Jingle Bell Run 2011!

We ran the Jingle Bell Run again this year as a family and were joined by Kinsey this year! She started training in October and ran the 1 mile race then and worked up to 3.1 miles. We were only able to go on a few runs because of sickness and Disney but by Thanksgiving at my parents house she had her first 3.2 mile run!! The poor thing NEVER had a run without falling (including race day) but was great about getting back up and keeping going. On training runs with Brian, Cailey would grab her hand and help her up then run with her the rest of the way. Cailey, Braden, and Kinsey all trained around the same pace because we would take them together but Cailey and Braden would just run a bit ahead and circle around us.

Braden and Kinsey found these Christmas mouse ears at Disney and asked if they could buy them for the race instead of Santa hats this year:). Cailey gets too hot with a hat but LOVES long socks...especially if they don't match?? So she picked these out to wear and was so excited! (I had bought her Christmas ones but she wasn't interested because they matched.) Oh..and she had her light up necklace:) How cute is it that they thought about what to wear:)!!

They all had set goals for this race...and they were pretty high. Kinsey's goal was to finish without walking...definitely difficult because of the hills, but I thought it was achievable. Cailey had a goal of beating our race time from last year (her first 5k) which was 30:48 and breaking 29 min BUT hadn't trained fast at all so I wasn't sure how it would go. Braden had run several races this fall all being around 36 minutes and always ran about that pace in training runs and has NEVER cared about pace. SO I was definitely surprised when he told me he wanted to run it in 32 minutes. I was floored and kept reminding ALL three of them that all that mattered was that they try their best but they were so excited about their goals..I was just hoping they wouldn't be disappointed. The Morgan's watched Ephram on race day for us and took this pic of us all before we left:).

we love these family races where they have things for the kids to do while they are waiting like face painting, crafts, wood working, etc.!

This summer/fall I hadn't really been running much (or at all) and KNEW I would be able to take Cailey as fast as she wanted to go so our sweet friend, Katherine, volunteered to run with her and was the PERFECT cheerleader for Cailey. Cailey fell around 10 minutes into it and I know had she been with me it probably would have been a bit more upsetting to her but Katherine was able to get her going again and 'pushed':) her to her goal of 29:17 even with the fall!! Cailey was SO happy she did it and couldn't wait to tell us at the finish line. The race is out and back so I saw her on her way back and wondered how she was doing but the girl BROUGHT it!! She has a way of not loving practice but somehow bringing it on race day and did it again!

Brian ran with Braden and didn't have the watch for the first time on a race with him which is what I think made the difference:). Brian disagrees. We gave Katherine the watch so she could see the pace for Cailey and Braden just ran and ran and ran. When I saw him running they didn't seem that far ahead of us so I wasn't sure about his goal BUT when I got to the finish line he had the biggest grin on his face and told me his time was 32:10!!! He was SO excited..and I was SO excited for him! My non competitive running loving boy became competitive with himself for the morning! Very neat to see..but more than that I was SO happy that he was happy!

I ran with Kinsey girl because I hadn't run that far in two months...and hadn't run at ALL in a month. Honestly I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it...seriously. I was nervous and Cailey said, "mommy, you've run 13 miles before, this is easy for you!" I reminded her that this time last year I had run 8 the weekend before and 7 the weekend after this race with no problem but that I hadn't run much at all this year (plus I'm a lot heavier now). BUT I just KNEW I could NOT quit for Kinsey girl no.matter.what. And I am convinced that God got me through it for her. I had to be her encourager and I wanted to walk several times but just had to help Kinsey with her goal of finishing without walking. We did it!! My Kinsey girl ran her first 5K and finished in 37:04!! OH...and she fell down too and scraped up her hands pretty bad but I literally picked her up and carried her for a little ways then put her down to run and she kept going! I was SO proud of her and she was very tired after the race but excited too:)!! I'm SO happy Kinsey joined us this year! (The next week I went running with a friend and had to walk twice..which proved to me that it was CLEARLY God who got me through on race day:).

we did it!! what a great tradition for our family!

in a few more years ephram may be running with us:)