Hank's 4 Mile Race Report

While I was slogging through the half marathon, Bill was supervising the kids and making sure Hank made it to his starting line on time.

I had planned to register Hank for the 4 mile race in advance, but when I saw the price wasn't much more for race day reg, I decided to wait.

Very fortuitous for my checkbook because I got an email saying that youth could run for free. Woot! I did pay to get him a shirt though because I figured he deserved some swag for his hard work.

Hank's race report as dictated to mom:

We went to the starting line down the hill. I got in the middle and was cramped at the beginning of the race. The guy blew the horn and we took off.

We ran on the road for a little ways, and then we turned onto a trail. It was a long time before we got to a water station (mom's note: ~mile 2).

It was pretty hilly but I still passed some people. A woman told me to keep it up because we were almost to the fun part.

The fun part was going down a hill in the shade. I stopped to get water on the 2nd loop and walked a little.

I ran as hard as I could to the finish. I thought I was the first kid to finish but a 13 year old finished before me. My time was 43:47 which I thought was pretty cool.

And I think it's pretty cool, too!

One thing I really like about the races Two Rivers Treads helps out with is that there is always a kids fun run. And the fun run is FUN. The kids get bibs and either ribbons or medals. Lined up at the start, they do silly warm up exercises often led by Dr. Mark or TRT employees. And the emphasis is to run and enjoy.

The 1 mile fun run was set to begin at 11am giving the grownups plenty of time to finish their races. As my peeps lined up for their race, Bill confided he was a little worried they were all 3 going to end up barfing because they had done nothing but eat pizza and drink gatorade the whole time I was running.

I forgot to mention the post race munchies were endless pizza and kegs of micro-brews...along with water and gatorade of course.

The horn sounded and off they went. Originally I planned to run with Shane since he has a tendency to be distracted, but I was in no condition to run so Hank volunteered. Thank goodness!

The first kid crossed the finish right around 7 minutes...on a cross country course...which is crazy fast!

Finally I saw 3 blue shirts running together and laughing.  Other parents commented how they looked like they were on a team, and I said they are - they're siblings but they also run for a local track and cross country team.

Shane took off and finished ahead of E and H and headed straight for the pizza

I found out later why they were laughing. Ella was slightly ahead of Shane for most of the race, and Hank kept telling Shane he needed to beat her. This made Ella laugh (silly boys trying to outrun my girlie) which made the boys laugh.

And so they laughed and ran a mile together. A very nice way to spend the afternoon!

*I can't find the charger for my good camera so we're stuck with crappy phone pictures for now. :(