At the start of the race, we saw a favorite teacher. When I met her, she told me she only ran if being chased by a bear - but last fall, she started running, and voila! She's a runner! (I try very hard to not pester her about school stuff, but she knows so much about how to educate children, and she is so very good with Connor, especially, that it is very hard!)
I ran with Helen and we clocked a 35:48 but most importantly - she ran the entire race. Inspired by the numerous dressed up dogs - which we counted along the way - Helen just kept on trucking. I had a ton of fun running with her, and am already excited about our next race together. She barely complained and I only had to sing about a dozen Christmas carols and Taylor Swift songs to keep her moving. She even carried our jingle bells for part of the race! She was having fun, and has spent a bit of time letting everyone know of her awesomeness already.
Connor crossed the finish line at 30:28 (last year he ran this same course at 33 and change). Not his goal, and he was bummed at first, but he basically ran once a week to get that time. After a few hours had passed, he decided he was pretty happy. But before getting to that point, he had pretty much decided he should just quit running. In Connor's world, there is progress and there is failure. And once you find failure (real or imagined), it is time to turn back. Mostly. This is something I'm trying to work with him on - and running is a good place because I fail to meet my goals pretty regularly. But I still love getting out there.
The best part of this race was that Shake Shack opened early and everyone at the race got a free drink. I wasn't going to tell the kids this, thinking I'd just cash the coupons for lunch someday, but Ed mentioned it - and that was enough to inspire our trek to get our prize.
Same time next year, gang.
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