Wet & Wild 5K...

Yup. Had two in a row two weekends here. That was something.
So - Wet & Wild 5K.
After we had signed up for this one, I looked at the course and realized it's similar to the Fair Fun Run meaning there is only 1 really "Fun" thing. You got to run through the Lazy River at Wild Rivers. So, my expectations were already on the low side for this one. This is another one I won’t do again, but I got to experience something totally different this time around.
So, mom decided to sign up for this race. My mom is not an athletic person, and has been frustrated with her weight and the fact that she's out of shape for quite some time now. She's starting to make an effort lately, and I'm hoping I have some influence. I gave her a pedometer, and she's working on the 10K steps challenge I mentioned earlier that my work is doing. She of course can’t sign up since it's through Chapman, but I've made her a little spreadsheet and she's tracking her steps etc. She also attended the Warrior Dash we did back in April to cheer us on, and I believe she noticed the mix of people. The types of races I sign up for, as you know, are not the hard core marathon races. They're fun ones. So they have all sorts of people. Runners, families, people with injuries, larger, smaller, etc. I've told mom she could do some of these and take her time. Do her own pace sort of thing. Hell I'm never in it to win it - I'm in it for a fun different way to exercise. (Although I'm noticing I'm getting a little more competitive, but I'll save that for another blog).
So today's race started out like this:
Robin and her dad met us there (They are runners). D and Court were meeting us there. Lib was supposed to come with mom and me. She didn’t make it. The plan was, D or I were going to walk with my mom so she wouldn’t be alone. It was most likely going to be me & Lib, well now it was just me. And I'm so glad.
I knew this was causing my mom some concern. When we started getting close, she started worrying and lamenting over the fact that she was going to slow us down, and run ahead without her, etc. etc. She was worried she was going to have to stop and rest throughout the race. Worry worry worry. The closer we got, I could tell she was getting a little excited, but still not sure. She got some good walking shoes, she got herself some running shorts and shirts. She was prepared.
As we headed over this morning, I was actually looking forward to taking it easy today. As we ladies all deal with once a month..well yes...and I was extra crampy this morning and my neuroma has been flaring up all week. It wasn’t too bad today, but the thought of not pushing myself too hard today was defiantly pleasing.
After we checked in, got our crap, stretched, battled the nasty porter potties, there we all were in the giant cluster to start the race. Horn blows - we're off. We say goodbye to Robin, her dad, D and Court and mom and I start walking at a decent pace.
I see her start to react as most of us do...noticing we're getting lapped by strollers, children and old people and I see mom start to push it a bit. She tries to jog a couple of times, but is not able. I tell her not to worry, she's keeping up an amazing pace! She truly is. I was honestly surprised at how brisk she was walking. We're chatting, I'm jogging around her encouraging her. She refuses to be lapped by certain folk and speeds up at times. As we near the 1 mile mark she starts to tell me how important this is to her and breaks down. I of course immediately start acting like a jack ass trying to get her to laugh again, but at that moment I realized how hard this is for her. I knew that, but I didn’t realize how much. She can’t get the words out, but she doesn’t have too. We pass the 1 mile mark and I now am even more excited to be trotting around her. She tells me she never thought she could do something like this. She's so proud of herself and excited how well she's doing. I couldn’t be more proud.
We near the 2 mile mark and a couple of women walk past us shouting encouragement to mom - they chat a bit and the woman tells her "You don’t have to be a runner!! You're doing it! Good for you! You go girl!" At this point, I've decided to actually kick my own ass a bit and run backwards in front of mom for a long period of time (which I'm feeling the burn on that one as I'm typing right now...). We're chatting face to face as she's walking and I'm trotting backwards. I can see the determination on her face. I still can’t believe we've gone this far and she hasn’t had to stop and rest.
We finally reach the river portion. We have to wait a moment to get in, and the heat hits mom. She's a bit light headed, but I know once we're in the water she'll be fine. I was right. She's lovin it. She is a fish actually so now she's in her element splashing around as we walk thru the lazy river. Sadly this was only a very short distance. I seriously wanted to run the entire lazy river. Ah well. I help an old man out who’s having a hard time in front of me, and we round the corner to the last leg of the race. I see the finish line. "Mom wanna run it?" We do. D and Court are cheering us on as we pass them and mom crosses the finish line beaming. We did it in under an hour. (I'm guesstimating about 50 minutes).
We get our medals and our bananas and I shove a few waters in her hand making her drink. She did it. I was so proud of her and she was so proud of herself.
This was a race that wasn’t about me at all and I loved watching mom make her goal.
Way to go mom!!