The Big Race

So last weekend we signed Ellie up for her FIRST race. Granted, it was an incredibly last minute decision as Ryan and her were just at the Glass City Marathon Expo checking things out. BUT of course Ryan realized that he had failed to enter his own daughter in the kids' version of the race that he had done so much planning and organizing for here in Toledo. To him, that was just not acceptable. :)
Soooo, because she had on her good running shoes, he signed her up 45 min. before the race began. She was wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt (it WAS a chilly day) but oh well, she was gonna run and they were both pumped. I got the phone call with 30 minutes to spare. I happened to be in the bathtub, so I jumped out, woke Emma up from her nap and flew over to UT's campus. I found a parking spot, which happened to be WAAY too far away. BECAUSE...I ended up having to throw Emma on my back, grab the cameras, and run, yes RUN (33 weeks pregnant) across campus to make it in time. I wasn't gonna miss this race. And I didn't!

She was so adorable. They stretched, did some warming-up exercises (Ellie needs some help with her push-ups. I'm not even going to put in writing on here what it looked like she was doing). Ha! But then the race began and El was off. She stayed right at the front and was more focused and determined than I ever thought a 5 year old would be in an event like this. I don't think she really knew that she was in a race, she just RAN (not even all that hard or fast...just ran because we told her to run and follow the guys in the yellow shirts). I loved it. Ryan, Ems, and I had a blast watching her. We all clapped and cheered as she crossed the finish line. Enjoy the pics!