Saturday, May 26, 2007

947 2/3, a non-race report

I'm giving myself credit for unofficially finishing today's event with the most children in tow, official #947 with the two in the jogging stroller in addition to a 2/3 baked "Critter". I'm not sure, but I only saw two other double strollers and neither of them was pushed by a pregnant woman. The forecast said, up until today, low 70's with a nice shore breeze. Well, it turned out to be in the low 80's and quite humid, not my idea of good weather for doing nothing, much less pushing 100 pounds in a jogging stroller for three miles. The event started out and our first mile split was 16:00 even, not great, but not too bad for a pregnant lady. Second mile we clocked at total 30:40, so that was a pretty decent pace. Final time was 45:40, so a 15:00 third mile, pretty good, I thought. The last half mile I was feeling quite uncomfortable, but I just wanted to be done. It was a nice event all around, and I even won a hydrangea plant in the walkers' raffle- probably worth nearly our entire registration fee for the three of us. The boys were excellent during the walk. Hot Wheels only asked once if he could get out of the stroller and when I said no, he didn't fight me or even ask again. They played quietly with their Star Wars guys and ate their snacks. Overall, a nice family outing. I have to admit, though, that it wiped me out much more than I had anticipated.

SuperDad ran an excellent 44:38 for the 5-mile course. He passed us with less than half a mile to go. He said that last mile was about the worst he's felt during a race. I know my brother-in-law said his first mile was an 8:40, so he may have gone out a little fast, but he kicked butt in his first 5-miler. I think he ended up 118 out of about 170.

Of course, Hot Wheels did well in the kids race. There were only about 12 kids in the race, not nearly as many as we had expected, and most were under 5-years old. Hot Wheels did a great job and finished the 0.3 mile course in 5:27. SuperDad ran with him, because it was around a block and we couldn't see the whole course, even though he said he wanted to run all by himself. SuperDad told me he stopped twice, once at the top of a hill and then on the back stretch, but he caught a second wind and cruised the second half of the course. When I saw him coming down the road I was struck by just how focused he looked. Most of the other kids looked like they were out there running but they were looking around, talking with their parents, etc. Hot Wheels just looked determined, didn't talk to anyone, I'm not even sure he was paying attention to me or his grandparents cheering, he just kept going. He was so proud of that medal, and he did mention that this time he beat his 5-year old cousin, who beat him in the race last month. We are trying to reinforce that even though mom and dad aren't going to win races, we're just out there to do our best and that's all he should do as well. We certainly don't want to raise someone obsessed with winning. Especially given his genetic inheritance, he's unlikely to be the speediest kid out there, we just want him to have fun. We found out there's another kids race next month, and they run with Spiderman! We might take a ride down there for it. SuperDad might do the 5k, or we could do the 2 mile fitness walk as a family instead. We'll see.

This course was really nice partially because it was an out and back with the 5K and 5mile on the same course. So we were able to see the 5 mile runners while we were still walking. The overall winner actually passed us before we'd even reached the 5K turnaround. He was cruising. I saw 4 jogging strollers that finished the 5 mile run, one with two kids- they were both under 2 years old, I'm pretty sure. But still- 5 miles WITH a jogging stroller, just crazy in my mind.

This afternoon I took the boys to a birthday party and they spent over an hour and a half in the moon bounce, even after all the activity this morning. Their energy is just endless and these days I'm quite jealous. I'm just hoping I can stay awake until they go to bed and then I'm planning to achieve near unconsciousness for 8 hours or so.

Pregnancy status: 78 days to go.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Nicely done!

And with that determination, it sounds like Hot Wheels may be turning into a runner. Before you know it, he might be asking to run the 5K on his own rather than doing the kids race. Wouldn't that be cool?!!?