RACE DAY

Before I leave the topic of this past weekend, I want to mention a little more about our three ladies who ran the race. After all, it was no small feat for any of them.

Our oldest daughter had sprained her ankle during a mountain climb last month. It was the same ankle that she severely sprained during her last year of graduate school at the University of Florida. The timing for such an injury is never good but that injury threatened the timing of her Officer Development School six months later. The injury put her on crutches for weeks and then on to slow extensive rehab. Last month’s injury was not near as bad but was still bad enough to stop her running activities. She had only been running for a week before the Lt. Dan 5K on Saturday. She would have liked a better running time but knew her cardio wasn’t as good as usual yet. Our daughter runs in these kinds of races frequently and it was fun to be there and support her run in this one. She did great.

Our daughter-in-law is famous for joining a cross country team in high school so her sister’s team had enough members. Well, that’s not the famous part. The famous part is that she made a wrong turn on one of the long runs and got lost!! Anyway, this was her first 5K race since those days. In the years since, she has gotten married and had a baby: Lindsay. With Lindsay as her constant companion until our son gets home from work each day, she didn’t train for this race like I think she wishes she had. I think race-day kind of snuck up on her. True to her nature though, she didn’t quit. In fact, she didn’t quit the entire 3.1 miles. She kept going. We’re real proud of her for running the race and finishing it so strongly.

Despite Eileen’s busy schedule, she makes time to run regularly. She doesn’t run mile after mile like our daughter does, but she does run. Eileen teaches all day and then has three master’s degree classes that she is taking. She also finds time to be a wife and mother too!! It’s usually dark when Eileen runs. First, she usually walks with me for my three times a week walk and then goes out again when we get back. She wears a reflective belt although our subdivision is well lit. She then puts a reflective vest on our dog, a shepherd-lab mix. The dog, Ellie, really likes to go on walks and runs. Ellie doesn’t wear the reflective vest because she is black and hard to see. She wears the reflective vest because I want any observers to clearly see that there is a big dog running with Eileen…if you know what I mean. Anyway, Eileen ran about a mile several times a week interspersed with walking. That was her strategy with the Lt. Dan 5K. She would run and walk, run and walk. She hoped to finish the 3.1 miles in less than 45 minutes. She was surprised and we were very happy that she finished in 36 minutes. That’s very much like Eileen, always doing more than could be asked or expected.

So, it was nice that all three had very successful races. It was the kick-off event for a great weekend filled with activities and family time. Finally, since most of my blog readers aren’t linked to me on Facebook, I want to share one more picture. We took Lindsay to the drive-in movie to watch the new Smurf movie. Lindsay spent her time on the blankets which were spread on the ground outside the car on a beautiful night. Well, of course it was dark outside while the movie was playing and Lindsay’s every move couldn’t be seen. After she fell asleep she was put in her car seat. After the movie was over and we came into the light, we saw what had been missed while Lindsay was playing at the edge of the blanket. It looks like she had a fun time!!