Just shy of a 7 month racing hiatus, and I was happily back at a start line! For the fourth year in a row my little 3 year old daughter and I were in Eugene, Oregon for the Butte to Butte 5K!
A couple nights before I was on my final "training run" (ha, seriously - you can't call anything I'm doing lately "training) for this race, and my teammate wanted to join me. "Mommy, I want to run and get sweaty!" Who am I to tell a 3 year old she can't run?!? Of course she can, and she did! On that night she ran well over half of a mile, with only a couple little stops here and there to stretch and have a sip of water. It was too darn cute. Anyway....
On the 4th of July I was up at 4am - fitting, right?!? By 5:30am my mom, Katura and I were in the car heading north. Thankfully it was an uneventful drive so my pre-race nerves never even bothered to appear. Halle-freaking-lujah. Once parked we girls got ourselves all red, white and blue'd with our race bibs on and started our walk to the start. Katura is a legit racer now --- she used the start line porta potty! Welcome to the club!
Virtually no waiting had to happen before the Star Spangled Banner was being sung and we were on our way. And instantly my teammate wanted to run and NOT be pushed in a stroller. I had to do a lot of reassuring during the first couple of miles that she would indeed get to show everybody she can run, but she just had to wait. So while I ran she sat up watching everybody around us and cheered on the speedy people as they were heading toward us to the finish line. I kid you not, I was .8 miles in when the lead runner came by on his way to winning in a ridiculously fast time. Granted it took 3 minutes for me to even get to the start line, but still. That's just so damn fast!
I don't really have much to say regarding running. I am not at all in my normal race shape since I'm still recovering from my brain leaking inside of me for months. BUT I still feel so happy with how I ran. I pulled a Forrest Gump and just kept running. It wasn't until 2.5 miles in that I had to take a little walk break ... for fear that my Subway flatbread sandwich was going to rear its ugly head. So throw up and keep running or walk and calm my tummy? I think I made the right choice! I have absolutely zero regrets on how this race went. I felt awesome. I smiled the whole time. I had a wonderful cheerleader that would occasionally look back to check on me. It was fabulous!
At the 3 mile mark we were back near the 5th Street Market and it was time. It was time for Katura to put her shoes and practice to work and race to the finish line. She was so excited, but once we started she looked nervous and said she was tired. I got her to the final curve and pointed at the finish line and told her it was waiting for her. She could run across and yell "Hooray!" And off she went!
She was full of giggles and smiling, taking it all in at the finish line. She got a lot of cheers - which come on, how cute is she? How can you not cheer for such a tiny little bundle of energy in a high ponytail?? The big smile came when her grandma presented her with a medal of her very own! *Let's ignore the fact that she's had this medal for years and I slipped it into Grandma's hand when she wasn't paying attention.*
So that's it. 3.1 miles of fun with my favorite little person!
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