This morning I woke up bright (ok, it was still dark) and early to run the Turkey Trot 5K with Austin and my nephew Landon. We left the house about 7:15 and drove over to Fleet Feet. We also saw our neighbors, the Jones, there. Their youngest is a year younger than Austin, but about the same size. It cracked me up when Austin looked at him and said, "He's a little small to be running this race."
The gun sounded and the boys took off, just like I knew they would. They kept a good pace for the first half of the race, then started to burn out. I tried to explain the whole turtle and hare thing to them, you know, "Slow and steady wins the race," but Austin didn't seem to catch on and we had to walk a few times and let him catch his breath. Then when he was ready, he would speed up again, sprinting away from Landon and I. This is their 3rd 5K race together but Austin swears it's their 4th. He just can't seem to remember what the other race is, so we're still debating.
Landon did really well during the race, I think he could have run the whole thing without stopping. Randy said to him, just before we started the race, "Now you've run more 5K's than me." Landon seemed pretty proud. During the race when we stopped to walk a few times, Landon would say, "Ok, we'll start running once we get to the blue truck." He was pretty determined to do well and keep running.
The sky was dark and the weather was chilly and wet, but the conditions were quite nice to run in- about 42 degrees. The boys didn't complain at all and Austin actually took off his fleece jacket 1/2 way through the race. Landon was really sweet and offered to carry it for him. A little later I took a turn.
We finished the race in 31 minutes. I could see people smiling and cheering for them as we passed. We left after some smoothies and hot chocolate. Once we were home, my neighbor Leslie called to tell me that we all won prizes- Landon a pumpkin pie (2nd place in his age group) and Austin a $12 gift certificate towards a Butterball turkey. (1st place in his age group) Good job boys, I am so proud of you!! Apparently I won a sandwich from Quiznos or something too, but since I wasn't there to claim it, I don't get it. I think I'll live.
Me and the boys- I love running with them. I hope we have lots more races together in the future!
4 comments:
What a good mom & aunt you are! It's so great that you run with them and have 4 (maybe 5) races under your belt.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
Thanks for inviting Landon to do that with you guys, that stuff just isn't on my radar.
Can you imagine choosing to run in jeans like he did?
That sounds like an awesome run. I love running with little kids, especially when they pass someone and you hear, "I can't believe I'm getting beat by a little kid!"
I just laugh because I have totally been there. I remember my first 5k and was mortified that some little 12-year old was kicking my can. :)
Happy Thanksgiving!
I was just thinking, what? Landon ran the race in jeans?? too funny.
What a fun aunt/mom you are, Robyn! I love Austin's comment about the other guy being a little small for the race.
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