9-11 Run/Walk America 5K

Oh what a tale to tell today! First of all for those of you know my sister Verlene, you could probably guess she's the one behind getting our whole family to run in a 5K. I highly doubt anyone else could get us all out of bed early on a Saturday morning to run/walk 3 miles. But we did it and hey, guess what?...we had FUN! So here's what happened, we pull into the parking lot at Wheeler farm to find out that not only did Verlene register Shawn and I but also the kids too! They were so excited...they got their own number and their own t-shirt, they were official! So the plan was to let Verlene and Shawn run the race and when they were done they were going to turn around and come back and find the kids and I and walk us in. Well the race started and it only took about 5 minutes before the kids and I were DEAD last in the race, so I tried to encourage my kids to walk a little faster. Although it was pointless to try and get them to move faster when there were horses, cows, sheep, goats and chickens to look at! I was also preparing them for the 2nd lap of the run saying things like, next time we see them we'll have to wave good bye, etc. With this race you have to run it twice in a big circle and then end in the middle. We had only gotten halfway through the first lap by the time the runners had caught up and were passing us. I had a few comments from them as they passed: "way to go mom!...keep up the good work! Wow, you've got your hands full, way to go!" It was super sweet and very encouraging. Emily was content to walk beside or sometimes behind me where as Josh started to run more and more so I would let him run for a while and then he'd stop and let us almost catch up, then he'd be off again. Well it was unfortunate timing but one of the times that Josh took off again, Wesley decided that he wanted a turn to run/walk so we stopped the stroller he jumped out and Emily jumped in and off we went. I looked up to see where Josh was and he was way up ahead keeping pretty good pace with some of the runners. I thought it was pretty cute that Josh wanted to run so badly so I let him have a moment and I figured he'd slow down and let me catch up soon enough. Well with Wesley on foot our pace slowed way down and Josh had just turned a corner so I couldn't see him anymore, I figured I'd round the corner and he'd be waiting for me. Nope. At this point we had made it to the second part of our lap and still no Josh, so I started to yell for him to come back and to slow down. I made Wesley get back in the stroller and Emily walk again (much to Emily's great disappointment) and we started to jog a bit hoping to finally catch up to Josh when he stopped to rest. Finally more than half way around the 2nd time I decided that Josh probably just wanted to actually run in the race instead of walk and that he was probably just up ahead trying to beat mom. No big deal, dad and aunt Leannie are going to turn around and walk back to find us, I figured they will find Josh before I can get to him and one of them will go with him to the finish line and the other one will come find us. Sure enough up ahead we see Aunt Leannie walking back to us and when I asked if they had seen Josh, she assured me that they had and that his dad was with him. But what she said next startled me a little. She said that when she had run through the finish line Josh was already there! She walked over to talk to him and find out where I was, She said that he was doing a little smack talk about how he had run faster than all these grown-ups in the race! What, How did he get to the finish line before all of us??? *Cue the light bulb* Apparently he kept pace with those runners that I had seen him with and when they got to the cut off he mixed right into their little crowd and they ushered him right towards the finish line instead of the 2nd lap. Josh told me when he got to the finish everyone was shocked to see him barreling down the race track with all these adults. They told him good job, tore his stat section off his number, recorded his time and let him pass. So his time for three miles was something like 26 minutes for a 6 year old who was registered as a walker! Now really, someone should have caught on to this but no, they didn't. Emily, Wesley and I ran through the finish line at 55 minutes ALMOST dead last but we sprinted past the last two walkers a few yards before the finish line. So yeah, Joshua got a Blue Ribbon--FIRST place for the fasted walker...the little CHEATER! Although we didn't make a big deal of that fact. He was just thrilled with the attention and his abilities that we just told him he did a great job and that we were proud of him. But what is really cool is that Shawn placed! (without cheating!) He got 2nd place for his age group (the old guy can run pretty fast apparently! ). Not to bad for his first time running a 5K! So here is a picture of my first and second place boys!So yeah, I think we'll do it again but next time Josh will be running with someone! Any Volunteers?