Rainbow Run

One of my good friends in my running group was super excited about the Rainbow Run during Pride Week and invited all of us to run it with her. I didn't want to actually race a 5k but told her I'd sign up to show support and just run the race as a regular training run. They had a mile fun run so I asked the kids if they'd like to do it and they both said they would. Elise was so excited the morning of the race (which was an evening race) she got dressed in her running clothes and came in worried, saying, "But I don't have the paper to staple to my shirt." I explained to her that the race didn't have an early packet pickup so we'd have to wait to pick up our race bibs until that evening at the race.

The race wasn't very well organized and they had a huge turnout compared to past years and weren't prepared for all the race day sign ups. The fun run ended up starting super late. It was supposed to start at 7pm but didn't actually take off until 7:36. Carter and Elise go to bed at 8:00 so they were both pretty tired and were laying around while they waited. Between that and how hot it was (in the 90's), I wasn't sure how the race would go. One of my friends asked if the kids would actually be running and I said you never know, especially with Elise, she may run the whole way without stopping or she may walk the entire thing. Both kids said they wanted to run by themselves without me or Ty running with them. I told them Ty was registered for the race but he didn't need to run with them, he could run along behind them. The race started and Elise really took off. She looked back and saw Carter wasn't going with her so she slowed down so he could catch up but once he did, she took off on her own again and that was it.

I stayed in the finishing area to take pictures and videos as they came back in. My friend told me to come out onto the road to watch and that the lead motorcycles were heading back in. I could see the girl out in front by the motorcycles and I saw Ty out in the distance. I saw a little body next to him and thought maybe he was with Elise and Carter was behind them. Then I realized there were 2 adults coming toward me with a tiny body in between them. When I looked closer I realized it was Elise and was so shocked! Forgive my language in the video because I was really freaking out! I didn't time the race, mostly because I figured the kids would end up mostly walking because it was so hot, but they started at 7:36 and Elise finished at 7:43. She looked like super comfortable too! Ty said she was so far ahead of him and Carter that they already could barely see her quite a ways before the turn around! She ended up finishing 3rd overall right behind a lady running with her dog. I ran to the finish line to greet her and a couple of my running friends were there crying because they were just so amazed by Elise's race. They didn't even know how fast she'd run until I told them. They were super impressed she ran that fast while wearing crocs. I'd tried to talk her into wearing running shoes but she insisted on wearing her crocs. 

Elise and I walked back up a bit to cheer Carter and Ty in to the finish. Carter also looked really good as he finished and appeared to be having fun. Ty said Carter hadn't enjoyed it as much as it appeared and had gotten a really bad side stitch during the race. He was so sweet and waved and smiled at us as he went by though! When he finished I ran down to congratulate him and tell him what a great job he had done. The first thing he said was, "Did you know Elise got 3rd place?!" He was so proud of her and I was so proud of him for being so sweet and encouraging with his sister. He has great role models in Ty and my brother, Thomas, that it's okay to get beat by a girl and that you should be proud and encourage her. I was just as proud of his response to his little sister beating him as I was of her performance. I was freaking out all night over how fast Elise ran and it wasn't until the next day that Ty mentioned the course could have been a bit short. He didn't use his Garmin to track the run and fun runs are never certified so who knows if it was actually a full mile, but even so, I'd guess the course wouldn't be too much short and her time still would have been sub-8:00. Regardless of what the distance and time, she looked great and had fun and was so proud of herself. She wanted to wear her race bib the following day and even wore her medal for most of the morning.

Since the Fun Run started late, the 5k also started late. We didn't take off until 7:51 when the race was supposed to start at 7:30. I planned to run around 8-8:30 pace which is my normal easy run pace, but I was so excited from Elise's race that my heart was still pounding and I took out a bit faster than I planned. My first mile was 7:48 so not too much faster than planned and I felt really good and comfortable. Plus that first mile had a lot of downhill. My 2nd mile was 7:44 and I had worked my way up to 4th female. I was supposed to have strides at the end of my run that day so I had decided I'd pick it up a little at the end and run a faster last mile instead of strides. I didn't think I'd sped up all that much but I ran my last mile in 7:28 even with it being back uphill. I passed into 3rd female at some point during the last mile. After I finished I just kept running to get my 6 miles in for the day. I ran out onto the course and finished with my friends Alicia and Morgan who were still running. They were running 3 minutes at a time and then walking 30 seconds over and over. I ran to the side as we finished and then ran my last mile. Morgan came up with the idea for each of us to wear a different color of the rainbow so we could make a rainbow. Thanks to my mom, I had every color of shorts except orange and no one else had yellow so I went with yellow. We ran into the finish in our rainbow order but then I veered off so I could keep running and not have to mess with going through all the finish line shenanigans. It was an awesome night and we all had such a blast. I enjoyed the race although I don't think I would have enjoyed it all that much had I been racing! It was a hot one, but just running easy I didn't feel it all that much. My official finishing time was 24:30 which put me 8th out of 156 overall. That's a super small race so it was crazy to me that it was huge compared to previous years! They ordered the same number of shirts as in the past but ran out within a few minutes of race day registration opening!

Our rainbow colors.

Elise so proud and wearing her bib and medal the next day.

This past weekend we went to my parents' house for the 4th of July. Elise packed her own bag and packed a running outfit "Just in case she ran a fun run or something." They had a Firecracker 5k but not a fun run so dad and I took the kids for a fun run on the 4th. Elise ran almost an entire mile with my dad but Carter was done pretty early so I ran him on home and he did a little less than half a mile.