race for kids too because most of the participants are kids!
Finding his competitive edge, James was also excited that they were mostly girls, which increased his chance of being a top boy. :)
The weather was perfect and we were all ready to go. I ran with James and John ran with Jakey. Jake is only 6 and a half, so we figured he'd do a lot of run / walking, but we knew he'd make it and have fun. James just wanted to be sure he beat his brother! :)
We took off and James was raring to go. It was crowded and he wanted to get ahead. I kept telling him to take it easy, but we were under a 9 minute mile. Fortunately (?) there were some decent hills early on that forced him to back off some. I was afraid he'd push too hard and blow up, but fortunately that never happened. He talked about stopping a couple of times during the hills, but never did. There were a lot of girls with their hair colored/designed and I told James we should do that next year. He said, "no mom, we should do that in our next 5K." :D
We took in the spectators and scenes, and whooped and hollered when we hit the 2 mile mark. I realized he could come in under 30 minutes (his goal for his first 5K) as long as we didn't slow down. I told him that, and of course he sped up. He saw a couple boys who were a bit older than him and instinctively started racing up a big hill. It was actually hilarious to me. As we got within .5 to the finish, he was tired, but ready to kick. So I told him to kick some. He said no, but sped up anyway. As we could see the finish, he kicked into another gear and finished in 28:5X. Awesome. Almost 3 minutes faster than his last race. He was absolutely thrilled.
We grabbed water and a bagel and then headed back to the finish to watch for Jake and Dad. Sure enough, they came through and looked GREAT and were having fun. Jake took it up a notch (see picture) and blazed into the finish at 33:xx!!!! Holy cow!
They were thrilled and we had fun taking in all of the people. We drank some hot chocolate and swapped race stories. On the way home, Jake told me the first thing he is going to tell people if they asked him about his weekend is that he ran a 5k. He was/is so proud. And I could burst with excitement and pride for both of them!!
-----
I did not run much at all this week. Not only have I still been sick (still!!!), but I have been crazy busy at work. My firm is handling a huge chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and my group was called in to file several adversary proceedings (complaints) and objections to administrative expense claims. This week we filed over 80 complaints and over 140 objections. Well over $18 million on the line. It was weekend work, early mornings and late nights. I loved it because it was high intensity, amazingly detail oriented and working closely with my team. It was a good feeling when we got everything done yesterday. It was even better when I learned today that our efforts likely saved over 1,500 jobs in the company (800-900 locally) because it helped secure a buyer for the distressed company. Wow. What a great feeling.
-----
I am going to take all of the above and float through this weekend.
-----
Update! Official Results are In!
James: 28:54 (9:18 pace)
Jake: 33:52 (10:54 pace)
James was the 1st kid/boy under 10 years old and Jake was the 2nd boy under 10! They are so excited! It is funny though because Jake has some sore legs today! :)
5 comments:
Nice work, how old are your kids?
Thanks!! James is 8, Jake is 6.
Sounds like a great day and a great week at work! Yeah!
What a proud moment!!! Sharing running with our families is such a source of joy. Great job!
Great job, Mom and boys! Looks like loads of fun.
I'm looking forward to my kids GotR 5k on 12/5. With 2 soccer practices, a soccer game, 3 swimming practices, and 2 GotR practices a week, I'm thinking Beth will be ready. With my layoff, I'm hoping I can keep up with her!
Post a Comment