Boys Town Memorial Days Runs 2015

This weekend Oliver and I again took on the races at Boys Town for Memorial Day. It is a great family friendly race event and I highly recommend it if you’re in Omaha for the holiday weekend.

Warming up before the race

We’ll start with Oliver’s race. As you guys know, Oliver broke his leg at the beginning of April. He got his cast off in the first week of May and we’ve been watching his walking and running gradually get better over time since then but it is slow. We didn’t decide until the week of the race that he would really run this little 400 meter run. He loved it last year and has been looking forward to it this year as well. He still has an awkward gait, with his leg really externally rotated and not bending completely normally. The orthopedists warned as that this would continue for the rest of the summer. Despite that, he’s been getting stronger and faster every day and was excited to run, so we decided to let him try it.

He told me he needed a hat for running because they were cool.

He was really excited and took off really quickly at the start-fast enough that I was caught off guard and had to weave through a bunch of kids to catch him. After 100 m or so, he started to slow down and got passed by a lot of people which frustrated him.

A quick start!

He got up on the sidewalk to walk and then he said he wanted to sit down. I convinced him to keep walking for another 100m or so and then he wanted me to carry him for a bit. I certainly didn’t want to push things, so I picked him up and we walked the course together for a bit.

Pooped and taking a break 😦

We approached the corner where the course proceeded to the finish line and I asked if he wanted to run again. We were very near the back of the pack (and may have actually been last) so all of the people on the street just had him to focus on, which was cool. People were calling out his number and as I told him that those people were cheering for him got this super determined little look on his face. His leg is still wonky and he slowed the longer he ran, but I’m so proud of him for sticking with it.

Coming down the finish line all alone – what a tough guy!

He was excited to get his ribbon and sunglasses and bottle of water (the bottle of water was the most exciting).

I think we’ll get a lot more use out of the sunglasses than last year’s frisbee. The ribbon is already on deck to be taken to show and tell tomorrow!

It’s really a great little run and the crowd support was wonderful. After the race, Darrell & Oliver went off to watch the dancers, play with clowns and meet Batman while I went off to run my 5 mile run. There was definitely a lot of stuff to keep my guys busy while I ran.

Meeting Anna and Elsa kept them busy, along with Batman and dancers and lots of other things. They didn’t actually see me run at all!

I had no real goals for the race other than finishing in around an hour, running all of the downhills and running at least half of each uphill. It sprinkled on us off and on and between the humidity and the hilly course, I had no plans to push anything. This is going to be a month of EASY running for me. 🙂

The course is hilly, but nicely tree lined and with some good scenery.

I enjoyed seeing all of the families running and the many glimpses of the spectators (the course loops near the central hub of the campus several times so it is easy to move around to see your runner several times). The volunteers were also really friendly and enthusiastic with their cow bells. All in all, it was a good run.  I didn’t have my Garmin, so I don’t know any splits but it felt like a steady effort. I confess did kick it in a bit in the finishing stretch, A) remembering O’s great effort and B) the older guy just in front of me kicked it up at the end and I decided did need to pass him. My finishing time was 57:49, definitely less than my goal of an hour even if it didn’t beat last year’s time. We’re definitely going to keep this on our family race calendar. It’s a great way to spend the morning and supports a good cause, so it’s a win-win. Eventually, O will even grow into his race t-shirts he’s gotten for this event the last two years.

Do you run races with your kids (human or fur)? My races with O are such a treat! He got to dance out on the gym floor while I was running and as much as he loved  that, he says he liked the running best, which warms my little Mother Runner heart. 🙂

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