My Little Runners

I heard about this 9/11 Heroes Memorial Run a few weeks ago, and when I saw that they had a "Family Fun Run" one mile option, I thought it would be a perfect family activity for us.  Ryan and Isaac were doing a service project with the church all morning, so I signed up myself and the other three kids.  I knew they would have no problem with it, since we had just done the school run a few weeks ago that was also a mile long.

We got to the event and signed in.  It was so exciting for the kids to be real, registered racers.  They each got their own shirt, swag bag, bib and timing chip!

We headed over to the starting line and got ready to run.  After a memorial ceremony the race started and we were off!  We did a great job of pacing ourselves and enjoyed the run.  The girls did start asking how much further at one point and I said, "Oh, it can't be much longer, I'm sure they will tell us that the 'Family Fun Runners' need to turn around and go back soon."  I kept waiting for the turn around sign.  And waiting.  And waiting.  We just kept on running.  Eventually I realized that there was no "Family Fun Run."  We were running the 5K.  

That's Linky up there in the blue.

I decided that telling the girls would not be the best idea, so I just kept encouraging them and we ran on.  All three kids did great, but let me tell you, Lincoln was awesome!  He ran the entire time. I finally asked him to start walking through the water breaks because I could tell he was tired, but he was so determined to run the whole thing.  He wanted to win a medal more than anything!

We weren't exceptionally fast--after all, Lincoln is only four and his legs are on the short side.  Our time was 51 minutes (we averaged almost 17 minute miles.)  But still!!  I was soooo proud of my kids!

The girls decided they wanted to finish the race together.

When we crossed the finish line, I finally let the kids in on the secret--they ran a lot more than a mile!  We waited and watched all the top finishers get their medals.  Lincoln's face just kept falling and falling when they didn't call out his name.  He finally looked at me and said, "I'm really disappointed that I didn't get a medal."

Then the guy in charge, bless his heart, invited all the young runners to come get medals.  Lincoln was thrilled!!  He was the youngest runner by 4 years--next came the girls and only one other 8 year old (so they all got medals, too.)  I don't think Linky has any clue that he really just got the medal by default--he thinks he won for his age group.  Which I guess he technically did.

Oh, what a fun experience!  We will totally be doing it again next year!  I bet with some training we can beat our time, too!  :)