Worst 'Fun' Run ever!

There was a 5k and a mile 'Fun Run' hosted by the city fitness center this morning. William has been looking forward to this morning's race for weeks now because he did so well at the 5k on Memorial Day. So last night, I put both my kids to bed early so they would be well rested for this morning. We also had to squeeze in one more morning of blueberry picking because it was the last day of the season for the blueberry picking farm near our house. We woke up bright and early at 6:30 and ate a quick breakfast and headed out to the blueberry farm. We didn't get to pick very long, but ended up with a bucket or so. These are such great blueberries, huge and juicy and sweet. It is a fun time if you haven't ever picked blueberries yourself.

About 8:15 we left so we could make it back for the 8:45 start time. We got there just after 8:30 and saw a lot of people finishing the 5k that had started at 8:00. I realized, though, that people I have run with before would not be finishing a 5k in 30+ minutes and that the 5k had started about 15 minutes later than 8:00. No big deal I thought. It wasn't until 8:45 had come and gone and it was getting to be after 9:00 that I suspected a problem. Then I heard rumors at the registration desk that the kid's race would start after all the adults were done with the 5k. So I waited, I walked, I took a child to the bathroom, I walked some more, I found some shade, I found a friend, and this went on for another 30 minutes. All the while, they were watching people finish the 5k and the one lady in charge was frantically at the registration desk hand writing all the times of 5k next to the person's name. Every single one apparently. They couldn't do the awards ceremony until all the times were written on this paper, and they wouldn't start the kid's race until after the award's ceremony was ended. So at almost 10:00am, the award's ceremony was finished, most of the adults were gone, and we are sitting at the place that is shown on the map to be the starting line when all of a sudden, down the hill, the rest of the kids are lined up and ready to start running! So then we run down the hill and I get Marissa and William in line to start running.

All this time, the hour and a half we have been waiting to run this one mile race, these poor little kids have been in the sun, had little to drink, and had nothing to do but annoy the parents about being hot and not having enough to drink and asking when the race will start. So, finally the race is starting, seriously. Oh no, wait, the lady in charge has to stop and make sure of all this other stuff before she will let them run. Other parents by me are complaining to each other as well. So finally they say go and William and Marissa start running. William takes off in his non competitive kind of running, just enjoying the scenery, checking on Marissa, stopping to walk for a few steps, etc. I realize that Marissa is bringing up the rear and run a straight line to head her off at a turn to help her out. There are only about 20 or so kids, and she would've been very much alone if I hadn't gone to help her out. So I run in my flip flops and capris and we start chasing down the little boy in front of us, since we are dead last. William is ahead of us and I'm yelling to him to run, but he thinks I'm waving at him. So he stops to wave back, but I eventually get to him run faster. Marissa just wants to walk and I don't blame her because I also want to walk. Did I mention that we had been out in the sun since 7:30 and that there was a heat advisory today? Yeah, I think I forgot that part earlier. Anyway, it was hot! So hot! So I encouraged her with things like water at the end, shade at the end, food at the end, and going home at the end. I got her to run almost the whole way and even sprint at the end, I think that is her favorite part. I can tell she really gets serious about getting through those cones at the end. So, William was done and cheering us to the end. We were all glad to be done, me especially.

We got some water, because there was none left at the end of the race. But I did have some bananas in the car. But they both got medals and they both had a great time and I got to go home and have a shower and make bacon and eggs for a very late breakfast. Besides almost getting heat stroke and having to wait soooo long to run, it was really turned out to be a lot of fun and worth doing. I'm getting ready to write an email to the center with my suggestions for improvement though, so if you have any thoughts, you who run 5ks all the time, it would be definitely appreciated! I was thinking that they need to run the kids first, I mean, it was only 15 minutes! And earlier, 8:00 is too late in the July to be running, it is already really hot by then! Well, I hope this blog wasn't too painful to read! I do have pictures, which I will post later. If you want to see some now though, you can check out my facebook page!