Family run fiasco

Alan and I signed up for a 4 mile run next weekend. The other day I said to him, “How would you feel if I ran a road race on Father’s Day?” and he said “Great, if I can run it with you!” Sooo… we are running a road race next weekend, with the kids in the stroller. Alan had today off so we decided to do a trial run. Easier said than done. Funny enough (now) the running was the least of our trouble. Getting Lex into the stroller turned out to be quite the production. He used to love it, but apparently now insists the stroller isn’t comfortable for him. I actually believe him about that. It doesn’t look that comfortable and his legs are always falling over the edge and the two of them are always piled high with books, snacks, water, etc. It really doesn’t look comfortable. We did some serious negotiating (and only one short screaming match resulting in a trip to his room) and he eventually agreed to come along for the ride. He promised he would do it one more time next weekend and we agreed to never ask him to get in the stroller again. Eek! I hope we can all keep our promises!

Once we got there we did a little driving around and decided the actual course isn’t really safe for a double stroller when the traffic is flowing. They will have traffic control next weekend, so no worries then, but not safe tonight. The first half of the course is along a nice rail trail, so we ran that twice and a little extra parking lot running to total 4.1 miles. I took the stroller for the first half and Alan took it for the second half. Part way into Alan’s turn… the wheel fell off!! Crazy, huh?! Everyone was ok and Alan did some banging with rocks and stuff and got the wheel back on. He said he can fix it properly before the actual race.

My goal for this run is to make it to the end, running. I was thinking today, while running, that every race needs a last place finisher and I may just be that person for this race! It’s a hard job but someone’s gotta do it! :) Wish me luck!

Ready for summer

Tuesday is Lex’s last day of Pre-K. We are ready. He hasn’t been thrilled about going to school the past week or so and I think he’s just ready for a break. I know Eve and I are also ready to be done with the 2x day 20 minute commutes. At pick-up this morning it occurred to me that we wouldn’t just be leaving the school and the teacher behind, but also a whole group of new friends we had made. He and his classmates, but also me and the other parents, and Eve’s daily mini-playgroup with the younger siblings. That made me a little sad. I have lots of phone numbers, of course, so we’ll try to continue visits over the summer, but I did enjoy seeing these people almost daily for the past year. Lex wants to ride the school bus next year, which is something we are considering, but if he does I know I’ll miss getting to see the teacher and other parents every day. It was a great way to get to know people and we definitely made some friends.