About a month ago Strawberry was creeping over my shoulder checking email. Given that this is pretty much a normal occurrence I didn’t give it much thought until he shrieked, “I want to do that!”
@ packet pick up. Silly Strawberry 🙂
I realized he was pointing to the email in my inbox for the San Diego Hot Chocolate 5k. And it happened to be on his 7th birthday. So happy birthday kiddo…of course you can run it!
So I pulled myself off the floor and realized I had passed on two incredibly valuable life lessons to my eldest bambino – running is fun and running for chocolate is even more fun. I gave myself a quick pat on the back and we booked it.
I should preface this by saying I absolutely LOATHE running a race where I’m not pushing myself. Some people like to run a race just to run…if I’m being slowed up I pretty much turn into a gnarly mix of Jane Lynch on Glee and Meryl Streep’s character in the Devil Wears Prada. I crab, I snark and grumble…it ain’t pretty folks. So naturally running with one of my babe’s always feels like it’s going to be difficult.
Goofing around at packet pickup with the giant hot chocolate mug
But it’s NOT.
Can I tell you I’ve never been prouder! We got off to an early start and based on his previous 5k time (29 minutes) we even got a start in Corral B which was most excellent because there was hardly anyone up there!
*yawn* early morning with the birthday boy...
He was sporting a shirt that asked people to wish him a happy birthday (and I wore a coordinating one) so everyone was super friendly and wished him a Happy Birthday during the race and from along the sidelines as well.
It was a great start and ended up being a pretty hilly 5k. He rocked out 9:30ish minute miles for the first bit. Just shy of the 3 mile mark he told me he was tired and I explained we were almost there and he was close to breaking his PR (29:30).
And this is where I saw something that still makes me tear up a little…unbridled tenacity. My little birthday boy kicked it into high gear and flat out sprinted the last quarter mile.
His finishing time: 28:45
People, my 7 year old son finished in the top 12% of all people. I am awed by his perseverance and willingness to keep on trucking.
It was UNREAL.
Unbridled, gut wrenching tenacity
The heart of a runner. *swoon* He literally had people complementing him at the end of the race on his strong finish and we downed copious amounts of chocolate to celebrate.
Fantastic 7th birthday to my strawberry boy!
Striding Mom 