Siesta Key Kid's Summer Beach Run

We were at the beach on Tuesday morning doing our normal vacation thing when I saw a banner advertising this 1 mile kids fun run hosted by the Manasota Track Club and New Balance Sarasota.  I asked Lucas is he wanted to do it and he enthusiastically said yes, and of course hatched a plan to get Eliza to do it with him.

Race preparation for an event of this magnitude is serious business.  They got dressed in their "running clothes," for Lucas that meant swimming trunks and a t-shirt, and Eliza donned her brand new Tempo Shorts.  They also both needed GPS watches, because they obviously needed to know their pace.  Most importantly Lucas wore his brand new Nike running shoes.  Everyone who has ever been four knows that new shoes make you really fast, so this was key to a successful race.

While we ate dinner in the condo they ran around doing pushups (which lean towards looking like a seizure when done by a 4 year old), and other various unrecognizable warm up moves.  They were mildly excited, and we hurried them off to the beach to avoid breaking anything else in the condo.

They paid their $1 registration fee, and we headed down to the yellow lifeguard tower for the race start.   

Leigh provided a very animated motivational speech.

 Then they waited in the coral for the race to start.  At one point Eliza turned to Lucas asking "Lukie, are you scared?"  He had his game face on, so of course he answered no.

And then they were off...

After a bit of parental encouragement, and a couple of (short) walk breaks the parents peeled off and they kicked it all the way to the finish line.  There was even an announcer at the finish, who said "hey we've got a race here" when he saw the two of them sprinting together to the finish.  Little did he know there was no thought of competing against each other in those little minds.  Along the way Lucas cheered Eliza on saying "you can do it Eliza!"  They ran side by side right through the finish line.

Then the most important part of the race; ribbons and freezies.

You have to check out your stats at the end...

It was about a 14 minute mile.  Not too shabby!

The kids were quite pleased with themselves.  Eliza kept telling us she "completed the race," and Lucas informed us that even though he felt really tired he kept running.  I think their dorky parents were even prouder.  It's fun to see your kids being brave enough to try something new, to succeed at something challenging, to encourage each other, and to feel proud of their accomplishments.  Lucas is eager to run when we are here again next year, and is "going to practice like Mommy and Daddy to be even faster next time."  Guess we have to find ourselves a good 1 mile training plan ;)