Happy Monday everyone! I hope my mommy friends had a wonderful Mother’s Day!
Saturday I paced my little cousin Austin in his 5K race. Austin’s twin brother was running in the race too, but Austin realllly wanted to place in his age group (Parker, his brother, is a little bit slower). Luckily my sister, Annie, was there to run with Parker cause I was worried about someone’s feelings getting hurt.
His race started at 9AM, so I ran to the school where the race was being held (4 miles away) and got there by 8:50.
He is only 7, so he didn’t know anything about how fast he wanted to run, how fast he typically runs, etc. My aunt told me that in December he ran a 29:xx 5K so that gave me a rough idea. All Austin knew was that he wanted to place in his age group. No pressure Amy. But yes, my pacing job was a guessing game.
We took off way too quickly, but it’s hard to tell a 7 year old who thinks he knows everything that he’s going too fast. We were running at a 7:20-ish pace and I knew he wouldn’t be able to hold that yet. Luckily he started to slow down on his own and we settled into a comfortable 8:20-ish pace. We were definitely at the front of the pack with maybe only 6 kids in front of us. I must say, running in a race where you are one of the tallest runners is fun. And I say one of the tallest because yes, some of those elementary school kids are taller than me.
Austin had a tendency to speed up too fast and then slow down (and repeat). I had to keep telling him that we want to keep a more even pace. I could tell he wanted to catch up to some of the kids in front, but I told him that most of those kids went out too quickly and will slow down- and then we will strike and pass them. I could tell he didn’t believe me, so I was happy when some of those kids slowed way down (is that mean?) and we passed them- see Austin, I know some things. Just some.
3.1 miles flew by. I was having so much fun cheering these little kids on and chatting with Austin. By chatting I mean I was talking and he probably wanted me to shut up. I think we picked a pretty good pace because I could tell he was getting slightly fatigued in the last 0.4 miles, but I knew he had enough gas in him to sprint at the end.
When we got pretty close to the finish line, I started screaming, “GO AUSTIN GO!!! GO AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!” and I pulled off to the side (They were manually writing down the times for the kids so I didn’t want to confuse anyone by crossing the finish line. Apparently this wasn’t an issue cause most parents crossed with their kids).
Austin finished 3rd in his age group with a time of 24:04!!! And Parker finished 4th (28:xx)!!!
He did AWESOME!!! But we were all disappointed because they only gave out medals to the 1st place finishers in each age group. WTF?? I’ve never seen a race do that. Especially to little kids. Lame.
After the race, my mom, sister, and I went to Ike’s for sandwiches! Mine was sooo good- it had shredded (marinated) chicken, tomatoes, avocado, honey mustard, and pepperjack cheese. Which reminds me, I still have half in the fridge. I’ll be back in 20…
I kid. We brought the sandwiches home so we could eat outside with the pup. And of course, had to do my post-run snuggling with her.
Sunday was a fun Mother’s Day with the fam! We always go to a Mother’s Day brunch buffet at the country club. No one likes to take me to buffets cause you won’t get your moneys worth with me. I get excited about fruit salad and the cheese platter, but my sis knows how it’s done. She’s like, you don’t get the foods you can eat all the time (and then makes a beeline to the meat stations)! I do know how to eat desserts though.
After brunch we took family photos like we do every year, and then my mom and aunt went to get massages.
Fairly certain I like this photo because I appear to be the tallest…gotta love hills.
After their massages, my mom, aunt, Annie, and I went to see The Other Woman. Really adorable and funny chick flick. I love Leslie Mann.
The rest of the evening included dinner and dessert! I made a lemon angel food cake with a strawberry-balsamic sauce and fresh berries on top. Of course I forgot to take a photo…
Ever pace someone in a race?
Ever seen them only give out 1st place medals at a race? I mean come on! They’re kids!
What’d you do for Mother’s Day?
