In D.C., several Chicago friends ran the Marine Corps Marathon and from the looks of it, had a great time. One friend reported her worst marathon ever, so a big shoutout and hug to her -- having a worst race lets you enjoy and appreciate the other races you run. (For me, it was my big fat DNF in Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2010.)
Now, for my favorite race of 2013: The Evanston Trick or Treat Trot. I signed up M-man and C-girl for this race. It was her first race and his second. My husband and I were the race coaches.
The morning was cold and crisp along the lakefront in Evanston -- perfect fall day for a race. We got there early and I picked up the kids' race bibs while Daddy and the wee ones waited in the warm car. One of awesome things about this race is its small size -- so much more manageable than the really nice but unfortunately much more crowded Pumpkins in the Park race, which we did two years ago. I am over crowded races. The small downside was of course I insisted we get to the race early to allow time to find parking and pick up their bibs -- only to find us with a lot of time to wait around. Oops.
The kids entertained themselves by climbing all over the inside of the car like little Spideys. Finally it was time to walk over to the race. We hit a table that was promoting barre fitness classes -- I love stuff like this and should really try a class -- solely because they had an impressive bowl of chocolate bars. YUM. I immediately taught my kids it's normal to eat miniature candy bars right before a race, haha.
We hit a gigantic blowup slide that was crawling with happy kids for a few minutes before heading over to the start line for a 100-meter dash for the 4 and under set. I naturally began bouncing around, saying "who wants to race? Huh? Who wants to race?" My kids giggled and began jumping around. It was awesome.
A race official had the kids 2 and under come to the front, so they could go ahead of the 3-4-year olds. I carefully eyed C's competition of about 6-8 kids -- pretty damn adorable. I asked C if she was ready to run her little brains out and she nodded, smiling. She was digging it.
On your mark, get set, go! And they were off. I ran with C, who powered forward, pink princess dress and all. She never slowed, and was the first girl to finish and third overall. My husband was with M in his ninja custome right behind us, so I didn't get to see much of him running, but it looked like he ran well and met us where the kids were getting their goodie bags just past the finish line.
Below, the lil' runners check out their finisher ribbons:
No comments:
Post a Comment