We Ran A Race

In September Em brought home a flyer/sign up sheet for a 5K & 1 Mile Color Fun Run. She asked if we could sign up. "Sure! We can do the mile if you want!" was my reply. I placed that thought in the back of my head, because surely she'd forget all about it within the next few weeks. So, I forgot about it and we went about our lives. In that time we flew out to Georgia, which I'll write about later, for my cousin's wedding. It was a wonderful time and I'm super stoked that we were able to go. (p.s. If you have a flight coming up, and haven't tried Southwest, do it! They were awesome!) Then we came home the Tuesday before the race, and what do you know? The little had still remembered the race. On Wednesday she came home from school talking about how excited she was to get to be in a color run. And with that I begrudgingly made my way onto the closest computer in order to sign us up for the run. It was $53 guys, and that's a lot of money to fork over for me, especially when it's just to run outside. But it would be a memory. Our first ever race together! And after a nice little chat with my sisters I was reaffirmed of my decision.

Neither I nor the little had actually trained for this. I figured since it was just a mile it wouldn't be too bad. FYI: I've been out of the gym scene for awhile now. And since she's pretty active, constantly going-going, I didn't feel like it'd be too hard for her either. Worst case, we'd walk it. When race day finally came it was just our luck that it was cold out. Apparently, a nice little cold front had made it's way into our lovely little neighboring town just in time for the race start. But that didn't deter us. Em put on a sweater, and off we went.  

Olivia met us at the start and was able to take pictures for us which I'm really grateful for! Thanks, Liv! We set off a little over 5 minutes after the 5K runners. And we had to stop once because my shoe came untied. But let me tell you, the kiddo rocked it! At one point there were some boys around her age that sped off in front of us. They giggled at Em, and one of them mentioned something along the lines of not being beat by a girl. As we made the turn around, Em looked at them and then back at me. "Go ahead. I'll be right beside you." I told her. And we were off! We rounded the corner and passed all of those boys. She had a huge grin on her face as we left them behind, and in that moment I knew exactly how she felt. That sense of accomplishment, and being able to show someone that a girl CAN beat you is pretty freakin' awesome. We came around the final color corner, and after we were doused with more color she slowed her pace a bit. She asked if it were much farther because she felt like walking. When I pointed over to the finish line she looked at me and said "Oh! We can do that." She kicked it back up and we were off on the home stretch.

We finished in just over ten minutes. I think that's a pretty awesome time for us two. Neither of us had gone running in awhile so this was our chance to stretch our legs again. I'm sure we could have made it sooner, but as I said before I had to stop to tie my shoe. Also, on the roundabout we had to wait for the ones a head of us to clear it first. But we both really enjoyed it. After we were done with the race Em was walking around, rolling on the floor, and declaring that she'd never do that again. Her tune changed within a few hours though. Afterwards we made our way to a local little restaurant a few blocks over with Olivia to enjoy some breakfast. That pretty much put the cherry on top of a pretty cool morning. And that ladies and gents, was our first ever race together. I really hope we can do more of these as the years go by. It was actually a lot of fun being able to do something that we've both enjoyed doing individually. And I was right, it was probably the best $53 I've spent in a long time. :)

p.s. The credit for all of these (minus the first one) goes to Olivia! She captured some pretty great moments for us, and I can't wait to get them all printed out.