Olivia's First 5k

Olivia participated in her first 5k this morning.  She and her friend Hannah had both been wanting to try a 5k, so Hannah's mom and I registered the girls for a local race.

 I must confess that I was a little nervous about how Olivia would do.  She had never run this far before, and I didn't know what to expect.  I was worried that she would have a breakdown in the middle of the race.  I even thought about trying to run with her myself, even though I'm not suppose to run for another week (due to my stress fracture).  My friend Darby was already planning to run in the race, and she graciously offered to stay with Olivia.  This calmed my nerves a lot.

The race began without a hitch. Owen and I waited for the girls at the finish line. With the way the finish line was arranged, you could see the runners approach from about a quarter mile away.  I was watching for people that I knew to cross when I saw a little girl in a pink jacket round the corner. I thought to myself "that looks like Olivia".  I looked at the clock and it was only at about thirty four minutes or so.  I wasn't expecting Olivia to finish until about the fifty minute mark, so I thought "no, it's too soon to be her". I looked again and lo and behold, it was Olivia!   She crossed the finish line at 36.00 on the dot.  I about fell over.  This is a great time for a first 5k.  I could not believe that she did as well as she did.  Darby said that she did great and kept a good pace the whole time.  And what's even better is that she liked it and has already asked to do another.  A few minutes later, Hannah came through the finish and the girls celebrated their victory with hugs and high-fives.

Owen also ran well today completing the fun run in 13.06.  He ran this race all by himself and did a great job.  He has not expressed any interest whatsoever in trying a 5k, so he'll be sticking with fun runs for the time being.