After months of training by all of us, the weekend has finally arrived! AJ and I did a final long run together yesterday before heading to the expo. I was scheduled to do 9 miles and thought AJ would hang with me for about 5. He was having so much fun (yeah, right...) that he stayed with me for all 9 - his longest run ever! Just wait until I secretly sign him up for a half marathon with me this fall :-)
See? He doesn't even look winded!
The expo was craziness - so many people everywhere! But we were happy to find our names on the running wall, as well as add our reason for running to the wall. I chose the less sentimental approach and wrote "because I love carbs." AJ, on the other hand, took the better approach and stated the true reasons we are running the marathon relay tomorrow- in honor of Grammy and Finley. (Note: I will do a later, separate post about our fundraising efforts and total. That deserves its own post, for sure!)
Look at the wall of names - an incredible amount of people.
Look at the 3 Kovalls!
Here's my "Why I Run"
And, AJ's...much better.
This morning, we bundled up and headed into the city for Ethan's big race. He has been so into logging miles since January. He needed to have 25.2 before today, but ended up with 42.5. That's my boy! We had no trouble getting to the start line and parking; AJ and Jack jumped right on the T to get their spots at the finish for us.
All ready in our New Brighton gear
Waiting in the corral
Luckily, they had us organized by school sign -
very easy to find everyone!
We met up in a corral for Ethan's school. There were so many kids EVERYWHERE! We had to wait for about 25 minutes before our start time, so it got a little loud and crazy for a bit. But once they called our wave up, Ethan was all smiles.
Right before starting. He was ready!
Ethan started out really strong - he ran about .4 of a mile in one shot at a pretty good speed. We got to run over a bridge and under the Runner of Steel banner. He was pretty excited about that.
This picture melts my heart.
Look at him running to the bridge!
We had a selfie stop on the bridge.
Then, he got cocky and started running on and off of a curb, despite his mother's protests. Well, dumb dumb fell and got a scrape on his knee. I looked it over, saw zero blood, and tried to get him going. Well. He had a delayed cry for about a quarter of a mile.
Then, miraculously, we realized we were making the final bend towards the finish line. We knew that we'd see Daddy, Jack, Grammy, and Papa in that stretch, so Ethan broke into a sprint!
That is a face of pure joy!
He was so excited to see his spectators cheering him on! We finished, hand-in-hand, with big smiles on our faces. Luckily, my big sunglasses were hiding the tears streaming down my face as I watched Ethan proudly accept his first race medal. He, like his mother, is very motivated by race medals, so I see more running in his future.
AJ took a series of shots of us as we finished.
Yay!
I'm thinking this one needs blown up for the wall.
Look how proud he is!
We spotted AJ!
We are so unbelievably proud of Ethan. He signed up for this race completely on his own. He stuck with running today, despite taking a tough fall and scraping his knee. He finished the race in a sprint with a gigantic smile on his face. He wore his medal all day long and showed anyone who would look. That's the sign of a successful first race!
By the finisher's wall
Grammy had her 5K medal!
My running buddy
Good job, Big Guy! I can't wait to run over that bridge with you again next year!
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