We ran!

This morning, my sister Courtney and I ran the Cook Forest 5K. This was my Christmas present to Courtney, to come out to Pennsylvania and run with her in her first race. It was pretty exciting/logistically challenging. The race was about an hour and a half away, so we had a drive to contend with. Then there are the twins, who are eleven months old (enough said about that, I think). A babysitter was called, the big kids loaded up, the cold-weather gear accounted for, and we were off.

As it turned out, the sun was up and it ended up feeling pretty warm. But boy, were we cold to start. It was a gorgeous course, right along a burbling river. Felt very Colorado, with lots of pine trees and hills all around. By far the prettiest course I've run.

I tried to document the occasion as best I could. I even took some very shaky Blair-Witch-type video that is a little too motion-sickness inducing to post (also, I don't know how to get it off my phone and onto this blog. Maybe I'll put it on facebook instead. Social Media FTW!).

First things first: we decided there would be no stopping.

All checked in, we attached our timing chips to our shoes. Sadly, this race did not have bibs, so the iconic keepsake of one's first race doesn't exist. Nor do we have any of those "Hey look at us, we are clearly runners, do you see these numbers on our chests?" photos.

Brrr! Until we began running, we were cold. It was in the low 30s, I think. Warmed up to around 40 by the end of the race. The kids were in good spirits, in spite of the face Austin is making here.

Nothing like a little snack while waiting for people to start (and finish) a race.

Here's Esther and Zach ready to cheer us on. 

Austin made an awesome sign that said GO MOMMY AND MEGAN. Seriously, it was the best.

This is Courtney when she saw Austin's sign. It actually made her tear up a little.

Hooray! We did it!