A Girl {and her mom} on the Run

Last Saturday, Grace and I participated in a Girls on the Run 5K.  For the couple months prior to that, I worked my way back into running with a "couch to 5K" training program, while Grace honed her skillz in the Girls' Running Club at her school.  Apparently, running is Grace's "thing."  Which is why it was such a shame that her "ankle problem" started acting up about a week before the race.  She still managed to come in 3rd during their practice 5K after school a few days before the real deal, but she claims she definitely would have been faster if that pesky ankle wasn't acting up.  ;)  (I think she said she finished in 29:39, or something like that.  She was narrowly beat for 2nd place by 7 seconds from one of her good buddies who she ran with almost all this year at running club.)  According to Grace, this same ankle has been giving her "problems" off and on since like the first grade.  I don't know what exactly the deal is -- because it certainly seems to come and go conveniently at times -- but I also do think it legitimately bothers her from time to time.

 A couple weeks before the race, I convinced Grace that it would be an awesome idea to make matching shirts to run in.  We jokingly tossed around hashtags to use for our logo, but when we came to "#solesisters," I knew we had a winner.  :)

The day of the race dawned awesomely, and after loading up all the girls (and Isaac) we headed downtown and got there just in time to check in.  I have to say, seeing Grace in her native habitat -- with her gaggle of girl friends -- was incredibly entertaining, enlightening, and interesting.  Hahahaha.  In all honesty, though, I am so grateful for such a good group of girls that she has fallen in with at school.

{Side note -- going with neon pink for our matching Sole Sister shirts was a genius move for spotting us in the crowd.}

 

{It was gratifying for both of us, I think, to see how much Grace's friends were digging her shirt.  Hahahaha.}

{I like how Grace is looking over at me.  :)  }

A big race atmosphere is really so much fun, and I think Sophie and Jane were loving it just as much as Grace was.  With music blaring and groups of girls everywhere, it was quite the experience all around.  It was fun for me to meet some of Grace's friends and their moms/dads who were running with them, and it was fun to have our own little cheering section come along in the form of Scott and the kids.

 It's the Von Trapp children!  Hahaha.

We really lucked out with pretty awesome weather for the day -- not too hot and not too cold, plus overcast so there was no sun blaring in our face and eyes -- and the course was pretty flat and easy, too.  And while Grace was probably disappointed that the combination of her ankle and my slower self held her back, we still finished in a faster time than I was expecting for myself.  We ended up stopping to walk three different times to rest Grace's ankle, but even with that, I still finished in 33:13.6 and Grace finished probably 10 or 15 seconds before me.  That crazy girl took off in a sprint once we saw the finish line, but didn't look at the clock when she passed it, so we have no idea what her time actually was.  

 {See what I mean?  The pink made us SUPER easy to find in the crowd.  Hahahaha.}

 Grace -- almost to the finish!

 Post race chow down.

And one last post race selfie.  :)

Hopefully by the time we run this race next year, Grace's ankle problems will be cleared up, I'll be a lot faster, and the two of us can run the world!  Hahahahaha.  ;)

 {I loved this!  Grace's keepsake from this year's running club was this sneaker filled with kind words written by the other girls in the club:

Bright*Kind*Fun*Joyful*Confident*Curious*Outstanding*Charming*Funny*FAST!

Too Funny*Pretty*FAST!*Kind*Daring

Positive*Kind*SuperFast!*Persistant*Hardworking*Fast!

Fun*Bright*Fit*Sweet*Thoughtful*Funny*Bright*Fast!*Fast!*Fast*Happy*Funny*Speedy

Funny*Pretty*Funny}