Joshua's First Run

On Father's Day our whole family got up at the crack of dawn and rode our bikes (with kid trailers attached) downtown to the YMCA sponsored race. The whole thing was so well done...lots of families were there and there were lots of activities for all ages. It was only 7:30am when we pinned Joshua's number to his shirt and got ready for his race. He was excited and smiling until he saw the 30+ other kids...then the apprehension that he got from my genes hit him. He got nervous. When the starting bell rang he had no intention of following the mass of yelling and screaming kids that were running down the street. If I hadn't been holding his hand he probably would have run faster than any of those kids...in the opposite direction. I did my best to try to convince him that everything was going to be ok and that all we had to do was get over to the big balloon arch. We only got a few steps when his feet turned to lead, he said "it's too hard, I can't do it." I gently pulled him along for the whole two blocks with him protesting the entire time. Lots of nice people on the side walk cheered for him. When he crossed the finish line a pretty young blond girl was putting metals around the finishers necks, he didn't want anything to do with them.

Shortly after, when he realized that it was all over and that he had finished, he was quite proud of himself. In fact, he wanted to wear his pinned-on number for the rest of the day so that everyone could see that he had run in a race like daddy. Sure, he didn't finish first, but he was a true winner just for doing battle with his fear.

Anna and I ran the 5k with both bike trailers transformed into jogging strollers. Anna did really well, half way through she even started smiling, showing her enjoyment brightly on her face. Joshua asked if he could get out and run with me for a little while which he did marvelously well for a few blocks.

It was a really fun Father's day morning.