Harper's first 5K

Sometimes I click a random blog post of mine and read it.  I didn’t think it would make me so sentimental just reading random, poorly written posts, but some of it I have already forgotten in such a short period of time.  Which reminds me to find time to document our life the best I can... It’s just all going by us so quickly...

So. In spirit of documenting, I’m going to tell you about our race two weekends ago...

Our Company had their annual 5K race and without asking I signed Ty and I up for it and figured we figure out how we would run it with three small children later.  After the 5K there was a toddler 50 yard dash that I signed both Harper and Miles up for.  The day of the event we still hadn’t decided what we were going to do, so we brought along our double running stroller and a single, regular stroller.  When we got to the parking lot we made a game day decision to only bring the double stroller.  Partially because Harper was so excited about running and basically refused to sit in a stroller.  She did not grasp the concept of “mommy and daddy have to run first, then it’ll be your turn”.  So as we were all lining up to start, she still insisted she was the running the race and she was “going to be the fastest person ever”.

The gunshot went off and we all started running.  At first it was a little scary for her as everyone was running around her.  I was right behind her, but all of a sudden she got freaked out and stopped and was looking for me.  When I told her I was right behind her, off we went again.  She’d put her head down, stick out her tongue and run with the most determination I’ve ever seen.  I let her know that whenever she needed to walk to just stop running and we’d walk.  And that’s what we did for the first mile—we’d walk about 15 seconds and then run 15 seconds and then walk 15 seconds....

The second mile was ALL. HILLS.  Harper told me “I could just give her a piggyback until the hills were over”. Why, yes that is exactly what I wanted to do... carry another 50 lbs UP HILLS. By this time we had left Ty and the babies in the dust (not sure how that’s possible, but it was).  So for about ¾ of the 2^nd mile I walked with Harper on my back.  

There was a turning point at mile 3 and we ran into Tyler.   Harper was able to squish into the stroller and sit with her brother and sister.  She kept wanting to get out and run, but I knew it’d be a run-15-seconds-get-back-in-the-stroller-for-15-seconds kind of thing.  So I told her to drink some water and when she was done with the water we could run again.  She chugs the water and asks if we can now start running.  Pretty soon she stops and starts breathing heavily.  I ask her if she’s okay and she walks off the path and says, “I think I’ve just got to puke mom”.  WHAT?!?! At this point I’m completely mortified.  Here I look like I’m that horrible mom that pushes her kids to do adult activities and now I’m pushing them so hard they need to puke.  I told her to sit back down and she said, “no mom, I’m good”.  So off we went running again (with no puking).  With the finish line in sight, she finally admitted she was tired.  I pointed to the finish line and told her to run as much as she could until the end.  By this time my friend Monica was done and she was able to capture these pictures.

After we refueled with food and drinks the kid’s fun run was set to take place.  I told Harper she didn’t need to do it since she ran the big race, but of course she wanted the metal (all kids got a medal). So she took Miles and they lined up.  She would have gotten first in that, except this other mom was practically dragging her kids to the finish line.  Not bitter or anything... J

Anyways... There is not a day that goes by that I am not impressed by this girl’s amount of determination, stubbornness and sass. I think she’s pretty awesome and I'm super proud of her.

This is not from this race, but this exudes her sass...

I asked if I could take her picture and this is how she posed. :)