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| Friesen Run with the Canes 5K Course, was more fun than it actually looks |
Owen decided, all by himself, that he was going to run the 26.2 miles needed to do his school's "marathon" this year. The kids need to run 26.2 miles over the course of a few months and at the end, if they finish, they get a medal. Owen got about half to the goal last year when he decided to quit. It was so painful to get him to run at that time that I allowed him to give up, even though I was disappointed, so that I could end the misery for both of us. Of course when the time came for the other kids to get medals, he cried when he didn't get the medal. It was very sad but a good lesson learned...you have to earn it. So this year, I didn't push it, but he said he really wanted to try again and would finish the program this time. This time around, I mostly let him decide when we'd run and how far. I mentioned the Run with the Canes race to him to see if he wanted to try to get 3.1 miles done in one shot. Since he did so well finishing the Dutchman Downs 5K in July, he was eager to try this race.
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| Shoe chips ready! |
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The race had a very nice tribute for the 10th anniversary of Sept 11th
On the morning of the race, we headed to the RBC center and we got our race bibs, t-shirts and chips for our shoes and were ready to go! Grace was sick that morning so she and Keith stayed home. Before the race started, they did a nice tribute in memory of those who lost their lives on Sept 11th, 2001. Then the players and Pete Friesen got up on the stage to say a few words about the race. It was great to see so many players there. Unfortuately I didn't really plan ahead that well to figure out which hockey player was which, and without their jerseys on, it was hard for me to tell. So we really didn't feel right about going up to get pictures or autographs since it's kind of embarassing when you don't know who they are. Eric Stahl was the only one I really recognized, well and Stormy the mascot! |
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| Checking out the merchandise in The Eye |
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| Pre-race photo in The Eye |
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| Blending in with the jerseys |
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| Canes team on stage |
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| Owen at the race start |
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| Looking good in the first mile |
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| Made it to mile 2! |
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| Owen taking off right after he told me he was stopping to rest! |
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| Sprinting to the finish |
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| Basking in the post race glory |
Soon it was time to line up for the race. Lots of kids were there but most were running the fun runs (50 and 100 yard dashes) so Owen got a lot of surprised looks from other runners when he lined up for the 5K. But he was an old pro at this now, since this was his second one! He looked a bit nervous so I just told him to stick by me and walk if he needed to. There were a lot of runners at the start so we got pretty far back so that he wouldn't get trampled and started off with a slow jog when the race began. The first part of the race is through the RBC center parking lot which sounds dull but it was kind of nice actually. The race then goes past the NC State stadium and onto some of the local roads. I was surprised at how much running Owen did. He really seemed to enjoy the race and didn't complain but instead thought it was pretty funny to tell me he was going to walk and then he'd take off sprinting once I slowed down. As we entered the RBC parking lot again, we sprinted to the finish line and Owen finished his second 5K race!
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| Race results |
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| Pancakes! |
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| Owen promised to wear this hat if I bought it |
I was really proud of Owen for running the race because
he wanted to, not because
I wanted him to. I was glad he was able to finish the whole race. He wasn't even upset that he didn't get a medal, which is a big step for him. After the race they served pancakes which we enjoyed and then went over to watch the kids dashes and got a photo taken with Stormy. Then we went into The Eye (Hurricanes store, which was conveniently open for the race) and got a few things (Canes flag, puck head hat, etc) and headed out to meet Grace and Keith for brunch since Grace was feeling better. While it was by far the slowest official 5K race I have ever run, I had the best time because Owen really enjoyed it!
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| Stormy! |
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