Kids' Race

Last Saturday our running club, Moms Run This Town (which is a national club by the way, check it out) put on our 2nd annual Kids' Race  Our children are used to seeing their moms leave to go running and going to races so we like to let them have one of their own.

We bumped it up from November to October and made it a costumed event, and oh my goodness it was a blast!  Each little runner had a race bib and lined up at the starting line, ready to go.

 Well, almost all of them.  Charlotte here had a scary moment where she couldn't see me at the park and thought she was lost and that was upsetting to her so she had no desire to run the race.

 Lily however set off at a run with her friends, but needed me to stay with her to finish it up.  She had a good sprint to the finish line, excited for her prize.

 You'd be amazed just how much these kids love earning their medals!

  I put together some fun little swag bags for the kiddos and some of the wonderful women in our group brought some refreshments for our little runners.

 We could not have asked for better weather, it is bright and sunny and just plain perfect!

 After a little bit of refueling they were off again to go play at the playground.

I loved this event!  I loved how excited the kids were to run and how encouraging their parents were.  We had some grandparents and other family members out to support their little runners and it just made my heart happy.

My Birthday 10k

Time continues to press on and I just keep getting older.  For my birthday yesterday I decided to celebrate by starting the day with the Barber to Boise 10k.  This is one of my local favorites.  The course is lovely, running along the Boise River for 6 miles and ending up at the football stadium at Boise State.  I ran it last year as my final 10k before shortening my distance due to my pregnancy.  It was great to have the same race be my first 10k back since Gideon was born.  It wasn't record time for me, but it was a good performance and I loved it.  The best part, I didn't go alone!  Tyson took the day off work and brought the kids along so everyone was there as I crossed the finish line.  Lily was terribly disappointed that I didn't get a medal though.

 I also got to meet up with a few friends from my running club afterwards.

 Another reason this race rocked was because I got to do it with my good friend Dave.  We have been friends since high school and he has been on an amazing journey to fitness.  In April, when I was 8.5 months pregnant, I ran the Beat Coach Pete 5k with him.  He asked a couple of months ago if I planned to do Barber to Boise, I told him that I would be running the 10k and told him to run it with me, AND HE DID!  I'm super proud of this guy!

 After the race Tyson took me shoe shopping.  I can hardly wait to put some miles on these awesome things!

FitOne 9k

This morning I ran the FitOne 9k with several friends from my running club, Moms RUN This Town.  If you are a woman and you like to run, look it up, there are clubs nationwide!

I've been working really hard to get back into my old running shape.  While I ran...ahem...shuffled...my way through my pregnancy it has still been a lot of work to get myself back to the point where I can handle the long distance runs again.  Before Gideon was born I registered myself for the FitOne 9k, knowing that it would force me to get back to training after he was born.  I was excited when they added the 9k option to this 21-year-old 5k and I was even more excited when I saw the course.  It started up at the Old State penitentiary and moved down to the greenbelt where it met up with the standard race course up Capital Blvd and across Americana to end in Ann Morrison Park.  I love a good point to point race, especially in this cooler fall-like weather.

There were 7 people from our local MRTT chapter running the 9k this morning and I started out with 2 of them.  We barely made it to the starting corral in time!

We stayed together for the first mile and then met up again at the finish line.  The after race fare was AWESOME!  The bagged breakfast was fine, but in addition to that there was Chobani Greek yogurt and CHOCOLATE MILK!  In case you don't know, chocolate milk is the perfect post-race fuel out there.

 Eventually we were able to meet up with most of our Moms Run This Town group for a fun group photo.  We had gotten together earlier in the week to make our shirts and skirts for the race.  A perk that I hadn't anticipated, it was so easy to spot everyone after the race because of the bright, sparkly skirts.

It was so fun for me to get to run with these friends here.  They are my fellow playgroup moms.  Our children are all so close and behave like siblings and I'm beyond excited that they have all chosen to take up running!

 Tyson met me at the park with our children since I wasn't going to make it home in time for him to go to work.  It was a rough night, they were all up a lot and early and I was only able to get about 3-1/2 hours of sleep.  I was a little excited when we got home and they were all asleep, I thought that I might just get a little nap.  But that wasn't to be.  The girls stayed asleep as I moved them into the house, but Gideon did not.

  The best part about the race, other than an instant PR because I've never run a 9k before (though I missed my time goal by 24 seconds) was the great medal!  I love getting racing medals.  If you really want to know what I am working my way back to half marathon shape, this is it.  I want to earn more medals for my collection.

My next race is in two weeks, on my birthday!  It was my last 10k before I dropped down to shorter races for my pregnancy and my first 10k coming back.

The Color Run and a Trip to the Zoo

This morning I ran The Color Run 5k with several friends from my Moms Run This Town running club.  We met up this morning in our clean white shirts and got ready to run.  This is such a fun run when you are with a group of good friends.

 After a fairly muggy 3 miles we finished as a hot and colorful mess!

 Like I said, a MESS!  But how often do grown-ups get to play around like this?

 The best part...I promised the kids that since we would already be downtown I would take them to the zoo.  I brought a clean t-shirt, but that didn't help much.  I went through about 10 baby wipes scrubbing my face before I went into the zoo bathroom where I scrubbed my face and arms for a while longer, but still, I was a blue mess!  I got a lot of interesting looks from people.

 That's okay, the kids had fun.  Lily had to see her beloved jelly fish.

Gideon tolerated it all very well.

I was glad to get to go home and since Gideon was asleep I jumped right in the shower (after putting my clothes in the wash) and still, some of my skin is very much dyed.  Hopefully my neck and ear are no longer blue tomorrow for church...that could be interesting.