The Family That Runs Together Has Fun Together

The Boy and his Sign (and the reason we ran)!

Elijah with his pre race donut!

It started with an idea to do something that would make Elijah feel like he had a little more control over his new life with seizures.  Elijah and I have researched and talked, and talked and talked about how to ensure he can be as independent as possible with a seizure disorder.  Concessions have been made on both our ends, such as he won't enter a body of water by himself, he won't climb on things by himself and he won't play sports where he could land on the top of his head.  The by himself was my concession to Elijah's need for independence, the won't by himself was Elijah's concession to a worried mom.  As we were both learning more about managing his seizures through the Epilepsy Foundation of Georgia, we discovered that they hosted a race every year to raise money for outreach and a camp for kids with Epilepsy.  Elijah wanted to be in control of some aspect of his disease and well, I can't resist the opportunity to have a viable reason to get five kids, one husband and one of their friends up at 5am and running by 7:30! I also promised everyone a soda after the race because they ran for a good cause! I'm not above a little bribery to get the family moving!

I'm not a thing of beauty in this tutu!

In an attempt to convince others, my family especially, that we were really going to run a 5K together, I bet my volleyball team and the family that if I met my individual fundraising goal of $250 then I would complete the entire race wearing a tutu!  For those of you that know me well this is not a bet I took lightly.  You see for the last year and a half that I have been actively running , I have DETESTED (did I make that clear enough) running skirts and tutus! I have rolled my eyes and outright said that such things were stupid additions to the running world and that I would never wear one.  Well today I wore one for a good cause and because a bet is a bet.  Besides, one of my volleyball girls who broke her foot and couldn't run made it for me to run in and would of been very rude not to.  Thank GOD we did not meet the team $1000 goal or I'd be running the race in a running skirt and a tutu!

The kid part of our team ready to run and take turns with the sign!

 It was a beautiful day for a run!  Weather was perfect, the traffic to the race was light, and most importantly, I was able to get all seven of us out the door, pick up Stephen's friend and arrive to the race by 7AM!  Picking up and pinning on race numbers was a new experience for half of us and they're were many questions about having to wear it, what it was for, and most important... when do you get to take it off. I have been the only person to wear a D Tag (a nifty way to have chip timing that doesn't weigh down the race number, which is the best invention ever since I'm kinda attached to my light weight dry fit shirts) so the kids were confused, but delighted to wear them on their shoes! Everyone was pretty impressed with the team sign too, until they realized that they were going to have to take turns carrying it.  Hey, I'm wearing the tutu so I promised myself that I would not be carrying the sign!

The family Kenyan ready to kick all our butts!

At the start we decided to run two by two.  That way everyone would have a buddy and wouldn't be by themselves.  My intention was to put the faster people with the other fast people, but because my family likes to do things their own way a fast person paired up with a slow (read I'm only hear because I have to be and I'm walking this joker)person.  The race started and we started in the back because we were still working on pairings and arguing about who would carry the sign. Colin took the sign first, but handed it off within two minutes to Zeke. Stephen and his friend took off ahead of the group in an attempt not to get passed by the rest of the group.  Then Colin decided he really wanted to run, and my husband who hasn't trained in months volunteered to let him open up and really run! Sometimes adults forget that seven year little boys who run like Kenyan's have boundless energy! After about a quarter mile Zeke and Elijah decided to take off so they wouldn't be beat by the girls in the family and I really didn't mind because they took off with the sign! SO, Josie and I walked and ran down the hills (because I forget my ankle brace in the car)! The boys were so far ahead that they did not get to hear all the great comments I got about the tutu! Despite starting in the back, Josie and I passed Stephen and his friend at mile 2 and at 2.5 miles caught up to Zeke and Elijah who gave us the sign right before they said they would not get beat by a lady wearing a tutu! At the last .1 of the race guess who had to bring the sign home? If you said the lady in the tutu you're the winner!  Of course looking back the carrying the sign wasn't as bad as running with Colin who really did think he was a Kenyan (poor Brian looked exhausted even after a ten minute recovery before everyone came in)!

Me and Brian post race!

Stephen and his friend Kandace realizing they're about to run 3.1 miles!

Earning a tee shirt was new for most of us!  For five of the kids it was their first dry fit tee shirt (hey, maybe I'll have a family of runners yet!). As well as a post race party that involved wet towels, free food (including some really good french toast bagels and cookies), and bouncy toys! The kids were pretty good about letting me get some pictures of one of the few times that they were getting along and playing nicely with each other (could be because they were still not fully awake, or that they were too tired to argue with each other, but I'll take it).  Josie asked if we could make this a family tradition and I'm pretty sure that everyone had a good time.  The older kids and adults were a little embarrassed that a 79 year old guy beat most of us by 20 minutes, but hey it was for a good cause!  Elijah met some other people that were not letting seizures limit them and I was able to see my family have fun doing something I love! Of course an additional benefit of running as a family is that all the kids are ready to go to bed at 8pm!  Yes, I can see many family runs in the future!  After all, the family that runs together has fun together!

One of the few group shots I'll ever get!

Josie will be rocking the tutu next year!