Aquarium Fun Run

We were signed up for the Aquarium Run well before Covid-19 made it to America. The race was close enough to Boston that I didn't want to race. My mom signed me up for the fun run with Elise and my dad because Elise said she wanted to run and my dad was just getting back into running. Carter didn't want to run, he just wanted to go to the aquarium, so he wasn't signed up. When the race went virtual I asked Carter if he wanted to run with us or if he'd rather Elise and I do it without him after Ty got home from work. He surprised me by saying he wanted to run it with us! I asked Elise where she'd like to run it and she replied with the aquarium. Why didn't I think of that?! Our bibs had a free admission to the aquarium on them so we would run and then go into the aquarium after. Thomas gave us his bib so all three of us could get into the aquarium for free.

We took off and things were going as I expected, Elise was rocking it and Carter started walking pretty early on. I let Elise go ahead and stayed back with Carter. I think it made Elise a little nervous running ahead by herself so she kept looking back to check on us. I started yelling encouragement up to her so she'd know I was still there, but she continued to look back. At one point as she looked back, she fell and rolled off the path. She was super upset and we all stopped and I swooped her up. She didn't wan to run anymore and wanted to go home. Carter wanted to finish out the mile. We were only a quarter of a mile in. I carried Elise for a bit and then asked her if she could try walking. She did and it wasn't long before she was off running again but she wanted to hold my hand most of the rest of the way. I was really proud of her for being tough, getting back up, and running again! Since Carter didn't mind me running ahead with Elise, I did that for the rest of the way so she would feel more comfortable. She and I finished in 12:08, not bad all things considered, and then made a finish line for Carter to run through. He really enjoyed that!

We stopped off at the car to get a drink and a picture with the kids' medals. Then we put on masks and headed into the aquarium. It was a nice visit and I was so glad Elise had that idea! Doing these virtual fun runs with the kids has made me miss doing my run streak a little bit. I always enjoyed running my mile on my days "off running". I'm a bit hesitant to start a streak again just because I can be a bit obsessive and don't want to get to where I obsess about missing a day of running. But it sure has been a lot of fun!