the turn around…

…was Andrew’s answer when I asked him ‘what’s your favourite part of the race'?’ Haha! I laffed because I understand completely.

The race was the Hustle for Hunger. (10k and 5k Results here if you need’em) It’s the 3rd anniversary of my 2nd race ever. It’s a pretty small race as there is a big competing race the same day, but was perfect for the 3 of us. Here is Andrew during the warmup. (in his new shoes too!)

He ran his first race of 2012 and finished 2nd place behind an eight year old. It was a fantastic little 3k along the Bow River from Eau Claire out to the west and back. We did a walk run, about a 3:1 ratio. He was quite proud to finish and had many congrats and high fives at the end. He finished in 27 minutes.

After the race we decided to stick around for the awards and draw prizes even though in more than 80 races Traci or I have yet to win a single thing. We enjoyed a burger, some cookies and coffee and just soaked up the post race atmosphere. Andrew was quite curious about all the prizes as they called bib after bid. He says ‘when are they going to call my number?’ I told him that it probably wasn’t going to be called. Nice Dad huh? I did ask him if he was to win, would he go up to get his prize? YEah! was the emphatic answer.

Well lo and behold we hear “Next for a gift card from the Running Room, bib #61” Andrew looks at me and says ‘That’s my number!’

Well, up to that point, people were just going up and grabbing their prizes to little fanfare, but as Andrew walks up to the front, it’s like one big collective ‘Awwwwwwwwwwwwww’ and a huge applause goes up as he smiles from ear to ear collecting his $10.00 gift card. More high fives.

He loved that. Along with another $10 cert we have, we are going to get a proper running jacket for the little Pre.

He just freaking loves to run. I am so proud of us that we could give him that. He’ll never know anything different. So cool. He is registered in his first marathon too. He runs 41km total in training over the next 2 months, then at the Calgary Marathon he runs the final 1.2kms in a full on race.

Traci has a 6k mountain run on Mothers day Soap Co. race in Canmore, then the Calgary Marathon 5k, then the Stampede road race. She has the bug again too.

I have been really enjoy having my ass handed to me 3 days a week at TKO, and have started to mix in some runs now. I’ve been going to TKO steady for a month and I have now built up some core strength and increased my functional cardio to a point where I feel really good and strong on the run again. I let myself become such a jellyfish that I really wasn’t enjoying toiling on the run anymore.

But now I’m feeling really quite optimistic… so there’s that!

All else is pretty good. It amazes me that almost exactly one year ago our world was falling apart and we were in for a long shitty life path, but now we are through that and are making amazing plans and enjoying each day to the fullest! If you are facing tough times just bear down and do all the things you have to do, give up the anchors of your life especially the emotional ones, but make sure to take care of the ones closest to you. All the sacrifices are worth it in the end if you can be true to your family. It’ll make sense in the end, I promise.