Frosty Finale Fun Run

As Hank's cross country season drew to a close, I hated for him to lose touch with his running friends. We're the only homeschoolers on the team so he won't see them at school. I thought it would be nice to have an end of season fun run and party. Since it was my idea, Coach Z was all too happy to let me plan it, and thus the Frosty Finale Fun Run was born.

They were going to be running at night so everyone would need lights and reflective gear. Folks brought what they had and I supplemented with my stuff since I wasn't running, and I dipped into our camping gear for extra headlamps - which the kids were *really* excited about. So cute!

Just two other families could come plus Coach Z, but we didn't let that slow us down. 

I took Hank with me to put out the mile markers beforehand, and we needed to go get gas. I decided to grab a nice hot cup of decaf  and Hank wanted a donut so we went inside the Sheetz. I looked relatively normal with my sweats, coat and reflective vest over my coat.

My little darling, on the other hand, was wearing his penguin hat that I had glued 2 glow sticks to the top of, a glow stick necklace, reflective bands on his ankles and a vest with a happy face and 'go fast' on it. Thankfully he didn't care at all since he was so excited about getting a donut.

I knew there was no way I would be able to walk even a fraction of the course so one of the dads and I followed in my SUV. Coach Z and another dad volunteered to run with the kids, and all the kids agreed to stay pretty close together.

I used reflective tape on my vest to write 'Go Fast' on the back and make a smile face on the front.

 The course was approximately a 5K on country roads, and I visited each of the 5 houses along the course earlier in the day to let them know there would be people running in the dark and to please be aware of that when they're out.

I made some little mile marker signs using Christmas-y signs I picked up at Walmart for a $1 each. I didn't take into account that the ground is FROZEN so I taped one mile marker to a telephone pole and another to a stop sign, but they were pretty small in comparison and in the dark they were almost invisible.

some of the kids hanging out

I also had just purple spray paint (why I even had that, I don't know???) so it didn't show up on the road very well. Plus it was really old and the sprayer thing was clogged so paint dripped out around the sides of the sprayer and glopped onto the road. I'll be better prepared next time!

Afterwards everyone came in for snackies and hot cocoa. The kids ran around and played while the grown ups talked. Very fun!

some of the grown ups chatting

Everyone had a great time even though it was really cold, and they all expressed interest in doing it again later on this winter. I think if we can schedule it with enough advance notice even more families will be able to join us. I can't wait!