A Little Walk

 Last year we did a 5k as a family and I liked it so much that I decided it would be our new tradition. The kids were less than thrilled. Nathan said, "If you want to." But I was stoked. We walked quite a bit this summer to prepare, but not as much as I would have liked. At the beginning of the summer I had too much morning sickness and then it was too hot and then there was so much smoke from wildfires that no one could breathe outside. But we still did a pretty good job and the Saturday of the race arrived!

They had shuttles (school buses) to ferry us from the mall parking lot since there is not a lot of parking downtown. The info said that the last shuttle would leave at 8:45. Since our race--the last race--didn't start until 9:45 we showed up at 8:30. We wanted to be sure to make the shuttle but didn't want to stand around at the Starting Line for hours and hours like last year with small kids. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea we did. This line snaked through the parking lot forevers and evers and there were still tons of people that got in line behind us.

 We stood in line for an hour.

 But I think it was still better than waiting at the Starting Line, because we were doing something at least, something where we could see our progress.

 We had lots of time for cute pics.

The quality of the pictures in this post is not that great because my beloved son Vander broke our camera the week before the race by playing with it when he shouldn't have. So I had to dig out the ancient camera that it had replaced.

 Still, not bad. Better than last year's picture!

 We got on the bus at 9:40 and wondered if they were waiting the race for all the people who wouldn't get there in time. The bus drivers had radios so the race officials had to know what was going on, right?

Bellana LOVED the bus. She was enthralled with being free of her car seat, able to stick her hands out the window and wave and look.

 I did not love the bus. It was pretty cramped for actual adults. Plus, the bus driver was a little quirky--almost scary--in his carefree attitude as he ran over curbs, saying "Third time I've hit that!" and dashed about on the freeway. I prayed we would live.

We got to the Starting Line at 9:50 and jumped straight off the bus and started the race. They hadn't held the race but I figured it didn't matter since our RFID tags in our race bibs would give us an accurate time from start to finish.

Last year we had brought a stroller but I think it caused more problems than it solved. Simply the fact that it was there made all the kids long to ride in it. So we decided to do just the baby backpack and see how that went.

The older kids were ready to take off right away. Nathan kept up with their running while I lagged behind at my own pace with Bellana.

Bellana walked for a good while and then started begging me to carry her. So Nathan waited for us and put her in the baby backpack. He was a trooper.

And the older kids hardly whined at all. In fact, Annalee was complaining that we were going too slow!

The pictures with FitOne logos were snapped by professional photographers along the way. Even a professional couldn't hide the reason why I was one of the slowest in the race. But I finished!

 Last year, Annalee walked most of the race but got discouraged near the end when we could see the finish line but were still so far away. Daddy had ended up carrying her.  Not this year!

She crossed the Finish Line proud and strong, having done the entire race herself!

Last year Vander walked about half of the race and rode on the stroller for half.  This year he also did the entire race himself! He complained about his feet hurting halfway through. I inspired him with thoughts of being able to wear his shirt later and tell people that he did the whole race himself. He seemed to like that idea. I felt bad for him because kids shoes are not the best, especially at his age when kids are still learning how to run heel-to-toe and not the pounding, flat-footed way that hurts. He probably had the hardest time of all of us to overcome but HE DID IT! I told him over and over how proud I was of him.

Bellana got down and walked as soon as we could see the Finish Line, which was still a long way from the end. In all, I think she walked/ran 1 kilometer. I was pretty proud of her! She and Vander were the first in our family across the Finish Line.

The gal behind them with the walker was walking with an elderly woman on a motorized medical scooter. The woman would ride for a while, then walk in the walker for a while. The girl traded with her. It was pretty amazing! We also saw several blind people finish the race as well as a little girl Bellana's age strapped into a walker because her legs were too crooked and weak to walk without it. There were a lot of guts out there.

We finished the race in an hour and 25 minutes. It turned out that there wasn't an RFID reader at the beginning of the race so our recorded time was wrong. But I know what we did. Even though I didn't note our time last year, I KNOW we beat it because we stopped a lot last year to move kids in and out of the stroller and even had to take a nursing break!  Next year we may be slower again because we will have the two youngest in a stroller.

There were free sack lunches but the line was even longer than the one we'd stood in at the mall, so we went straight to the long bus line instead. Nathan stood in line while I watched the kids play at a nearby park. Then we all got on the buses and went back to our car. Then we went out for a huge, delicious breakfast at Egg Factory. They have THE BEST food and it is very reasonably priced compared to IHOP and Denny's and such. Unfortunately, it was well-past noon now and Bellana was overdue for a nap and just couldn't be good. We were a little stressed by her misbehavior and ate as fast as we could. Then we went home and crashed for a loooong nap.

I am so, so proud of us for making it all the way through the race, especially with the minimum of whining that there was. When I had announced last year that we'd be doing it again this year, I was met with groans and denials. As we trained and worked for it the kids had always treated it as a day to be dreaded. I was afraid my dreams of a happy, positive, family adventure were doomed to never come true. But then they did! I am so stinking proud of these guys!