Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!! What better way to spend it than starting out with a race! My friend, R, asked me a couple weeks ago to do this race and I said "of course!" The race is part of a small town festival. There is a 5K, 10K and 1 mile fun run. I initially planned to do the 5K. But then I thought, hey, we are training for a mile - this could be a perfect tune-up race and something that me and the boys could easily do (as opposed to 5K where my littlest son would definitely need a running buddy).

So I asked them if they wanted to do it. They hemmed and hawed for about 45 seconds because I told them they'd have to go to bed early and get up early on a holiday weekend. But they were in! :) They have been staying up late this summer and it has been a blast. But when I called it quits at 8:15 last night, they obliged and went right to sleep.

This morning I still had some sort of icky congestion. I feel like I am 10 feet under water my ears are so clogged. Gah. And it was hot (~80) at 8 am! But, that doesn't make a big difference in such a short race. The boys were fired up (read: crazy hyper) and we were ready to rock. Jake's goal was to run the whole way. James had his competitive juices flowing and wanted to WIN. I told him just to not go out too fast. But not too slow. Last year's Capitol Mile he went out super slow and finished at 8:09ish.

Soon enough, we were off!! A bunch of kids went flying out of the gate and I told the boys to slow down. They both thankfully did. We ran up a hill and 3/4 up I heard a guys say, "that was the mile turn off" to his friend. What? Really? Yikes, so I turned around and ran back to that street. You know you are in a small town race when there is no one directing race traffic!!

About 20 seconds after I turned onto the street, I heard James yelling to me. I think he was super jazzed that he was right behind me. I was on my own in the front (actually a guy finished ahead of me at 5:05, but I never saw him). I was working hard, but admittedly didn't have the fire in my belly I should have. Once I turned to the finish, I turned it on as hard as I could. There was a strong headwind, but there is a separate gusto when you feel like the leader in a race! :) Crossed the finish in 6:15. I think the course was a little short, but I figured it was a wash with my misdirection early on. As soon as the volunteer tore off the bottom portion of my bib (this is small town people, no chip timing), I turned around and saw a pack of 5 boys hauling to the finish. In it was my James moving as fast as he could. 3rd place finisher was 6:34 ish; then 6:40, then James with 6:49. Sweet.

Right away he was looking at rankings. I took off down the street to find Jake. I was waiting a while and started getting paranoid he may have missed the turn like I did and was on the 5K route. Then I saw him and he was jogging right along. I started screaming at him and he was all smiles. We turned the corner and I told him to let it rip (he is always a super fast finisher). Off he went and he finished with a big old smile!

Of course as milers, we had a LONG time to wait until awards, but James said, "WE ARE WAITING!" He was so thrilled he placed in his age group (6-12 - he is 8). So we went to the park and hung out until the race was over.

Awesome way to start out a holiday. And, of course, I am thrilled my kids like to RUN! :)