Freedom 5K

On the 10th of December, Daniel, Shiloh, and I ran in the Freedom 5K. The race benefits the Folds of Honor Foundation which provides educational scholarships to the children and spouses of military men and women who have been wounded or killed while serving. It was a great race with a patriotic, supportive atmosphere. Race day turned out to be cold but sunny - perfect! The course was part trail/part road - a nice change from the typical road race. I was a little worried about Shiloh because she's never run on trails. I needn't have worried. With just 200 yards to go, I was still ahead of her (shocking!) but then she BLEW right by me. Without even a HELLO, MOMMY or WAY TO GO, MOMMY she just flew past me. Rude. That's what that is. :) Turns out, she didn't even realize she was passing me; she was focused on beating the guy next to her. She ended up getting first place for her age group (and first place for the age group above hers), and I ended up getting first place in MY age group. I never win anything at these races! I didn't get a big head, though, since I had already seen the times for my age group the year before. I wouldn't have broken the top three for the year before; I just had a slower group this year. :) Daniel had a great race as well, but he had NO CHANCE in his age group...there were some ringers who clearly ran together - at 19:21, 19:22, and 19:23. Not Kenyans, but close. :) We had such a fun day that we'll definitely do the race next year (providing the doctors can figure out what's wrong with Daniel's foot!). One other fun thing about the race is that everyone ran with either an Army bib or a Navy bib (because it was the day of the Army/Navy game.) Whatever team had the first 50 participants cross the line would win a prize package for the whole team. Army won! We got free long-sleeved t-shirts and a new pair of Ininji running socks. Fun! Love me some free stuff!

Here's Shiloh at the finish line. The official photographers didn't catch her photo because she was RIGHT behind the guy in front of her. :( He was an ROTC guy from the local high school, and his buddies were yelling at him not to get beaten by a GIRL. :) Too bad Shiloh couldn't pull out the victory in the end.

Here's Daniel's finish photo. He looked great at the end!
Trust me when I say that you do not want to see me in a finish photo. It's not pretty. Here I am getting my first in age group reward photo with the kids surrounding me, though. :)