The first race I ran in was in November of last year at the 24th Annual Thanksgiving Day Food Drive Run/Walk that the local hospital sponsered. That race was 3.92 miles. I ran it with my brother-in-law, FireRyan. It was on a very cold November morning, and my MP3 player died two minutes into the race, so I had no music to motivate me. When I finally got to the end, FireRyan was there ringing cowbells. He ran the rest of the way with me to the finish line, all the while telling me to sprint, go faster, keep up with him while he sprinted, and beat the lady infront of me. I was so tired and demotivated that I almost decked the poor guy to get him to stop bugging me, but he did get me to sprint, and in the end I finished at 48.09, not much of a time to brag about, but I was happy that I finished.
For the Fourth of July this year, FireRyan asked me to run a race with him and Pookie. So, I decided to take FireRyan up on his invitation and see if I could do any better than my last race. Pookie and I ran the 5K and FireRyan ran the 10K. The 5K started about 20 minutes before the 10K did. This time, my MP3 player worked the whole time! That was a good start. I did feel a little demotivated at the beginning because a lot of people were passing me . . . until we got to this hill that was on our route. People were stopping left and right to walk up the hill. The hill was five blocks long and I just counted down to the 5th block. I became so motivated on that hill and just kept pushing myself. That extra umph of passing people, plus some nice sprinklers I ran through, helped me finish in record time.
This time Pookie was at the end waiting for me and ran the rest of the way with me to the finish line. I finished this race at 32:15.9, much better than my last race. I was 156th place out of 319 other women. What a high! I had some orange slices and walked around a little, then Pookie and I waited for FireRyan to show up to finish his 10K. As soon as he did, it was payback time. I sprinted ahead of him and told him to keep up with me. I told him not to slow down but to go faster. I kept yelling at him to sprint and beat the guy infront of him. I'm sure it was pretty annoying for him but it was fun for me to get him back.
Later that evening, I took Bug and Skunk and we went to watch the fireworks with FireRyan, Pookie, Pooh Bear, and Jo Jo. We had so much fun! The sky was amazing as the sun went down. We saw this huge plane fly over our heads kind of close to the ground. Bug and Skunk asked me if their Uncle N8 was in that plane. I told them I hoped so (even though I knew he wasn't). I told them we should wave to him just incase he was in there. It was so cute to watch them wave at the plane. They are so excited to have their uncle to play with again and they know it is coming up soon.
The only part of the fireworks the little guys didn't like was waiting for them to start. There wasn't a whole lot to do. Luckily, Pookie and FireRyan came prepared. They brought some snacks and were kind enough to share with us. They also brought bug spray. It must be a parent thing to anticipate and prepare for every need. It is quite a skill and I have to say I was impressed.
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