Atta Girls!

Today was the Oregon Road Runners Club Summer Solstice event at Clackamas Community College. Part of the event is a free kids 1/4 mile race around the track. We asked LaRue if she would want to be in the race and she said yes, so we signed her up, she got a number and everything, it was so cute. In the above picture she's at the starting line right next to the big boys.Look at that action shot! Here she is coming around the final turn. She did so well, she ran the whole way, and she beat a couple of boys who looked to be about her age.

I ran the last stretch with her so unfortunately I didn't get the crossing the finish line shot, but here she is right after with her participants ribbon. If you look in the background you can see Matilda clapping for her sister. We were all so proud!
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Second half of the post to be titled:
Hip Hip Hooray! I Ran the 5K!
Warning: Highly unflattering picture coming up very soon, it may in fact be too late for your poor eyes.
The other part of the event was a 5K run, and a couple of weeks ago I decided I would give it a try. 5K is really only 3m which definitely doesn't sound as impressive, 5K is definitely the way to go. Well I've been pretty solid on being able to run 2 miles and kind of thought how hard would it be to bump it up to three? So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week I ran 3 miles to practice. So if you think about it, over the week I've run 20K, I'm sounding more impressive by the minute!
Anyway, I had absolutely no grand ideas about doing well, my goal was simply to run the whole thing, and I did!
Regarding that picture I warned you about which you are about to see, I am saddened by the fatness, which makes me very reluctant to post pictures, but I have to live my life right!?This is Len, he finished right in front of me, that's right, in front, I do want to tell you that I was in front of him for most of the way, and I seriously finished the second after he did, I probably could have pulled ahead but would have felt like a major jerk. So instead I'll be a minor jerk and just tell you about it right here. A little further ahead of me was a couple that took turns pushing their double jogging stroller that had a four year old and a two year old in it, that's right, in front of me. That's okay though, Len was really nice and came and talked to me afterward and was very complimentary about how I helped him keep pace and challenged him a little bit. Can I tell you that not only is there a slight age difference, but also that he was running injured. Oh well, I came in 87th out of over 120 participants, I placed 8th in my age group and my time was 31:12, and like I said my main goal was to run all the way and I did so I feel pretty good about the whole thing. Hopefully tomorrow when I go back to 2 miles it will be a piece of cake!
Happy Summer Solstice y'all!