As you all know, Craig is an avid runner and loves doing races throughout the year. Last year, Canon decided he wanted to run with his dad and was promised that he could do so once he turned five. He never forgot it {of course} so when Craig found a one mile fun run near our house we signed the two of them up. I can't even begin to explain to you how excited Canon was to be able to participate in a real race. I mean, he "got a number and everything"!
The morning of the race was pretty darn chilly so Canon was carrying around a ton of extra weight in the form of three pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, three long-sleeved shirts, a sweatshirt, gloves, and a toboggan. Yes, it really was that cold.
So cold, in fact, that they had to run a couple of laps around the parking lot just to warm up enough to actually be able to move their legs in the race at all.
The race was held on a stretch of road directly in front of the Chattahoochee Nature Center - which is definitely a place that we want to go back and explore. It had beautiful gardens and who knows what else!
Remember how I told you it was super cold that morning? Yeah...look at Craig wearing shorts. He is such a smart man. He refused to run in his long pants though. It's just not what you do in a race, apparently. #crazyperson
Craig and Canon were the only two warming up before the fun run. Everyone else probably thought they were mad...until they started running and wished that they had done the same.
I tried to get a shot of them actually crossing the finish line, but the problem with a fun run is that no one takes it seriously. I mean, it's called a "fun run" so I guess I get it, but the people right in front of my boys crossed the finish line and immediately dispersed into a straight line and started walking and chatting with each other. That directly affected my line of sight and provided me with no opportunity for a shot. Do you get what I am saying?! I MISSED GETTING A PICTURE OF MY BABY'S FIRST FINISH LINE CROSSING!!! I was NOT a happy camper, but what can you do?!
He was totally Spiderman on this particular day and wouldn't stop shooting webs in pretty much every picture. I can't complain though. I love that I captured him just being a kid, doing what he loves.
After the race, he even got to "get a water like a real race". It's the little things, really, that make such a huge impact. Oh, and spoiler alert. Just the weekend before this, he got a big boy haircut. What a huge difference. I may, or may not, have shed a couple of tears as his beautiful locks fell to the ground. Sue me. He looks like grown boy now!
Again with the web-shooting...
Since the race was held on Valentine's Day, my honey took a picture with...an opossum?! Yeah, I didn't get it either but it was funny so we did it. I guess since we don't really do Valentine's Day, Craig felt he had to celebrate the holiday somehow. That seemed appropriate enough. Hey, opossums need love too.
They were about to hand out awards to the top runners so I turned to my dad {Yes, my parents drove 6 hours just to watch Canon run in his first race. Is he one lucky kid or what?!} and said "eh, we can go. Canon basically came in last in the race so we don't need to stick around for this." While I was still speaking though, Canon's name was called. What the what?! He got 3rd place in boys ages 5-7. I mean, there were only three boys in his age bracket, so...
He had no idea that it was basically a participation medal, and normally we don't really like those types of awards. We aren't the parents who want our kid to have a trophy just for playing, you know? We want him to understand that everyone doesn't win just because they showed up. However, he received it and we weren't going to take it away. He was so incredibly proud for coming in 3rd place that he couldn't contain himself. He told everyone that would listen that he "won the race"!
For Craig, it was barely a warm-up, but Canon thought it was amazing. Craig just loved being able to share that with him. It was an experience that neither one of them will forget.
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