Still Running

Ready to run

Pre race smiles

Last summer, Erin and I trained for a local Women's 4 Mile race.  She had an absolute blast, and finished a minute ahead of me.  But once the race was over, it was pulling teeth to get her to run with me again.  Objective met, objective finished.  No more running with mommy.
Back in March I started running more again.  I tried to get Erin to run with me some, but she wasn't into it.  And running with a 9 year old who's not into it is not so much fun for mommy.  But there came a chance to sign up for a local 5K.  The organization is one that supports and works with people with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).  In my job, I'm working with several kids afflicted with ASD and felt called to get back out and run again.  I asked Erin if she wanted to run with me and she immediately said yes.  I explained that we would need to train a little bit, her response "OK".
I got her out to run with me twice before the race.  Much of that under great duress.  We did one 3 mile run here around the neighborhood.  There was quite a bit of walking and grumbling, but we finished.
The morning of the race was cool but beautiful.  The night before I toyed with not waking Erin for the race.  It had been a long week and I knew she really needed to sleep.  We had already decided that Tom and Jeff would stay at home so Jeff could sleep in.  But Erin woke bright and early, popped out of bed and quickly dressed for the race.  We had a simple breakfast of bread and fruit since we were still over an hour from race start.

Post race glow

Once we got there, Erin confirmed that she was allowed to walk.  I said of course if we needed to walk we would.  The course is rather hilly and narrow to start so our first half mile was rather slow.  Once things opened up I let Erin set the pace and we moved along nicely.  I took the lead for much of the hilly 2nd mile.  Erin asked to stop and walk and few times, but I kept her talking and thinking by quizzing her on multiplication facts.  As long as she could answer her times tables, I figured we could keep our pace.  She kept answering.  We kept running.
The final mile is almost all down hill, with one steep hill right at the end.  I was well in the lead moving down that hill and could hear her about 20 feet behind me.  There were other runners and a little crowd at the bottom of the hill and I heard several of them cheering Erin on, and a little smile came over my face.  That is, until I realized that she was cruising right past me at some breakneck speed.  I tried to catch up with her, but she got me in the end, just like last summer.
The next day I checked on the local running club's website.  They post times for their sponsored runs, and had times posted for our run.  Lo and behold, Erin finished 2nd in her age group, just a minute behind the winner.
We finished our morning with free bagels and fruit at the race and headed home to fill Jeffrey and daddy in on the great news.