See Jane Run

I was sooooo proud of Amelia and Evelyn tonight.

But lets start at the beginning...

Back in June the girls' school participated in a 5K run. Very non-competitive, more of a fun-run/walk for French schools in the area. This year Amelia came home kind of down. She said that she wished she could run it, that she had the ability to actually run a decent chunk of it. I told her that for sure she could do it if she was willing to put in a little bit of work. She really wanted to so we sat down and made some goals. We looked up learn-to-run programs for young girls and committed to running 3 times a week. We found a calendar we could track her distances and time in so she could see her progress and found a Halloween run in October to work toward.

The last 4 1/2 months have not been easy and it's been a learning curve for me too. The hardest part was finding the time to run. Early mornings are out because they're too early with Rene having to leave for work by 6:30am. Evenings are too unpredictable.  So we finally settled into a habit of running as soon as Rene gets home from work. I try to have dinner half ready or at least prepped so he can finish up and we can come home to a hot meal on the table.

Next hurdle, how do you keep a 9-year-old and nonathletic mother motivated? Add an energetic 7-year-old to the mix. It didn't take too long before Evelyn wanted to join in on the runs. Also add a crazy 2-year-old dog who really needs to get out and work off some energy. We also found a favourite place to run. A nice flat trail that has km markings every 1/2 km.

We didn't always want to get out but with the addition of the Halloween run looming in the background it was usually enough motivation to get us all running.

Thankfully on Thanksgiving weekend a treasure box of old dance costumes were discovered which sealed the deal. Add yet another reason Aunt Becca rocks!

The week before the run was the first time we ever ran 4kms so I wasn't sure how 5 was going to go on the day off but figured we'd get to the end no matter what. The day of the girls were pretty pumped. They were in their costumes as soon as they got home from school. Flashlights were found and readied (the run was at night) and water was stocked. We got to the run with plenty of time to enjoy face painting and balloon animals. I made the girls hold off on the free pizza, hot chocolate and gobs of candy being handed out and told them they could have their heart's desire AFTER the run.

I forgot how energizing participating in a run like this is. I've only done a couple in my life and this was by far the most fun. Probably because I was doing it with my girls but something about being behind a space-ship stroller, surrounded by minions, monsters, farm animals and grapes made the night a little more magical.

When the starting bell rang, the girls were off. And when I mean off, they were OFF. I kept asking if the needed a break and got an unequivocal no every time. We ran for over 10 minutes before one of them finally needed to stop, and even then they were ready to get back at it after 30 seconds. The furthest we'd got in our training was 3.5 minutes before breaking for 1.

We crossed  the finish line at just over 40 minutes to find a surprise personalized cheering section of Grandma and Aunt Erica.

What a fun night. Santa Shuffle, here we come.