Saturday was the annual 5K fundraiser for the elementary school. Kaitlyn and Jared did the mile with Jason's mom while Jason's step dad, Jason, Andrew and I ran the 5K. I've tried not to push running on my kids even though I love it so much. I always appreciated that my parents let me do what I loved instead of what they wanted me to do. Jared has never been too interested in running but this spring he asked to join the track club and was even excited for this race. He finished the mile and told me he should have done the 5K because he wasn't tired at the end of the mile. Kaitlyn loved running and her grandma kept having to tell her to stop and walk up the hills. She thought it was so much fun running faster than other people and hated getting passed! I love that attitude! When they got to the parking lot where the finish area was her grandma let go of her hand and she took off!
In the 5K Andrew took another minute off his best time and finished in 22:20! He was thrilled to place 2nd in his age group this year. (It's not an easy age group with so many kids from the school running.) Jason finished a little ahead of me in spite of trying to recover from a hip injury the last few weeks. I think no matter how hard I train he'll always be a little faster than me. The morning of the race I told Jason that I haven't run a 5K under 19 minutes since college and it would be really cool to run one that fast again. I did a 21 mile run on Thursday afternoon and as soon as we headed up the hill at the start of the race I realized I was in trouble! I was still feeling the effects of my long training run and it felt like I was just dragging my legs behind me. The good thing is that once we got through a steep uphill the first half mile the rest of the course is flat and downhill. They were giving away a pair of shoes to the winners and there was one girl ahead of me. I really wanted the shoes and kept thinking maybe I could take advantage of the downhill. I caught her at about half way but I could hear someone breathing behind me the rest of the way and figured it was her. My legs were burning and all I could do was try to hold her off. I crossed the finish line and turned around to find out it was a man and it wasn't even her. It wasn't until then that I glanced down at my watch - 19:00. My friends are convinced I am jinxed but at least I got the free shoes...
Holy SMOKES! Not that I should be surprised, but Andrew is FAST! And goodness, so are YOU!!!!! Seriously, you are one talented family, Merrilee! And it's interesting hearing you talk about how your parents didn't push you guys into things, and every single one of you and your siblings are completely GIFTED in one way or another. Pretty good compliment to them (and obviously to you too), I think. :)
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