With Aaron still out of town, I had a tricky morning.
My sister in law, Emily and I decided last night to register our kids for the BYU Homecoming Cougar Run kids races and run the 5K together. Her sweet husband offered to watch my four kids in addition to their three kids during the 5K but I didn't want to be gone for long, so I did an easy shakeout run early in the morning before leaving for the race so as to get a little more mileage for the day.
So this was how my morning went: 6.5 headlamp miles at 6 a.m. Stretch, shower, eat, wake kids, dress kids, feed kids, load kids into car, speed towards Provo, get caught in gridlock traffic due to major crash on the point of the mountain, call Emily and Adam and divert them off I-15 in an attempt to help them get to Provo before the kids races began, finally get through traffic and carefully speed the rest of the way to Provo. Arrive 5 minutes before kids races begin. Grab kids race bibs, take kids to potty, barely make it to the starting line as the girls age 7-9 800M race begins. Run parts of the race with Ali while sometimes cutting across the field to cheer for Bre a little bit ahead. Bre finishes. Ali finishes. Bre says she wants to run the mile too. Take her right over to the starting line again. Bre runs mile while I help Ali and Kelsie get blue pancakes. Abe's turn. They're calling all 5K runners to the starting line. I drop Abe off on the starting line for his mile race and leave other kids in Adam's charge. Emily and I jog over to the 5K starting line. Long potty line. Decide to jog up the road a bit and find a potty tree. Short .8 mile warm-up, but really I've been warming up all morning.
Get to the race start with two minutes to spare. Meet the other fast looking ladies, two BYU club runners. Race starts. Why are they going out at 5:10 pace UP THIS HILL? Ok good, that lasted only 30 seconds. Other runners slow down and fade out. I settle in to a more comfortable pace.
Mile splits: 5:48 up University Parkway to 900 E., 5:34 down 900 E., cute young BYU couples with little kids cheering. Familiar houses, familiar happy faces. 5:53 down 800 N. and back up Canyon Road to the track. I must have run that stretch between Smith fieldhouse and the track over 2,000 times before. Happy memories. Back to the blue track for one lap to the finish. Kids cheering.
17:38 finish
One mile cool down on the grass around the track while the kids play in the shot put pit. Awards. $150. Thanks Doug Padilla! Shower in the Richards Building. Aaron arrives after flying home from Denver. Walked the kids over through the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame to show them my picture. Back to the track for lunch and a BYU track reunion. Hugs, connections, food.
What a fun morning!!
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