The Oregon Track Club has a monthly 5K that is open to anyone. Rocky and Kinsley wanted to give it a try. Katie and I were a couple of proud mamas with our mini-mes. They wanted to be running buddies just like their moms are. I have to admit that I was kind of worried because Rocky hasn't really done much running. I tried a little to talk her out of it because it was raining really hard and I didn't want to bundle everyone up and go to the hassle of getting the stroller in the car but she was determined.
The stroller babies all wanted to run too but I knew I would already have my hands full with Rocky. They helped us out by not crying at all even though it was pouring. And by that what I mean is that Rosy screamed her lungs out until every single person at the race knew that I was a horrible mother.
We started out with a lot of excitement and a burst of sprinting and stopping. Rocky stayed with Kinsley for about 5 seconds and then all we saw of the Caves was their backs for the rest of the race. Actually for the majority they were so far ahead we didn't even see their backs. It was okay though because that is how it always goes when I race with Katie. For the first half mile things were bad. Really bad. Rocky was exhausting herself with the bursts of speed and after a few minutes we were the very last runners. At first I tried to peer pressure her into doing better by commenting on how fast Kinsley was going. (If you hadn't already decided that I was a horrible person for making my baby scream now feel free to do it because moms really, really shouldn't sign their 6-year-olds up for a 3 mile race and then insult them. Hang on though because this story ends happily.) I tried to convince her that she should just go for the slow and steady but she didn't believe me. Finally I went for a bribe. I told her that as long as she was jogging I would tell her a story but if she walked I would pause until she was running again. The next two miles she trotted all the way to the end.
She was so proud of herself and I was so proud I could hardly even breathe. She finished just under 43 minutes (Kinsley, in case you were wondering, was around 34...a speed demon at the age of 5. Look for her in the Olympics in a few years. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on her genes.)
I don't know if running will be something that Rocky likes in the future but I do know that I felt pretty lucky to watch her push through her concerns and finish this race strongly. That girl has got some grit.
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