Great Potato Races

Back in January, we made goals, and one of the requirements of the goal was to finish it before school ended. Tyler and I wanted to run a 5K. Marc wanted to run a marathon, however, he was injured halfway through his training, so he decided to go after a half marathon instead. Marc's parents stayed in town for another week after the boys' baptism so they could watch our race, and Lexi's dance recital which was the same day.

Bryce decided he wanted to run the 5k with Tyler and I. I have to admit, training with the boys was difficult. I don't like running. I usually don't have a very good attitude while I'm running, and I love to just put in my headphones and zone out, by myself. It is the only way I can make it through training. All of the sudden, trying to put up with whiney 8 year olds while I'm running and trying to practice was hard. Trying to find a balance of how much to push the boys and how much to back off was tough. There were lots of tears. I remember several break downs. One had a side ache, one's foot hurt, we were going too fast, this is too hard, this is too far. I pushed them. I felt like I was a jockey sometimes cracking the whip to make the horses go faster. I had my own personal goal of breaking 30 minutes, something I've never done with a 5k before. As training went on, I felt like that was going to be impossible if I had to run with the boys.

Marc felt like he was in good enough shape that he could run his race, and then run the 5k with us. Tyler was the one who could keep up with me the most during training and it was usually Bryce that was dragging behind. So Marc said he would run with Bryce, so that I could still go after the sub 30 minute with Tyler.

Morning of the race came. Bob, Deb, the kids and I headed to the finish line to wait for Marc to come in and cheer him on. He set a new PR for a half marathon so he felt really good about that.

 

After a quick recovery, we loaded the boys on the shuttle bus to go to our race start. We were nervously excited. There was a lot of people running! The 5K and 10K runners were all starting together, but we split about halfway through the race. There was probably 1000 people lined up to start running. All 4 of us were going to try to stay together for as long as we could, but that was impossible. The gun fired, and we were off. It was all I could do to keep next to Tyler. He could weave in and out of people a lot easier than I could, and the kid started off like a firecracker!

In training, we've been averaging 10:30 minute miles. As I was trying to stay close to Tyler, I looked down at my watch and we going at an 8 minute clip! Huge difference! I kept thinking he'd slow down once the sheer volume of people thinned out. I was worried about him starting out to fast and not being able to finish well, so I had Tyler slow down a few times. He was crossing the bridge on Broadway St. downtown to go down under to the greenbelt and he calls out "Come on Mom!" (In a really annoyed voice). We got to the part of the race where the 5k goes one way on the greenbelt and the 10k goes the other, and Tyler just took off. I couldn't keep up with him anymore. I was 2 miles into the race just huffing and puffing along, when I heard Marc's voice saying "Make sure you wave to Mommy as you go by". Sure enough, he comes Bryce, my little one who I couldn't get to keep up with me for anything, passing me!! Passing ME! I was annoyed, irritated, and humbled at the same time. I had gone out too fast trying to keep a reign on Tyler and it had really taken a lot out of me. Marc tried to help push me a little and then he took off to try and watch Tyler finish.

Can you imagine the shock this lady must have experienced when she looked over to see a little kid about to blow on past her!

 

Love his determination and grit.

 

 

This little one enjoyed finding someone in front of to chase down and pass. I was his favorite target of the day.

I got to the bridge that crosses the Boise River and leads into Ann Morrison Park. The end of the race was in the Park, but we had to fun a little ways through it first. Crossing the bridge, there was still a chance that I could break 30, but I'd have to haul booty. I tried to get my speed up. Oh man, did my legs not want to cooperate. Finally, I was able to get into a fast run.

I had about a minute left to try to cross the finish line. I kept telling myself 60 seconds, come on, you can sprint for 60 seconds! I gave it everything I had. I chased down a male runner in front of me and as I got to the finish line, I just ran out of gas. I missed my goal time by 12 seconds. I ran a 5k in 30:12. Ugh. It was disappointing. I tried to quickly forget myself and concentrate on my two little boys who had just run a 5k and did amazing! Tyler ran it in about 28 minutes. And Bryce was about 40 seconds in front of me. In their age group of kids ages 0-10, Tyler came in 4th and Bryce 7th! How awesome is that! We wondered if I had just let Tyler run as fast as he wanted what his time would have been. I think he could have won it. We ate some food, enjoyed the post-race atmosphere, and celebrated our accomplishments! It was a great feeling! And I love that we did it as a family! That made it so much more enjoyable.
 
 

 We did it!

 Our cheering squad!