The whole family ran this race today. It was almost just Jenny running it but Andy said he wanted to do it and therefore Noah reluctantly agreed. I was going to stay with the boys and count this as a recovery run from yesterday's long run.
Andy, Noah, and I did about a 1/2 mile warm up before the race.
We started out together and Jenny took off. Andy, Noah and I were together about the first 1/2 mile. I told Andy that if Noah needed a walk break he could go ahead, so at about the 1/2 mile mark he pulled away from us. Noah was hanging in but was feeling very discouraged at about 1 mile. We made it to the water stop and saw Andy coming the other way after the turnaround, he looked really strong. Jenny was doing great also. This was Noah's first 5k race so I did have to resort to some bribery. I offered him 5 oz. of Jelly Belly jelly beans, he said "Six!", so I said ok. Approaching 2 miles I had to up the ante a little bit and added one more ounce. There was a boy we kept on catching up to who would then surge ahead past us until he got tired. This went on a few times and was probably a good distraction for Noah. Soon we saw the little parking lot where we turned around for our warm up, this helped out Noah because now he knew we were close. Then we saw the 3 mile sign and he really perked up. Next, we saw Andy who had already finished and was looking out for us, he said "The finish line is just up ahead Noah!". Once Noah saw the finish line he took off faster than a speeding bullet. Up to this point I was worried that I was pushing Noah too hard (it was kind of warm and humid this morning). With Noah charging towards the finish chute people were cheering. I crossed right behind him. We stuck around for the prizes. While we were waiting we saw 3 baby alligators in the lake. They had Dunkin Donuts as well as some healthy things like bananas, but they ran out of coffee. Here's the results: Jenny: 26:03 (PR) Andy: 31:46 Noah: 37:32 Mark: 37:33 Jenny and Andy submitted their results as a Mother-Son team. They won! Andy was so excited. Andy's time was a little slower than last year, but this year he did it all by himself. No pacer, no watch, no ipod. There are several small bridges in the park. He said he would read the weight limit signs on the bridges on the way out and back to keep his mind busy. Noah said that he couldn't run this far several times, now he knows he can, and Jenny had a PR and was able to watch her boys finish strong on Mother's Day. I got to have two donuts :)
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