Jingle Bell Run

kinsey did a great job taking our
picture!

RACE day! The kiddos are running their first 5K!

Jingle Bell Run 2010

someone else wanted to wear a
hat too:)

downtown....on our way!

picking up the time chips

it was pretty hard taking pics while running but i managed
to get a couple!

They did AWESOME! Brian ran with Braden and I ran with
Cailey

YAY!! They were super excited...and couldn't
wait to see the food:)

AFTER the race they carbed up on bagels,
fruits, and hot chocolate:)

the eshleman's were SO sweet to watch ephram and kinsey!
they baked cookies and played while the rest of us ran.

kinsey couldn't wait to get a picture with cailey:)

Cailey and Braden did AWESOME on their first 5K! They did great training for it and had run as far as 3.2 so they knew they could do it:)! The carbed up the night before and ate a banana before we headed to the Eshleman's to drop off kinsey and ephram. (On the way we got a MAJOR flat tire and somehow fit everyone into the little car so we wouldn't be late). The weather was perfect (in my opinion) around 30. It was cold when we were standing around waiting but within 3o seconds I was holding Cailey's hat and gloves because she was hot.

I ran with Cailey while Brian ran with Braden because they have a different pace. Poor Beth was sick and wasn't able to run with us. I forgot to start my watch so I had no clue what our pace was but knew it felt faster than when I took them on training runs. Cailey took off so fast and I kept telling her to slow down because I was afraid she wouldn't be able to finish...she just wanted to 'keep up with everyone else'. Once she realized there were people behind us she slowed down a bit....but kept up a GREAT pace. My goal for her was to finish in 33 min. but I was just going to go at her pace and see what happened. There was a man running with us who kept saying, "there's my pacer...she keeps me going!" and a ton others around who were encouraged by seeing Cailey run. She would see a kid walk and then say, "come on! you can do it! great job!" She constantly called out to others and cheered people on...it was awesome! At the end of the run the same man said told us he thought we would finish before 3o min and that spurred Cailey on and she TOOK OFF...I mean, I had to SPRINT to keep up with her! We were going down a hill and as soon as it leveled off she slowed and we could see the finish line. She ended up finishing in 30:48! We were THRILLED and couldn't believe the time! When she was done she said, "I want to do all the 5k's!" She really had a great time.

Braden and Brian were aiming at finishing around 36 minutes and since Brian didn't have a watch he didn't know their pace either. He said Braden did a great job and was talking the whole time about all different things. People around him were AMAZED and kept talking about how great it was that he was running and were truly surprised he ran the entire race...never slowing. Braden truly amazes me when he sets his mind to something! We were able to see them once on the way back and cheered for them SO loud while we were running and couldn't wait to see them come in! When they were near the finish line Cailey ran to encourage him and he was just beaming. He finished in 36:44 which was AWESOME for his little legs! After the race when the kiddos were getting food people would point to him and say, "there's the boy who kept me going!" The kids were surprised to see how many people came in after them and said they didn't realize people would be walking:). Braden said he wants to do another race and keep on running.

They never walked on any of the training runs...and never asked to walk or even acted like they couldn't run. I am SO proud of both of them and can't wait to see where this goes...or where it takes them!