Halloween Run for Justice 5k

I realized this morning that it's been quite a while since I've done a small and local race. I don't particularly care for the 5k distance for several reasons. I haven't done a 5k since June 2011 (not THAT long, I realize). Even my smaller races this year have been parts of bigger ones (like the Towpath 10k, which was part of the Towpath Marathon).

Family self portrait! Not too bad...just cut Mary's face off!

Anyway, so this morning marked the first of hopefully many "Family 5k's". A few months back I was searching online to decide what other races I was going to sign up for to meet my goal for this year. I found this Halloween Run for Justice for today and immediately noticed that you could sign up as a family and get 4 registrations and 4 shirts for $50. Even for a 5k, that's pretty cheap! I asked my husband (since he's not much of a runner) and he agreed it could be fun. The kids were totally excited about it, as both of them keep talking about wanting to do the turkey trot with me.

Since this was a Halloween themed run, I was thinking of doing a family-themed costume. We ended up not doing that for so many reasons (time, money, figuring out a costume we can easily run in, etc). Instead we were all decked out in our Halloween shirts so at least we were being festive.

I was nervous about how the kids would do covering 3.1 miles. On one hand, the distance seems so small; but on the other, I remember how daunting 3.1 miles was for me in 2007. I wasn't sure if their age would be a good thing or not. I mean, they are so young, but have so much energy. I wasn't sure if they'd be "too young" to finish a 5k; or would run circles around me because a 5k is no big thing!

It was a cold, wet day in Cleveland today. The nice thing was that we could wait inside until right before the race started. With about 5 minutes to go, we walked outside and waited for the horn cowbell. And, then we were off! Right away Robbie started to take off. I told him to slow down (for several reasons), but he continued to be faster than me and Mary so eventually Drew went ahead with Robbie. Mary and I had a nice pace going. She was doing really well.  I told her to let me know if she needed to walk. I believe it was just before a half mile that we took our first walk break. When Mary would say she wanted to walk I would time 1 minute and then start running again. She did amazing! I was so proud of her. This wasn't an easy course. It was WINDY, misty and hilly.

I was proud of myself too. I was concerned that perhaps the kids would run circles around me. That I wouldn't be able to keep up. I am happy to report that I let Mary instigate all the walk breaks. I felt like we kept a pretty good pace, but I probably could have finished a bit faster on my own. That makes me happy.

After the race Drew said he wonders what would have happened if we switched and if I went with Robbie and he went with Mary. He said he thought that perhaps Robbie and I would have finished even faster. Awww...he's sweet! :) But perhaps. I think the notion that my 6 year old can help to push me in a race is kind of cool and kind of sad all at the same time!

It was so fun to run in a race with my family. It was fun letting Mary dictate the walk breaks. It was awesome not having a care in the world about my time. There was no pressure for this one. No goals to meet. Nothing to worry about. Just fun.

Official Results:
Drew: 36:35.8
Robbie: 36:36.0
Mary: 38:18.0
Kim: 38:18.3

Robbie made a comment at the end, "I thought we were going to do the entire race together??" We all just laughed because he's the reason why we didn't finish together! Too funny! Next up for the family...Aurora Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.

5k DONE! and Robbie's saying "we beat you!"