Big Little JC 5k

I ran the Big Little JC 5k on Sunday. Well I didn't so much run it as I did kind of "trotted" it. My oldest daughter is 12 and well she is a big girl. No really we are the same height 5' 7" and she outweighs me by at least 30 pounds. My husband thinks I have been in denial about her weight but he comes from a family that puts a person value and how much (or little) they weigh. I come from an entirely different place. I am not willing to shame her or talk down to her to make her lose weight. I would rather she have a healthy view of herself and know that every person has value regardless of how much (or little) they weigh. I have spent the past few years working with her on things food items, like making better choices. And for me making sure that there are better choices for her to make. She has also watched me struggle with my weight, so many of the things I preach to her have been b/c I am also practicing them. This is the first year she and I have worked on her physical fitness. I don't expect the scale to move for her, in fact I do not think a 12 year old belongs on a scale but it is time for her to do some sort of daily activity. Which kind of leads me to this 5k. My youngest school did a 9 to 5 program and then at the end all the kids ran a 5k. While she was doing it she kept bugging me about when she was going to get to run a 5k with. She is wishy-washy so I signed us up for one sooner rather than later, which would have been this race if it hadn't rained 4 inches in the 48 hours before it, if the race course wasn't part of the Addicks Reservoir, if the flood district hadn't been controlling the water flow to downtown, if the course didn't end up under 6 inches of water. We had even gone so far as picking up our packets for the race, only to hear that it would be rescheduled. About a week later I got word of the new race date and after lots of discussion she backed out. Just as well, she had been a real PITA while we semi-trained for it. Her wanting to run with mommy had become a chore for her. Clairissa however, took her stepping out as an opportunity to step-up and told me she would take her place. We had 2 weeks to go from her walking a half mile to "running" 3.1 miles with me. She took on the challenge like the champ I know her to be. We started with a half mile loop running 30 seconds and walking 1 minute. As we increased distance we also increased time. In the end we settled on a 1:1 ration which pushed her but it didn't overexert her. We took the time during these training sessions to talk about the things that were going on at school, nutrition, her father, her sister, the lazy big brother, pretty much anything to keep her mind of the fact that her legs hurt or she was getting a cramp. We decided on how we were going to work out training for the next 5k. Finally on Friday we took our last training run and decided to take Saturday off so we would have fresh legs for our run.
If you've ever been in Houston during this time of year, you understand why Houston is the most air conditioned city in the USA. (Not joking, it's a real title.) It has rained for the past few days, not a lot just enough to bring the temps down. Which of course brings the humidity up. It was nice out, before the sun came up. As it came up it was a different story. Things heated up quick. By the time 8am rolled around I am sure it had to be about 80 out. We kind of meandered around. If there is one thing I am, it's early for everything except my birth. If I am late something is normally up. Even when my kids were little, you know when most people us that "I have 3 kids to get ready" thing as an excuse to screw up other peoples' time frames, I never did. If you told me to be somewhere at a certain time there we were, all 5 of us. Anyways... The Race...

I didn't have high hopes for this one. The day we picked up our packets, their facebook page said it would start at 11am, we got to Bike World and were told 12pm, so by the time they finally showed up and were ready to start it was quarter of 1. I am not a big fan of disorganization, I was hoping it wasn't a sign of how race day was going to go. It wasn't. They really had it together. When we got there they were setting up cones and getting the balloon arch ready, with in a few minutes the music was pumping and the jumpers were blown up. This was a really family oriented race. So much so that the kids was free. Not many races will do that, most want every single dime they can get out of ya. 20 minutes before race time they had to very high energy Zumba instructors get the crowd really and warmed up. Zumba is not my things but it did give me and Claire a few bonding moments as we watched a few people look like they were going into convulsions. The race started right on time. Down the trail we went, mainly paved path but a few stretches of grass, we went over two bridges (twice out and back) and I had to laugh at the sign right before the second one that went over the bayou, "Watch out for alligators" and another one that said it wasn't safe to swim here. You would think the alligator warning sign would be enough but who knows, people are so dumb these days. The path is a dual use trail, so there were tons of bikes, lots of "on your left". We managed to about the half way mark with Claire being miserable but I think when she realized how far she had come and what it was that she was accomplishing she dug down and persevered. She could have quit. I would have let her. I would rather her have stopped to walk than injure herself, I would rather her give up to know what giving up feels like so that she can learn from it. Not every challenge is accomplished on the first try, but as long as you keep working at it and don't stop at failure there is nothing that you can't do. It was when we hit mile 3 that I became really impressed with her. Our training included a 100-200 yard dash at the end. Finish Strong is what I call it. We talked about it when we could see the sign, I let it be her decision, are we going to all out sprint or just trot in, she hit that 3 mile sign and killed it, she picked up her feet, ran thru the crowd and crossed that finish line out of breath. I crossed a few seconds behind her. We got buttons instead of medal, they fit into our scrap books nicely. We hit the post race food, tacos, bagels, kolaches, bananas and oranges and water (this one had water yea). We didn't stay for much else. On the way home it hit her what she had just done. She had Gallowayed herself to a 5k run finish. Official finish time 52:07.

Hot air balloon floating over the start line.