Live. Laugh. Love.: Dart Frog Dash

Will & I participated in the Dart Frog Dash at the Toledo Zoo on Saturday morning! I signed up for this months ago as soon as I saw it advertised. I would so love to get my kids into running and participate in fun runs like these together. We had SUCH A GOOD TIME! I am so proud of Will and his impressive efforts and the weather could not have been more perfect and beautiful. The morning was everything I hoped it would be.

There were actually two events: a competitive 5K run starting at 8:30 and the kids' 1K fun run at 9:45. So I went a little earlier to run the 5K first and then Craig and Will met up with me a little later and the three of us did the 1K.

My 5K was actually a pretty sad performance for me, but it's totally my fault. I did exactly one 2-mile practice run on the treadmill earlier in the week and I couldn't even tell you the time I ran prior to that. So given my completely out-of-shape body, I really shouldn't have expected better than I did, I guess. I was hoping for sub 23:30 minutes... and ended up with 24:36. Yikes! (Oh, and for those of you not familiar with running or the metric system, 5K is 3.1 miles.) I may have been a little overzealous with my starting pace - LOL - and after a really good jump out with the front pack like I always did in Cross Country, I soon fell into a much slower pace and immediately felt winded. My first mile was 7:30-ish, the second was 7:45-ish and then I had very little left for a finishing kick. Oh well. The whole purpose was to just get out there and do it and have fun. And I did! I just LOVE being a part of that sort of organized running community and I really want to get into some more road races. It just makes me excited and wanting to run more. This course started just outside the zoo on one of it's bordering roads, continued mostly on surrounding roads (very pretty and nicely shaded), and then finished inside the zoo. The 1K was completely inside the zoo and finished at the same location as the 5K. I wore a D-tag chip on my shoe for times and placed 155th overall (there were 1000 runners for both races combined) and 7th in my age group (women 25-30). Had I reached my goal of around 23:30, I would have placed third, so the competition was not real steep in that age bracket.

Here's Will and I a little while after my race and just before his started.

Just in front of the starting line for the kids' 1K.

A little closer up. Will was so busy scoping everything out, he looks a little dazed.

Stretching it out before we started. :)

We stuck to the back of the pack since this race was for twelve and under and Will was definitely one of the youngest.

Here we go!

Gah! I'm so stinkin' proud of my little guy! Look at how cute he looks with his number pinned to his shirt. We did hold hands for the first little bit and the end, but he only got side-tracked a couple of times - once when he saw a goose wandering along the side and another time when we ran past the children's zoo and he really wanted to stop and see the animals. Otherwise he kept going!

He kept telling me: "mommy, I'm going to beat you!" or "you're on my team, mommy!" or "we're a really good/fast team, mommy!" or "we're the comets!" (Comets are our local school district mascot.)

Go, Will! Go! It was so cute how he just kept going and seemed surprised that lots of people on the sidelines were cheering for him. Many of the 5K runners stuck around on the sidelines, plus parents and other family members, staff, etc. - LOTS of people were cheering for him (and the other kids) - but I think they were just surprised/impressed at someone his age really running and really encouraged him.