The last race I did for 2012 was the Run to Feed the Hungry 5K on Thanksgiving.  I did it last year with Ben and this year, the boys wanted to do it too. I was hesitant to sign them up for it because I didn’t think that they could make it the whole 3.1 miles – especially Seppe. Ben wasn’t going to do it because he hadn’t trained for it like he did last year but said that he would walk with the boys. So I signed us all up :-) Ben’s dad even joined us on race day.

I did not train too much for the race. I stuck to my regular routine for the most part. I ran 3-4 times a week with one long run. My main goal was to beat last year’s time.  I wasn’t confident that I would because my practice runs weren’t showing much improvement from last year at all.

Being away from home made it a challenge to prep.  I got up and got dressed while Ben and the boys were still asleep. My breakfast was a Luna bar and a banana. Once I was ready, I got the boys up and got them ready.  Ben was the last one up, but we still made it to the race an hour before it started.  After picking up our race bibs, we took a family photo in front of the turkeys. Then we went over to the campus cafe that we found last year to stay warm while we waited for the race to start.

Race started at 8:45a. I headed to the front while Ben and the boys stayed at the 10min mile marker. It was the same course as last years, but this time the weather was a lot nicer.  I was cold but still wore shorts. Felt great to run in with sun shining bright. I did manage to beat last year’s time :-)

I waited at the finish line for the boys.  Gio ran with his grandpa – half run/half walked and finished just under an hour.  Ben walked with Seppe and finished just a little over an hour. Gio enjoyed the race and couldn’t wait to run again. Seppe didn’t enjoy it as much. He got upset that he couldn’t keep up with his brother and grandpa. We thought that he had sprained his ankle because he was limping after the race. It turns out that he got a blister on his big toe and it wound up getting infected :-(

This year they didn’t have bags for us so we had to carry all the post race goodies in our hands.  The boys were pretty worn out so we headed back home. We showered and got ready to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family.

I was really glad that we did the race as a family. I am very proud of my boys. I think that with a little training, Gio could do another 5k.  For Seppe, I will have to keep him to the shorter distances so that he doesn’t get too discouraged. Gio and I will be doing this race again next year :-) I know it won’t be too much longer before he will be passing me up.

2011 RunToFeedTheHungry