Racing Weekend

It's been almost 7 years (what!?.... where has the time gone?!) since I convinced Mike it was a good idea for us to participate in running a marathon. But when I think back on the days of training, and then running that day, the pains and aches come back as if it were yesterday. We ran our 26.2 miles at Cape Cod on Halloween. Runners were dressed up in colorful hats/outfits, and some supporters took on particularly interesting roles in their costumes: I can still remember as clear as day....this guy that was dressed up as the devil at the bottom of one of the hills. He had the red horns, the red tail, the pitchfork.... the works. As I passed by him getting mentally ready to jog up yet another hill, he waved me by and introduced the hill saying "enjoy, complements of me".... yes, he certainly was the devil!

That marathon was by far the most physically and mentally taxing challenge I've ever had. After it was over, we laid on the couch like jellyfish for the next... well.... couple of years! I never thought I would really ever want to run again.

That being said, I recently signed us up for a 5k run to get us motivated to get into shape again! With Mike planning his first Appalachian Trail hike this summer (with plans for every summer until he finishes it!), we figured it would be a fun way to exercise.

Life at the Silvestro household is of course not complete without our neighbor Mary, so naturally she got roped into training and running the 5K race too! She trained with me as we practiced running around the neighborhood, and has proven to be a loyal and positive running buddy. This was Mary's first race too, and although in the end we decided our goal was to simply finish the race..... she had so much fun running that now she has set her sites on not only running a marathon but winning too. You go Mary!

Here we are on race day

Mike took on the extra challenge of running with the stroller, pushing our personal little cheerleaders. As we started running, Vince kept yelling "go Daddy go!, go Mommy go!, go Mary go!"... soo super cute! And Zoë was just her chilled out little self in the back, waiting to get noticed every once in a while by a runner or walker. There would be the ceremonious double take as they realized "Oh my! there's a second little one back there! How cute!".

During our "training", Mary and I hadn't actually run the whole 3.1 miles that the 5K would be, but we were so pumped and excited with the crowd that we ran the whole thing without walking. We were pretty happy with ourselves. The after party had tons of kids activities, including face painting. Vince got a train and Mary got a butterfly.

Is it me or does this picture look like a budding romance?! So adorable!

Vince helped get the rest of the runners fired up during their last couple minutes in the race, giving them high fives

So will this 3 mile run eventually lead to another marathon? Easy answer: no way. I do think we may try and do every 5K race within a 50 mile radius of where we live though! It was all so much fun!

P.S., anyone want to do this run with us in June? Kyleigh's Cure is a fundraiser for a little girl that lives down the street from us, she's a brave little girl battling an extremely rare life threatening disease.