October 22, 2010
The kids' school organized a cancer research fundraiser run for all the kids and families to do on a school day. It's called the Terry Fox Run, dedicated to a cancer survivor who ran across Canada even after losing a leg to cancer. The kids' Uncle Peter is struggling with cancer now too, just having gone through a couple surgeries. We were thinking of him during his post-op recovery, and we dedicated our run to him. We hope it helps him heal.
Each time the kids ran the circuit, they would get a stripe on their arm. I ran with Griffin, then Abraham, then Alice, so I proudly sported my many stripes by the end. By the way, the stripe reward totally works! I was dying to get more stripes. In fact, I found myself pushing Griffin to get one more stripe after he was clearly exhausted from having run like a thoroughbred out of the gate, not having paced himself at all. Actually, none of the 3rd grade boys paced themselves, after all the smack talk beforehand.
Alice, on the other hand, sped ahead at a logical pace but still managed to look like a long-legged gazelle as she ran. I had to cut to keep up with her. No, I wasn't just trying to beat the 6 year olds, but I didn't buy it when they called it a "fun run" rather than the race it really was.
I joke but let me be honest...When my running group friends joined me for the first run with the 3rd grade kids, I ran fast, showing off to the parents on the sidelines. I even convinced one of my mom friends to run "tempo," meaning sprinting a bit, then running, then sprinting past the 8 year olds again. When I heard her yell to an exhausted 3rd grade runner, "Get to the left, passing on your right! Stay left when running to let the faster ones through!", I knew I was officially reaching middle age, crisis and all.
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