{ Santa Shuffle 5K }

Right before Thanksgiving Aaron and I planned out all the way through December all the activities we wanted to do over the holidays. Running the 5K Santa Shuffle at the kids Middle School was one of our first activities. Aaron and Austin were the two that signed up, and the rest of us came as their cheering section. Austin had never run a 5K before, but was sure he could do it. He is a great runner-I think since the time he could walk this kid has never walked anywhere. He is always running! The race was to start at 9am-and we were right on time. By the time we got there though all the racers were lining up. Austin and Aaron ran to sign in, grab their numbers and bags with goodies in it and headed to the starting line. I unloaded kids, and went to meet them at the start when we realized they hadn’t grabbed any pins to pin on their numbers. I ran (my 5K for the day) back to the gym for some, but by the time I was back out front, the racers had already left. Needless to say my 5K time wasn’t quite fast enough.

They had the road blocked off almost all the way back to our house, where they would then turn around and come back. We tried to keep ourselves warm since it was a bit chilly out, and figured out our plan for cheering them at the end and taking pictures. The road the school on had  some trees in the front area that are in front of the parking lot where the finish line was set up.

Brianna and the girls were going to stand out by the road until they saw them coming then come running through the trees for a short cut to meet us at the finish line. That would be our cue they were coming. Me and the little boys decided to hang out by the finish line as a few fast runners started coming in. All of a sudden we see the girls running through the woods. We figured that they were bored of waiting out there and decided to join us. We look up the hill though and here come Aaron and Austin! They had rushed off to run they didn’t even have their numbers on..they came in running and shouting their numbers. They ended up being the 6th and 7th place overall and both won for their age divisions!

We were so proud of them. We were hugging and jumping up and down. Poor Austin was hurting pretty bad. He was amazing! Aaron pushed him so hard and loving just like the awesome dad he is.  We were so happy for them, and this lady to the side was smiling and I could hear her say, “That must be his mama”, in her best southern voice. I am his mama, and proud as could be!

We waited for the rest of the group to slowly trickle in, cheering on the runners as they would come by. They had music going for the kids to dance and snacks for the runners. At the end they each got a trophy and a gift certificate for a running store in town.

We are so proud of our runners!!!!