Jack and I ran his first 5K Sunday morning in the "Love the Run You're With" Valentine's themed race in Pentagon City. The night before the race my other two friends who were supposed to run bailed due to various illnesses and ominous forecasts of freezing temps with single digits wind chills. If it hadn't been for the fact that I was running the race with Jack I probably would have stayed curled up under my nice down comforter as well. But Jack wanted to tough it out, hockey player that he is, so I decided we'd tough it out together.
To inject some extra excitement into the event, we decided to run the race decked out in Caps gear - matching Caps Winter Classic hats and our Caps jerseys - red for Valentine's day, perfect!
That's me and my sweet boy Jack just before we joined the crowd at the start of the race - a very nice lady agreed to momentarily take off her gloves and take a picture of us before the race. Here is what happened next . . .
8:55 a.m. - Jack and I are standing and freezing along with hundreds of other nut jobs at the start line. I start to feel less nutty when I notice that there are a few lunatics who are actually wearing shorts. SHORTS! It's probably about 20 degrees, below 10 degrees with the wind chill.
8:58 a.m. - Jack and I start fake punching each other as we jump up and down - toes and soles of feet already losing feeling. Start praying that I am not subjecting my kid to frostbite.
9:00 a.m. - And we're off!
9:03 a.m. - Crap - course immediately takes a left turn up an enormous hill. Jack takes off ahead of me and I am left panting and struggling up the hill. I have to stop and walk about halfway - now my feet have lost all feeling and I feel like I'm stepping on sandbags.
9:09 a.m. - Darling Jack waits for me at the top of the hill and we are now cruising along. I notice that a dad (wearing shorts) is running past us with a jogging stroller with a tightly bundled toddler inside. I'm sorry - but if my feet are frozen when I'm in motion, then the kid in the stroller who is NOT in motion is probably even colder. Not a big fan of stroller dad right now.
9:12 a.m. - Hooray! Passing the 1 mile marker. We can do this! Feet still completely numb but rest of body getting a bit hot and sweaty. Re-thinking the extra layers I threw on top and wishing I'd worn extra socks instead.
9:13 a.m. - The fastest runners have turned and are now passing us on the right. We get several shouts of "Go Caps!" intermittently as fellow hockey fans pass us.
9:16 a.m. - Three 20-something girls pass us wearing matching pink shirts. Across their backs are written: "I Heart Sam", "I Heart Dave" and "I Heart ??" Cute. Start having nostalgic thoughts of my younger days but quickly remember all the heartaches of my early 20s and relish the joys of my thirteen year marriage.
9:18 a.m. - Pass a slow-moving pregnant lady who is wearing a shirt that says "Love the Bun You're With". Cute. Start having nostalgic thoughts of my pregnancy/baby days but quickly remember that I'm ten years older now and relish the joys of having two school-age children, one of whom is effortlessly jogging right next to me.
9:22 a.m. - Yey! 2-mile mark. Oh, crap. Shoelace is untied. I bend over to tie it and my phone falls out of my pocket and breaks apart into three pieces. I scramble to pick everything up and get going. Good old Jack jogs in place patiently while his ridiculous mother pulls herself together.
9:28 a.m. - Toes finally starting to thaw out. More shouts of "Go Caps!" from race volunteers on the sidelines. We are nearing the top of the huge hill from the start of the race and high five each other. It's all downhill from here. Jack points out the skyline - the Washington Monument and Capitol are visible from where we run. We smile at each other and don't have to say a word. We both know how lucky we are.
9:32 a.m. - Cruising down the big hill we see a photographer with a huge camera lense pointed right at us. We run past him, arms in the air, euphoria and adrenaline running high.
9:34a.m. - We near the finish line - we made it! As we cross the finish line we hear the announcer say "And crossing the finish line - Matt Bradley and Brooks Laich!" He must be a Caps fan too.
The best part about doing this 5K was that I did it with Jack. It was a nice bonding experience. It's cool to think that Jack and I are creating a completely new tradition that's unique to us. Although I think running in sub-zero weather will not be a repeated part of the tradition - next 5K will be in warmer conditions.
The funniest part was when I got home I quickly looked up our race results and saw that Jack came in 5th place in his age group. If he hadn't slowed down and waited for me as I panted up the hill and scrambled after my phone, he could have come in first place!!
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