The Race

About three weeks ago the girls school had a "Fun Run" on a Friday afternoon.  They divided up by grade level.  Kindergarten and first grade ran a half mile together.  Second and third grade ran a mile together, and fourth and fifth grades ran a mile together.  They all had been practicing for about a month prior to the Run at school during Noon Fitness time.  When Sarah first came home and told me about the upcoming event she talked to me about how she had done during practice, her times, and her place during the practice runs.  She is our super competitive girl and loves to win like Eric and I both do, so she and I began talking about how to run a race and I decided what better time than now to start running again....  She and I began running together two weeks prior to the race.  I gave her lots of tips on running long distance races.  We ran timed miles together every night, sometimes around our neighborhood and other times we went to her school and ran the course for even more practice.  We took Phoebe to the school with us so that she could practice running the event course a couple of times too.

I knew Miss Competitive, Sarah, had the potential to do really well in her race because of how well she was telling me that she was running during practice at school and because of how well she was running with me every evening.  We were hoping for a top five finish for her.  For Phoebe, we wanted her to push herself to just run the whole way, no walking.  The night before the race I gave them each a new running outfit to wear the next day.  Sarah's shirt said "Lightning Fast" and Phoebe's shirt said "Pure Hustle".  When I tucked Phoebe into bed we were still talking about their races.  I made sure to tell Phoebe to have dreams and thoughts of being a Cheetah that night while she slept.

I think I might have been more nervous the day of their race than they were.  It felt like old cross country days for me.  My parents came to watch both races with Silas and I.  Dad and I both found several spots to yell for the girls from along their course.  (He's an old pro at cross country cheer-leading.  He was my personal cheerleader for many years and many races.)  Below you can see the pictures of the second and third grades lining up along the starting line for the beginning of their race.  Sarah is in the far right of the picture.  She was not on the line to start, but behind a couple boys, which put her at a slight disadvantage to get out ahead at the beginning of the race, but once it started she began picking them all off one by one, working up to one of the leaders of the race.

On your mark.  Get set.  GO!  Again, Sarah is below on the far right, she has on a gray shirt with peach colored sleeves.

At this point in the race they hadn't quite run a quarter of a mile yet.  Some of the sprinters were still in front of Sarah in the picture below.  She is on the right side of the picture below coming up on this group of boys.  Shortly after this picture was taken Sarah passed most of them and kept working her way up.

Below she is right in the middle of the picture.

Here she comes!  "Go get them Sarah, Go get them!!!!  Pass those boys."  Yes, I did in fact yell things like that.  I told her I would, so she had fair warning.

Below was the point in the race where there was just over a quarter of a mile left.  She passed the boy in the tye-dye shirt to move into 6th place and then started to go for the boy in green.

I was yelling like a crazy yeller mom at this point in the race.  I knew she had to catch this boy and stay right with him now or he'd get too far away from her and she wouldn't be able to catch back up to him.  Then she wouldn't have the chance to beat him at the end.  She listened to me and started to make her move.

She caught him.  But, he wasn't going to let her pass him too easily.  They battled almost all the way to the end.

Last little stretch below.  They both started their sprints.  "Dig deep Sarah!!!!"  And she did! She got him!  She beat the green shirt kid!  She got 5th place, 4 boys beat her.  She was the first girl to cross the finish line and she got her best mile time yet.. 8 minutes and 2 seconds!

That is MY GIRL!  She did SO WELL!

Next up was Phoebe's race.  Sarah and her classmates had made signs to hold up during the other kid's races to help cheer them on.

I found Phoebe before her race sitting with some of her friends.  I reminded her to run the whole way and to keep having Cheetah thoughts.

Below the kindergarten and first grades were lining up on the starting line for their race.  Phoebe is in the left corner of the picture below.

On your marks.  Get set.  GO!  Below, Phoebe is about in the middle of the picture

This is not quite at a quarter of a mile into the race yet, below.  Phoebe is rounding the little corner near the lady in the blue shirt at the top of the picture.

Here she comes, on the outside right edge, below.  She was like the Little Engine Who Could, chugging away.

I got her to smile as she passed by me, by yelling wildly for her.

And, here they come!  Rounding the last corner and up a small hill.... Go Phoebe!

Go Phoebe, Go!!! Catch somebody!!!!!!

Finish strong, Phoebe!  Go!!!!!

Phoebe ran the whole way and finished in the top 1/3 of her race!  Her half mile time was 5 minutes and 33 seconds.

After the races each kid was given a water, Popsicle, and a racing foot necklace.

WAY to GO Girls!!!!! You both did so well.  I am looking forward to cheering at many more races and sporting events that you both participate in during the coming years.