Sam Ran His First Race!

(First, i have to apologize, but i royally messed up the pictures (size) when i went to upload them off my camera. I was using my Mac, something a little different than the norm, and inadvertantly reformatted several pictures' size, permanently, to much smaller than usual. A decent amount of cursing was had, but i chalked it up to "Live and Learn." I did learn. Won't happen again. I still love my Mac.)

The 26th Annual Pop Can Fun Run hosted by Corning Hospital happened this past Sunday at 12:30pm. I had heard about this run a few years ago from my friend Christa, because her little boy, who was 3 at the time, ran, and came in first place! I think his picture even made the local paper. I had forgotten about it til Christa reminded me it was coming up; Sam's first "official" physical sport/competition. I'm eager for him to enjoy sports. He's always talking about playing baseball someday. I'll be sitting right there buddy, even though i really can't stand baseball. Maybe Sam'll convert me.

Anyhoo... I registered Sam a few days before. Got his race packet: Teeshirt (the smallest was still too big), race course, race number and pins. I loaded the boys up in the double stroller at noon and headed down, stopping by Natalie's along the way to pick her up (her help in watching Thom was extremely helpful - THANK YOU!). Soon the place was full of kids and green teeshirts! It was the perfect day: sunny blue skies, warm and breezy. Unfortunately Ron had to work.

The race is for kids ages 2 (!!) through 10, broken into heats, age/sex. So: first girls, age 2, then boys, age 2, and so on. Sam's race was the fourth one. I had him watching the first ones to get the idea. I had been "pumping him up" for 2 days with the Winner Talk and Run the Fastest Talk. All enthusiastically, of course. I was getting a kick out of his pre-race SMACK TALK! "Bring it!"

Soon it was TIME TO LINE UP, BOYS AGE 3. Sam and i got a spot on the line, listened to the dude with the megaphone and the rules and soon enough, it was "On your mark... get set... GO!"



AND WE WERE OFF!!! Parents are allowed to run ALONG SIDE children up to age 4, but if i help him or carry him, he's not eligible for a medal (1st-3rd place) or ribbon. Makes sense to me. I had no idea what i was in store for. I had a feeling Sam would run, but sometimes he can flake out for no reason when i least expect it (Mom's of toddlers know this!), so i was rolling with it all on this day...

BUT SAM RAN! And in fact, for the first 1/18th of the race (hehe...), HE WAS IN THE LEAD!!! But soon i noticed these steam engine kids blowing ahead and now i was just focused on the positive encouragement to GO GO GO BUDDY! Sam was smiling just about the whole run (a block's length), which made ME smile!



AND HE CROSSED THE FINISH LINE. Nope, he wasn't first, second or third, but he was somewhere in the middle and definitely not last and definitely not a crying heap on the road. There were a couple of those at the back. My little boy finished and gave me a big HIGH FIVE at the end, all sweaty and red faced.

Then said, "can we run it again?" Aw.

Next year, buddy. What a fun tradition. I loved the scene and it will be fun for me (and the boys) to do this every year.

So you might be wondering, as i had: Since the race is called the "Pop Can Fun Run," does that mean that Sam has to drink a can of pop at the end? No, this is not LITERAL. Yes, there are indeed cans of pop, free, to every runner, but there were also the healthier alternatives, one of which Sam picked (juice) and sucked right down. Then a hamburger. And Sam did get a blue ribbon for his participation.

So remember Christa's son i mentioned at the beginning, who won when he was three? Well, he kicked some major BUTT this year, age 5. He's clearly got a little runner in him. And he had to run up the block and BACK (starting at age 5). He was easily a good 15-20 yards ahead of the closest boy behind him. That was a lot of fun to watch. He just might take first place every year til age 10!