Off to the races...

Today marked the Raleigh Run for Life. It's an annual pro-life event that this year raised funds for Galilee House, a home for unmarried pregnant women in need. There was a one-mile fun run, followed by a competitive 5k. Prior to the 5k, I ran the fun run with Cyprian, which was his first official race. So, it was off to the races...

By the time Rosemary took this second picture, the race was nearly over. It was an arduous mile to say the least, including bathroom breaks and some pretty intense rock collecting. It's safe to say that Cyprian is leaning more toward a career as a minerologist than as a professional runner. As he told the young lady who was doing face painting, "I'm not going to do it next year. It made my legs hurt."

That said, he did put a brave face on it and eventually crossed the finish line...

My St. Thomas More co-coach and I encouraged our runners to do the 5k as a sort of pre-season race, and I decided to run it too. I haven't been running very much, so I won't share my time, except to say that it was about a minute slower than my last 5k about a year ago. I'd like to say that I won the race, but the most I can say, after being passed in the last half-mile by a speedy young person of the opposite gender, is that I was the first male overall. Ouch. I'll probably take a little teasing for that.

Our STMA group--runners, siblings, coaches, parents