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| Before our races |
It was a
Big Weekend in the Cupcake Triathlete Family's house. Mini-me stole the spotlight with not one but TWO epic athletic escapades. First, after months of anxiety (hers and mine) and protestations (hers), she finally took a deep breath and ditched the training wheels on her bike. This is extremely important for three reasons. First, because we are a big biking family and, well if you're gonna roll with us, you've got to ROLL with us. Second, because my little dude lost his wheels when he was three and has been lapping his older sister for almost a year. Moreover, he's outgrown his bike and needs the one Mini-me is currently riding, so she's got to graduate up to the next size bike. Third, this was the last missing piece for her to be eligible for the YMCA's kids triathlon team! She's been working hard on swimming, can run like nothing else (more on that below), so the training wheels were the only things in her way.
Success! I take a big chunk of credit for all of this, as I've been taking her weekly to the pools to swim, doing plenty of training runs with her, and working on the right mix of encouragement and patience to break through her reservations about life on two wheels.
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| She's pretty proud of herself. Love it! |
Friday afternoon I came home to her zooming up and down our driveway. Yay! My coach had assigned a full 24 mile ride as a baseline for my upcoming Oly training. I was supposed to pick "relatively easy terrain" and keep a steady pace the whole time. Well, there is apparently no such thing. I live in such a hilly area that, while my ride was 24 miles, it was anything but steady. Also anything but a fast speed.
Ah well. I will rock the hills. Plus we all went out for ice cream to celebrate our respective biking awesomeness anyway.
Mmmm rocky road.....
Saturday morning was Race Day for both Mini-Me and myself. She was running the mile, I was running the 5K. I was not feeling in the best condition after grinding through nearly 2 hours of hills the night before, but I was determined to cheer on my little girl. The kids were up first with the one-mile race. She was the smallest runner - see her on the right there in the pink shirt and tutu (yes, she runs in a tutu)?
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| And they are off! |
She did great - 9:54 for a mile! She did a great job pacing herself and I ran with her the last quarter mile into the finish line. You've never seen a kid so proud of herself, or a mom so proud of her little runner. For heavens sake, a ten minute mile is a stretch for ME some days and I'm more than 42 inches tall!
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| Mini-Me helps me run the end of my race |
My race was up next, and I surprised myself on a very hilly course with a PR for my 5k time - 29:39. With nearly 500 feet elevation gain and very sore legs, I feel pretty happy with that! Not at all the plod-fest I was expecting. Plus my little girl hooked in with me and ran the last quarter mile with me, just as I'd done for her.
...Love.....
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| She looks cute in uniform, too... |
The rest of the day was taken up with the kids tee-ball game and our town's annual Little League parade. I sincerely recommend all parents have their kids do tee-ball at some point, because there is really nothing cuter than little kids in giant helmets batting and then running to third base while every other kid dives for the ball.....
This morning was the "Lose Some" portion of the weekend. The winners of
Another Mother Runner's Ragnar Napa Relay team were announced, and alas, I am not one of them. They mention me in the announcement surreptitiously (I was the other of the 2 entrants to
make a full cake), but not the chosen. I'm sure it was a tough choice for them with more than 100 entries. I'm disappointed, but working on putting my Big Girl Happy Pants back on and getting on with life.
Plus, as a Rio reminded me this morning after I told her the [non]news, there is still more awesome to come in my future....
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| Thanks Rio. |
Do you have a mini-runner that you are so very proud of? Cheer me up and tell me about it!!
5 comments:
Don't sweat the Ragnar thing. Your cake was seriously amazing and so are you! Also, your daughter is incredible! She clearly has an excellent role model in her life ;)
First, I am really sorry about the Ragnar announcement, but you should be so proud of your cake!! Also, your daughter is so awesome! I really hope my little guy loves to run when he is older (he's only 2) but he runs all the time, so I hope it sticks!! :)
Thanks. I'm sure your little guy will - he's such a cutie! Monkey see monkey do....
Your daughter is amazing! So impressed with her conquering the bike and rocking the run!
My daughter just started middle school track and HATED the mile. Horrible side aches and couldn't run the entire thing. I kept telling her, it will get better and easier. Three weeks into it now, she LOVES running the mile!! She cheers to run the mile! I think she's going to do a mile race in mid June and I'll run it with her if she wants otherwise I'll do the 5k. She's doing a kids triathlon also in June for the 3rd year in a row. Mama's doing her first :)
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