Running From Birth: Year Six

Those of you who’ve been around these parts for awhile know that Nathan has done a race at Disney every year since he was born, starting with the diaper dash when he was just shy of ten months old. (Technically, he’s done more than that, if you count the two Disney races – 5K and half marathon – that he completed with me when he was in the womb…)

So last Thursday I loaded up the car and, after dropping Sarah Kate at school, Nathan and I took off for the Orlando area once again (recall I had just come back from taking Sarah Kate to Universal the week before). Clearly I did not think this plan through when I scheduled back-to-back driving trips to Orlando so close together.

The other kinda-crazy thing I did was sign Nathan up for the mile. I’ve been sitting here typing this post and reflecting on the whole thing and I’m still not sure what I was thinking. In the weeks leading up to the race, I took him walking around the neighborhood a few times that equaled a mile or more and called his training good. I tried not to think about his only other attempt at the mile.

I also, um, didn’t tell him about the race.

I mean, eventually, I did…just not until we were already in Orlando, and I phrased it as if the idea had just occurred to me once we arrived. Being a person who lives in the moment, he was, of course, totally on board.

Anywho…we lined up at the start corral and snapped a few photos. He was in fine spirits and not nervous at all, because he had no idea what was coming other than Nathan Runs™.  While we were waiting, I heard a man say my name and turned around to find the man who made Sarah Kate feel a little bit famous at a race last year. One thing I will never get used to as a blogger is having total or near-total strangers ask questions such as, “Did you enjoy your trip to Universal?” I guess there’s a little part of me that writes stuff under the delusion that no one but friends and family read it, when I know that’s not true.

We were in the final of three waves, and when they signaled the start, Nathan took off. He wasn’t very fast – his running was playful and wasted a lot of energy, but he kept it up most of the first quarter mile. After that, he started to get winded and would stop running. Rather than continue walking while he caught his breath, he just stood there, and when he felt better he’d run again.

As you can imagine, his technique did not lead to a speedy finish.

Once past the half mile point he had slowed down considerably, although high fives and a hug from a couple of nice Disney representatives got him going again. At around three-quarters of a mile, he started saying, “Up” (i.e., he wanted me to pick him up). I told him I couldn’t pick him up but if he would finish I would give him a Skittle.

He used his “Run. Stop. Breathe. Repeat.” technique to finish the race, where he found Mickey waiting.

And he didn’t just see Mickey, or get a high-five from Mickey…he got a personal escort across the finish line. Lots of faster runners turn up their noses at the folks in the back of the pack, but sometimes that’s where the magic happens. 🙂

The Epilogue

Nathan’s official finish time was 21:28 (the race was actually chip-timed). Although it looks in the photos like Nathan is the last runner in, he actually wasn’t; at least two kids were behind him, but way out of view. Perusing the official results, I found a number of kids with slower times – some of them were probably in the first or second wave and able to finish ahead of him even though they took longer.

And because every runner needs to be a spectator every once in awhile, we got up early on Sunday morning to cheer the marathoners…

…and get the best selfie ever.

Happy Thursday.