5K Festival & Fun{draiser}

Saturday was a LOOONG and busy day!  Not only did I take a crazy pill and schedule all five children for a dentist appointment early that morning, but we also had conference to take in, AND the school's 5K Festival later in the afternoon.  

If you'll recall, Ethan, Grace, and Sophie have been running after school for the last month in a 5K Training Club.  Ethan and Grace jumped the gun and got an earlier taste for the race when they did a 5K in Indiana with the cousins, but Sophie was fresh and ready to go on Saturday afternoon!  And even though it was now old hat for the older two, they were ALL excited for the big day, even with a temperature drop of about 30 degrees overnight. 

 Packet Pick-up

 Spidey

 Pinning on the bibs!

Thankfully, all of the children had dressed appropriately for the weather even if it did take a bit of arm-twisting to get it done.  Meanwhile, I was still freezing the entire time we were there. And we were there for a LONG time! Those crazy kids just HAD to get their festival on once the race was over, so we ended up staying another couple of hours.

 Warm-up drills being led by their Training Club coach.

After getting warmed up and ready to go, the runners took their mark!  Ethan placed himself near the front with the rest of the 6th grade pack and once the starting gun went off, he RACED on out of there.  :)  He had a goal to beat his time from the Mill Race 5K and more specifically to finish in under 30 minutes.  And he did it!  {I think his final time was 29:38 or something like that.  I'll have to ask him to double check and make sure.} Meanwhile, the girls stuck together the whole time and finished in a very respectable 37 minutes or so.  The thing that I was happiest to see was that they all seemed to have genuinely enjoyed themselves, and after discovering that the school will be continuing on with a running club for the next month and a half, they all want to sign up and do it!  I think that's so great!!  I love that they're starting this up for all the grades (minus Kindergarten) and for both boys AND girls.  It's been so fun to see the kids enjoy doing something that I have discovered a love for in my adult life.  It makes me totally wish I could go back in time and tell myself that I should join the cross-country team because it would be SO much fun.  :)

 And they're off!

 Here come the girls, circling around for their first lap.

 And there they go again!  :)

 Here comes Ethan, head down and charging forward for the finish!

{Sophie was the only one to pose for an end-of-race picture for me.}

To finish off our evening with some icing on the cake, we discovered that we had two winners in our midst!  Sophie was the fastest 2nd grade girl and Ethan was the fastest 6th grade boy.  Grace says she didn't care about not getting a medal, but I have to say that I'm proud of her for sacrificing a better chance at a win by sticking with Sophie the whole time like I asked her to.  :)

 She was SOOO excited about winning a medal.  If we're being real, though, I think it's safe to say that she was one of only 2nd grade girls to RUN in the race.  Perhaps next year she'll have a little more competition.  :)

 I think Ethan was pretty stoked, too.  

A photographer got a group shot of all the winners for the yearbook.  

After the race, the kids frolicked in the frigidity as they played various booth games, jumped in various bounce houses, and ate various sorts of junk.  Dinner was served courtesy of the food carts that had set up shop, and a Kona Ice sno-cone was ordered all around by the kids for dessert as well.  Which was possibly the most inexplicable action of the evening.  :)  We finally managed to pry them away from the festivities by queuing up for the long-anticipated Hay Ride, and once that was done we convinced them it was time to go home!  

In spite of the cold, it really was a fun time and a great event.  My only hope is that NEXT year it will be warmer when the race rolls around again.  :)