Race Day

Okay! The Big 5K!

Excitement ran high on Friday in anticipation of the big race. I had our registration confirmation printed out; a plan for snacks to pack that night; a good idea of what the weather was going to be (cloudy, 45 degrees, and a slight chance of rain--lovely); and a scheduled wake-up time of 4 a.m. so we could be there to register by 7:45 a.m.

And then A. got sick.

He insisted he could still go, but there was no way I was going to be waking him up 4 a.m. to drive two and a half hours and wrangle children in a crowd. Also no way I could take all four children with me to run three miles. Also no way I was going to leave the two youngest with their sick father.

So we didn't go. It was disappointing.

Well, Cubby and I were disappointed. I'm not sure anyone else really cared very much.

In any case, A. slept 14 hours on Friday night, rested all day Saturday, and was mostly recovered by Sunday.

And so, on Sunday, we had our very own 5K race.

I made a sign.

"1st Annual" might be ambitious, as it seems unlikely there will be more, but you never know. Anyway, it sounds more official.

I printed out numbers for the participants. I promised that everyone who completed the race would get hot cocoa with marshmallows and a bacon and egg sandwich.

After church, everyone got their numbers pinned on, lined up at the starting line--our gate--and I got one picture before I started the stopwatch feature on my cell phone.

Game faces: ON.

There are no pictures after that because I didn't want to interrupt the all-important race clock to switch to camera mode.

A. did a half-mile loop with Jack and Poppy in the pack, so they could complete their promised 1K race. I ran one of the mile loops with Cubby and Charlie--or rather, behind Cubby and Charlie--before we came up on A. with the other two. Jack had decided he wanted to do the longer loop. I had to send A. back to the house to check the time for Cubby and Charlie when they finished. I told him I would look out for Jack.

Jack ran about another quarter mile with me and Cubby--Charlie was way ahead of us--before falling, scraping his hand, and wailing he wanted to go home and get an ice cube. Cubby went on ahead and I hauled a crying Jack the remaining half-mile home to get him his ice cube.

So I officially scratched on the race.

That's okay, though, because that meant I was on hand to put up the finish-line ribbon. Which was a roll of paper towels stretched out across the road for Cubby and Charlie to run through at their big finish. The wind kept trying the rip the paper towels before they got to them, but Jack and I managed to have at least a short length intact for the exciting moment.

And that was it. Everyone came in and had their cocoa and sandwiches. It was, admittedly, definitely lacking in the excitement of a real race with the cheering crowds and official clock and everything, but on the other hand, we didn't have to drive five hours or get up insanely early.

We have a tentative plan to try to do a 5K when we're in New York this summer, but if that doesn't happen, we did run a 5K with the kids as promised. Just not exactly the way it was promised.