It was 8:15 am Saturday and we were bundled up for the weather. Long underwear, socks, coat, hat, scarf, mittens, race number, jingle bells, and antlers. We parked our car, piled out and walked to the starting line. We had been training for this race. Last weekend we ran almost/maybe 4 miles. We had our race t-shirts in the car. We had our bottle of Gatorade with us, Isaac's blood sugar meter, our bag of jelly beans and it was time.
Why would anyone want to run at 8:30 am at 35 degrees while it was blowing and gusting? The kids were desperately trying to figure this out. So was John and I. We thought of our nice warm beds and cups of coffee that were waiting for us at home. But no. We had trained for this, we were going to do this. The beginning of the race was great. There were so many people and dogs. It was fun to see everyone dressed up.
We were doing good until about 1 1/2 miles into it. The kids decided that this wasn't fun and we still had 2 1/2 miles to go. We stopped at every mile to check Isaac's blood sugar, give him some Gatorade and jelly beans. The red ones are happy beans, the blue ones are speed beans, the orange ones are attitude beans and so on. That spurred us on for a little more. By the time we hit mile 3 Job and Lona were done. Job said his toe hurt and Lona was getting chapped cheeks from the wind. But press on we did.
I had them pose as we passed mile markers. After three miles I think that we were bringing up the end of the runners. The choice was 2 mile walk or 4 mile run and we had choosen the run. They kept running. Isaac and John took off and ran the last mile about 2 minutes faster than Job, Lona or me. I have to say that I appreciate the volunteers that stood out and pointed the way for us. It was cold work for them. I was along just to carry the discarded clothing as the kids became hot.
We neared the finish line, I was carrying Santa hats, antlers, scarfs and mittens. Lona didn't think that she could go any farther but I saw the finish line and the timer and drug her and Job across the finish line. I had asked them what they wanted to do as soon as we finished just to give them a goal. Lona was up to going to Starbucks for $1 hot cocoa but Job just wanted to go home and play Lego. Isaac and John crossed at 56:08 and Job, Lona and I were 58:20. What will it be like next year? Not bad for three little kids: 10, 8, and 6. I am so very proud of them. Now for that hot cocoa and Legos. I am all about staying home and warm now.
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