2016 Cougar Chase

Saturday was Cougar Chase race day!  The Banana and Mr. SP had been going to running club at school two days each week training to run the 5K race.  On weekends they ran with neighbor friends to stay in shape.  Mr. TOF was pretty frustrated about not getting to go to running club at school, so we had to make up a little “At Home Running Club.”  A lot of times he ran with the neighbor friends on the weekends too, and he was super duper excited to register to run the 1K race this year.

Unfortunately The Banana got her lovely cast just one week before the race, so there was no way she was going to be hobbling in any races at all.  Such a bummer for my girl who LOVES to run! Thankfully she handled the disappointment really, really well, and was great at cheering all of her friends over the finish line.

Dr. Peds also ran the 5K.  I can’t say that he actually trained to run it, but he did a stellar job!  Love him!

I volunteered to take Race Day pictures for the school, which was a pretty joyful job for me.  Anytime people give me permission to use my camera to document something, I’m pretty happy.

The morning of the race was of course crazy.  I should expect this by now.  My kids asked for eggs and toast for breakfast, but when I cooked it, my husband grumped about it because eggs are not something you eat before a race, apparently. There were some kid squabbles, and some kid-parent squabbles, and then some parent-parent squabbles.    Certain people couldn’t find their shoes when it was time to leave, so even though I built in an extra 20 minutes into the itinerary, we were still delayed in our departure, which makes me a grumpy Mama.  I was driving, but it was foggy and overstimulating in the car, and then someone turned on the radio.  It was classical music, but even that made me a bit grumpier still.  Then there were parking issues and more grouching, and Dr. Peds and Mr. SP grouched at each other even more, so by the time the race started, my two 5K runners were rather snarly.  They don’t look like it in the pictures, though, and luckily, running is good for the grumps.

The weather was cool and misty at first, and rainy later in the morning, but no one seemed to mind.  The kids seemed to have a lot of fun running on the mucky trails, actually.  Hooray!

Mr. SP ran with friends, and had nice sprint to the finish line.  I’m super proud of my non-runner boy, who showed up at running club and trained without complaining because he got to visit with friends, and then ran the whole race.  

Mr. TOF ran a super fast 1K race!  He was so proud of running in the “big kids” race all by himself and believe me, his competitive little athletic spirit was out full fledge! He loved the race so much this year.  He talked nonstop about all the details ALL day yesterday.