Family Race to the Finish

A little over a week ago, Drew ran his first 5K race with Dave and I.  It was a local run that raises money for the schools in our District.  While Drew has joined us for races - either as a cheerleader or partial participant who was pushed in the stroller - this was the first time he's ever run the entire 3.1 miles using his own legs!

Daddy and Drew before the race.

Drew and his buddy Christopher

 Some of the participants from his school - there were a total of 160+ who signed up, but these were the folks who joined for the picture.  Dave and I are in the bottom left, and Drew is front row center (blue jacket).

And this year I guess they picked up a mascot - and had some of the kids from the school pose for the picture.  Drew is in the front row, second one in on the left.

And we were off - here's the starting line just before we crossed it.

Drew started out at a serious pace - I was sore after running 9 miles the day before and it was all I could do to keep up with him as we bobbed and weaved through people.

Drew's goal was to pass Daddy - which he did for most of the race.  You can see Drew on the right, Dave is to his left with the blue pants.

This was around mile two, and he was starting to feel it.  We tried to teach him to pace himself for the entire run, but I'm convinced that 6 year olds do not understand the concept of pacing yourself.

Coming in toward the finish.  Dave managed to run ahead of us as Drew slowed down doing a lot of walking for the final mile.  Dave wanted to wait for us to cross the finish line.  I got video of the final stretch as well.  If you get motion sickness you may not want to watch this video - I was running with the boys.




And then the family photo at the finish. 

While we signed up for the un-timed 5K, I had both an app and Heart Rate Monitor clocking our time - which is roughly 43:47.  My 6 Year old beat my first 5K time in 2006 by about 1 minute.  That's freaking awesome in my book.

Later that night after the aches and pains of running without training caught up with him, Drew told me he's not so sure he wants to run that far again.  Time will tell.