I saw an advertisement for this race months ago and kept a tab open on my computer but was slow to get the ball rolling. I mentioned it to Olive recently as she had a wonderful experience buying running shoes with my dad when he was here for June's birthday. She ran laps within the store and wouldn't stop talking about how fast they made her run. So I presented the idea of a race to her and she was more than willing to spend $10 of her Christmas money to sign up.
Yesterday I asked Olive to pick out her running outfit. She picked out three pairs of coordinating socks (just in case she needed extra padding as the shoes are a wee bit big), an orange shirt with a monkey on it, a specifically requested pair of blue shorts packed away from last summer's clothes, and underwear. The underwear had monkeys on it as well as blue and orange hearts... duh.
We're not early risers so last night we had to set our alarms and hurry to get out the door on time. Thankfully Tyler and June were also able to come along. We hoped in the car (quite excitedly) and headed to the University of Minnesota campus.
We walked through some chilly wind and made it to the fieldhouse. Once we got inside we signed in and grabbed Olive her number.
Pre-K was first and could run with parents anywhere from one to four laps.
Olive said she didn't need to run with me but we eventually agreed on running one lap together (I had a backpack and camera so I didn't want to run more, even if she wanted me to). She told me that she would drop me off at the finish line.
The photos with so many kiddos and parents are pretty amusing. So much going on. So many abilities. Some confusion. Tons of fun.
Oh, I have to point out that my photos are really not very good - I brought the wrong lens. My 70-200 is a great sport lens but it's way too big to bring along with kids in tow to something like this. I grabbed a zoom lens but I should have taken a prime because I needed something fast. Action plus the low light of a fieldhouse means a zoom lens is a terrible choice. And I knew that. Whoops.
There's Olive looking behind her as she runs. Not the best strategy.
She did and then ran three more laps.
June just wanted milk the entire time.
Looking through the photos it's funny to see so many people during the second lap, fewer in the third, and almost none in the fourth. I assume that means she was one of the few, if not the only, to run four laps in her heat.
After her fourth lap the staff pointed her toward the finish because she was headed for another lap. I met her there and she was a little disgruntled to have to stop running. She didn't want to go get a medal. But after a little encouragement we grabbed it, a scarf, and a bottle of water.
And then she went out for one more lap during another pre-K heat.
This time when she was ushered to the finish she was a bit more upset and Tyler had to pick her up and take her to the finish... she was flailing and cried a little. All she wanted to do was run!
So that was five laps with no problem. Four laps is a half mile. Between then and leaving a few people came up to her to say she did a great job and maybe she'll be a runner when she grows up! When editing the photos I zoomed in to see quite a few people watching her with happy faces as she was basically the only kiddo running so many laps and without a parent.
To see more photos of Olive running check out the gallery here.
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