They’ve cheered on daddy as he crossed the finish lines of his 5Ks, 10K and Half Marathon. Nate, always worrying as he watches others cross before Andrew. “Daddy didn’t win,” he says heavy-hearted, not really understanding that to finish at a certain time is often the win. Both kids have also proudly collected as Andrew handed them his participation and prize medals/trophy (for those times he did “win” by placing). After all that support and watching, Nia and Nate finally got to participate in their very own race and have their daddy give them fist bumps and praise. (This is, of course, after Andrew rocked his 5K earlier that morning.)
The Strong Legs Run in Atlanta was awesome for us because it was held at the home of the Braves, Turner Field, and it was the first time we all took part in a race as a family. Andrew ran the 5K, I signed up for the 2K and the kids had fun in the Mascot Trot, a short dash with some of the area’s most popular mascots (including their favorite, Chopper from the Gwinnett Braves). They liked the Trot but were disappointed about how short it was. Since the 2K followed it, all three of them came along with me for fun. Nate was pumped.
He took off and ran so far ahead of us that he stopped and turned around to see where we were and if he should keep going. Andrew was walking up ahead of me with Nia. (Yes, I was the slowest in the family.) Andrew and I both pointed for Nate to “Go, buddy, go!” Andrew then followed after him and Nia and I became ear-bud buddies, sharing my ear-buds as we walked and talked about other times she walked or ran far like this. (Very special to me.)
When we finally turned the corner for the finish line, I asked Nia if she felt like running again and we picked up the pace. Andrew and Nate were there to cheer us on and Nate even ran with us (well, it was more like sprinted ahead of us) through the finish line again. I think he would’ve liked to keep finishing, sprinting past everyone like he was the winner. Andrew tracked Nate’s time on RunKeeper and it said he finished in 11 minutes. He thinks Nate could’ve done it in 10 if he didn’t stop that one time and if Andrew didn’t have to keep slowing him down for pacing reasons.
We all enjoyed our Strong Legs morning – each of us walking away with t-shirts of our own and a fun family memory that we plan to do again. We’ve already picked out some fancy (fast) running pants for Nate and Nia and Andrew has already chosen our next race.
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